After a Tuesday announcement of a “mercy rule” that would give a win to any team leading by 100 or more points (if there was 20 or fewer minutes left in the bout), the derby community booed*. Today, Blood and Thunder stepped back on the Mercy Rule and will allow the teams that are playing to decide if they would like to utilize the rule or not.
Well, OK. We should count that as a win (see my last post here). After all, quitting when you’re down is the exact opposite of who roller derby is.
And, while I count this a win for roller derby, I still think they should abolish the rule/option.
Several hundred people will be playing in the bouts. Several thousand will be watching. The bouts aren’t for the players — they’re for us, the fans. We watch the World Cup because we want to see the best players in our sport compete. Cutting off the best show in the world is the wrong thing to do.
Just play derby.
*And by “booing” I mean angrily commenting on facebook, of course.
The Dashboard 
I played as a substitute in my first bout ever on Saturday. We only had nine players against their full lineup, three of us had never played a bout before, and six of those nine were substitutes.
We got slaughtered – the final score was 407 – 78. However, I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything. Nobody ever gave up, we made them earn every point they scored. They didn’t go easy on us, and they were fantastic winners!
This, to me, is what derby is about. I’ll take a hard-fought loss over a short-cut win any day.