If anyone tries to tell you that the top of European Roller Derby has grown predictable, they’re having a laugh. Hopping onto the official EDN x WFTDA Prediction Hub before the tournament kicked off, you might have thought predicting the WFTDA European Regional Championship was going to be a doddle.

Yet, when the final whistle blew in Namur, just three incredible fans submitted perfectly flawless brackets. Congratulations to Quagga, Neylalyen & the owner of bracket ‘RCE26’!

How did they achieve the holy grail of tournament prediction? Because, on paper, Euro Champs pretty much followed the ranking roadmap. Out of the 17 games played over the weekend, 14 of them were won by the higher-ranked team. But if you actually watched the games, you know that the final bracket doesn’t tell the whole story. Heavyweights survived, but the underdogs made them bleed for every single point.

And let’s not forget the epic stakes. Besides the European crown, this tournament was the ultimate gatekeeper for the WFTDA Global Championships in Malmö this October, with only the four semi-finalists punching their tickets to the big dance.

For our Nouvelles de l'Euro Derby readers, here’s the proper narrative of the weekend. We’ve broken down the maths, pondered tactical debates, and highlighted the must-watch games you need to add to your playlist.

Setting the Stage: April 2026 Seedings

To understand Namur, you have to look at the definitive April 2026 seedings that locked the bracket in place. As we broke down in “So Much Maths!”, the WFTDA algorithm dictates that your game score equals the opponent’s ranking score (GPA) multiplied by your score ratio (Your Points / Their Points).

When the April 1st ranking snapshot slammed shut, the continental hierarchy was officially set. In the frantic months leading up to the tournament, Rainy City pumped their numbers up enough to seize the coveted #1 seed. Toulouse locked in at #2. Meanwhile, Paris disrupted the top tier entirely, sliding into the #3 spot and pushing Crime City down to #4.

The top seeds were settled, but once the skates hit the sticky Belgian floor, those numbers meant absolutely nothing.

First-Round Bye Paradox: Fresh vs. Warmed Up?

Namur had a brutal psychological and physical test: the first-round bye. Top four seeds, Rainy City (#1), Toulouse (#2), Paris (#3), and Crime City (#4), sat out the opening games of the tournament. Instead of easing into the weekend, they were handed a compressed schedule.

At best, it meant one less day of track time; at worst, it meant a punishing double-header where they had to jump straight from a standing start into a sudden-death Quarterfinal matchup.

Top 4? Win your opening game of the tournament and you qualify for Globals; lose it, and your international season is dead on arrival. This set up an age-old sports debate:

Is it better to come in fresh, or is it better to have already warmed up on the track?

When the top seeds finally stepped onto the track for their respective Quarterfinals, they faced opponents who had already played a full game. Those underdogs came into the make-or-break games adjusted to the sticky floor, the refs, and the tournament nerves, putting the heavyweights under immediate pressure.

Day 1: Nearly had ‘em

Opening whistle proved that tournament brackets are a complete fiction when teams hit the track cold. In Game 1, Lomme, locked in as the #12 seed from the April standings, lined up for their first matchup against the #6 seed, London Brawling. With both teams starting fresh, the underdog Bad Bunnies tore up the script. Capitalising on early momentum, Lomme shocked the hall by taking a 69-65 lead at half-time. London ultimately scraped by with a narrow 145-137 victory, but that relentless physical battle warmed London up just in time to face an untested Paris AllStars in the Quarterfinals (Game 5) later that evening.

This is where the script flipped. London had their track legs after Game 1, but Paris defied the cold-start slump entirely. Dictating track position from the first whistle, Paris built a commanding 94-33 half-time lead over Brawling. With Paris taking lead in 54% of jams, London’s jammers were constantly forced to dump the star. Paris won it 184-103, using their fresh legs to punch their ticket to Globals in their very first appearance of the weekend.

Later, #2 seed Nothing Toulouse had to face a warmed-up Antwerp in their own elimination Quarterfinal (Game 6). Antwerp had already shaken off their jitters, and Hipshot put up a towering 51 point performance for them, but Toulouse’s veteran composure held firm for a 154-90 victory, securing their global spot.

PUNDIT’S PICK (MUST-WATCH)

Game 5: Paris AllStars vs. London Brawling

Why you should watch it: If you want to see how to bypass first-game jitters completely and dismantle a legacy defence, this is your blueprint. Paris’s Legs//Cité and Killer Sushi operated as an unstoppable jamming duo, putting up 46 and 42 points respectively.

*Treat yourself – watch Game 1: Lomme Bad Bunnies vs. London Brawling too if you have time. What an opening salvo!

Day 2: Nearly not invited

Saturday was the ultimate realisation of the schedule-compression, featuring heavy penalty spirals and dominant blocking.

In Game 7, #4 seed Crime City Rollers faced an incredibly warm Nantes team in their sudden-death Quarterfinal. Nantes had already steamrolled Stockholm the day prior, and they utilised that tournament momentum to leave Malmö blindsided, blasting out to a 75-48 half-time lead. Crime City was defrosting slowly. If Nantes had held on for another 30 minutes, Crime City would have suffered the ultimate sports tragedy: hosting a global party in their hometown that they weren’t even invited to.

