Antwerp crushes Tiger Bay 234-109 in Namur opener

Antwerp One Love did not just beat Tiger Bay in Namur. It blew the bracket game apart, rolling to a 234-109 win that turned a 7-vs.-10 seed opener into one of the most forceful statements of the first day.

The matchup opened Friday at noon at the Centre Namurois des Sports Tabora in Namur, Belgium, where the 2026 WFTDA European Regional Championships are being staged June 12-14 and hosted by Namur Roller Derby. Antwerp came in as the 7th seed and Tiger Bay as the 10th, but the final margin was 125 points, a number that spoke less to a close postseason contest than to sustained control from the Belgian side.

The seeding made the rout more striking because Tiger Bay was not a soft landing. The Welsh squad entered with a 198.25 GPA and a 9th-place Europe ranking, while Antwerp’s Europe GPA sat at 219.24 and its ranking was 7th. Both teams belonged in a tightly packed middle of the continental field, yet Antwerp made the distance between them look far wider than the numbers suggested.

This was not an isolated mismatch, either. Antwerp had already handled Tiger Bay 163-137 at the 2024