But with their Champs tickets on the line, Crime City got the bit between their teeth in Period 2. They executed a miraculous 129-113 comeback victory behind the relentless grinding of Fanilla Slice and SkyQueen. By overcoming that 27-point deficit with a staggering 81-38 second half, Crime City successfully punched their ticket to Globals, ensuring they would be skating on their home track this autumn.

Meanwhile, #1 seed Rainy City showed no signs of cold feet in their high-stakes match against Helsinki (Game 8). Rainy City proved exactly why they earned that top spot, crushing Helsinki 182-97 and later dominating Crime City 187-100 in the semi-finals.

PUNDIT’S PICK (MUST-WATCH)

Game 7: Crime City Rollers vs. Nantes Les Duc.hess.es

Why you should watch it: Watch Nantes ambush the heavyweights to take a terrifying 75–48 half-time lead, putting Crime City’s hometown Champs invite on absolute life support. Then witness Fanilla Slice and SkyQueen rain down points to drag Malmö back from the dead.

Day 3: Championship Clash

Sunday was a celebration of the four heavyweights who survived the jeopardy and locked in their Champs invites. In the placement brackets, Nantes captured 5th place by defeating London 173-95.

With the pressure of global qualification off their shoulders, Paris and Crime City met in Game 16 for the bronze medal match. It was a tactical masterpiece. Crime City held a razor-thin 63-59 lead at the half, and the second period turned into a gruelling, physical stalemate. Both teams matched each other lap for lap, finishing with an identical 46% lead-jammer rate across 57 jams.

Triggering 38 total star passes between them as they desperately fought out of penalty trouble, Paris found the single point they needed in the dying seconds to claim a legendary 143-142 victory.

Shoutout to La Moche #12 who literally put her body on the line for those all-important final points. Last Jam Hero.

Our Euro Champs Final (Game 17) between Toulouse and Rainy City saw the two powerhouses trade heavy blows, skating into the changing rooms at half-time separated by a single point: 52–51 in favour of Toulouse. Toulouse’s bruising pack work ultimately wore down the British in the final 15 minutes, allowing the French side to pull away for a 149-119 triumph and the European crown.

PUNDIT’S PICK (MUST-WATCH)

Game 16: Paris AllStars vs. Crime City Rollers

Why you should watch it: Absolute squeaky bum time from start to finish. You’ll see La Moche put in a titanic shift for Paris (75 points over 19 jams), while Crime City’s Ebba Metz and Fanilla Slice leave their souls on the track. It goes down to the wire.

Giving the Unsung Heroes Their Flowers

A tournament of this magnitude doesn’t just succeed based on the skaters wearing the stars or the stripes holding the lines. Be it logistics, tactics, or skater management, the weight of a compressed bracket means the real masters of the weekend often stood just on the other side of the track tape.

Brains on the Bench

In high-pressure postseason environments, tactical adjustments are everything. Immense shoutouts are due to the coaching and bench crews across all teams – especially Dr. Stevel, the strategy genius on Crime City’s bench who meticulously engineered Saturday’s historic 27-point turnaround, and the Rainy City masterclass bench rotation of VK, Bitchy, Oona, and Viv, who kept the top seeds disciplined and calm at the eye of the storm. We loved all the signals, corner mirrors, and sartorial elegance. Benches handled their business in all ways this weekend.

Positional Perfection: Officials & Photographers

We also have to give up a vast amount of respect for the tournament officials. With players routinely executing the punishing new meta of hitting jammers completely out and down, everyone having uncontrollable forearms, and the devastating speed of the recycles, keeping order was a monumental task.

Referees (SO) handled the weekend with absolute composure, while the Non-Skating Officials (NSO) put on a clinical display of clipboard competency. Managing complex penalty queues, frantic star-passes, and point verifications across 17 relentless games. The ultimate silent engine of tournament play. Thank you for your service!

To the photographers who have taken so many excellent shots, we could’ve turned this into a gallery! The action and emotion you capture means we’ll never forget how these moments made us feel. The new profile picture is important, but the memories shared? Priceless. Thank you.

*All images are credited and linked – give your favourite derby togs a follow!

Absolute Legends of the Weekend: Namur Roller Derby

Finally, a deafening round of applause for our hosts, Namur Roller Derby! Stepping up to host the crown jewel of the European postseason is a gargantuan undertaking. From organising seamless venue logistics to managing a packed schedule of elite charters travelling across borders, Namur treated the entire community to a flawless weekend of world-class derby. To the Green Shirts – Thank you for looking after us all!

Let’s be real about the venue: the floor was not fast. It was notoriously sticky, and yet somehow slick in places too. Wheels were swapped and legs worked harder than ever. But the fantastic upside to the surface? No one had home-track advantage. It levelled the playing field entirely, though rumours circulated through the team benches that Antwerp would cope best, considering their own home floor is famously even worse!

Namur, you played an absolute blinder.

*Unconfirmed mutterings but we’re hearing that European teams may ‘share their floor experience’ ahead of Champs, setting our four contenders up for success in every way possible.

“Best of Europe” 15-Skater Dream Team

Ratings, Rankings, Numbers…but what to do with it all? Well, here at EDN, what we really wanted to know is who would make a Euro Dream Team selection? Fantasy Euro Derby. So we set out to build our ‘Best of Europe’…

To survive a weekend this heavy, it takes pure class. We are evaluating our 15-skater roster using WFTDA’s VTAR (Versus Team Average Rating) metrics.

What is VTAR? It calculates a skater’s Average +/- per jam and subtracts the Team’s Average +/- per jam. Raw plus/minus heavily favours skaters on blowout winning teams. VTAR reveals who actually carried their squad, rewarding skaters who managed to out-perform their own teammates in the same games.

Because VTAR measures a skater’s efficiency relative to their team’s moving baseline for a specific match, averaging a weekend together into a single number distorts the data. Instead, our Dream Team takes the tournament’s top-performing endurance skaters and displays their unvarnished, game-by-game impact across the entire weekend.

Jammers – Precision Strikers

 

Hipshot (Antwerp)

vs. London Brawling: +3.56 (skated 19 jams)

vs. Roller Derby Toulouse: +3.04 (skated 14 jams)

 

Wildcard (Antwerp)

vs. London Brawling: +3.79 (skated 20 jams)

vs. Roller Derby Toulouse: +0.83 (skated 13 jams)

 

Queeracier (Lomme)

vs. London Brawling: +1.26 (skated 13 jams)

vs. Stockholm: +3.60 (skated 9 jams)

 

Black (Rainy City)

vs. Helsinki: +1.47 (skated 9 jams)

vs. Roller Derby Toulouse: +0.26 (skated 12 jams)

vs. Crime City: +4.42 (skated 12 jams)

 

Petit Bourrin (Lomme)

vs. London Brawling: +2.93 (skated 12 jams)

vs. All Stars: +1.00 (skated 10 jams)

Pivots – Release Valves

Dykestalker (Crime City)

vs. Nantes: +1.29 (skated 18 jams)

vs. Paris: -0.32 (skated 25 jams)

vs. Rainy City: +5.30 (skated 21 jams)

 

Adèle Rainbow (Nantes)

vs. Crime City: +1.86 (skated 8 jams)

vs. Stockholm: +2.54 (skated 9 jams)

vs. London Brawling: +0.92 (skated 10 jams)

vs. Helsinki: +0.03 (skated 3 jams)

 

F Batts (Rainy City)

vs. Helsinki: +1.53 (skated 16 jams)

vs. Roller Derby Toulouse: +1.11 (skated 15 jams)

vs. Crime City: +2.74 (skated 13 jams)

 

BRUTUS (Lomme)

vs. London Brawling: +0.84 (skated 26 jams)

vs. Stockholm: +1.98 (skated 25 jams)

 

Nordberg (Crime City)

vs. Nantes: +1.58 (skated 22 jams)

vs. Paris: -0.22 (skated 23 jams)

vs. Rainy City: +2.69 (skated 22 jams)

Blockers – Brick Walls

Halo (Paris)

vs. Roller Derby Toulouse: +4.46 (skated 16 jams)

vs. London Brawling: +1.93 (skated 17 jams)

vs. Crime City: +2.07 (skated 24 jams)

 

Tajinator (Paris)

vs. Roller Derby Toulouse: +2.42 (skated 30 jams)

vs. London Brawling: +1.25 (skated 24 jams)

vs. Crime City: +0.03 (skated 34 jams)

 

Kraken (Lomme)

vs. London Brawling: +1.02 (skated 27 jams)

vs. Stockholm: +1.29 (skated 25 jams)

 

Mad Gyver (Nantes)

vs. Crime City: +1.42 (skated 25 jams)

vs. Stockholm: +1.24 (skated 19 jams)

vs. London Brawling: +1.24 (skated 21 jams)

vs. Helsinki: –0.97 (skated 20 jams)

 

Guinness Paltrow (Paris)

vs. Roller Derby Toulouse: +1.40 (skated 32 jams)

vs. London Brawling: +0.72 (skated 18 jams)

vs. Crime City: +0.29 (skated 32 jams)

 

A Note on the Official MVPs

If you are looking at this list and wondering why the tournament’s officially crowned MVPs, Fanilla Slice (MVP Jammer) and Flashy Strike (MVP Blocker), aren’t sitting on this specific data-purist roster, it is a testament to how tough tournament math can be.

Pure efficiency models reward sustained, tournament-wide mathematical pacing, but tournament honours are won by skaters who step up and physically put their bodies on the line when the stakes couldn’t be higher. Both of these skaters did exactly that.

*Stats never tell the whole story, this is just one way performance can be evaluated….and it’s just for fun!

Think You Can Predict the Chaos?

You’ve got 1 more chance before the BIG ONE in October!

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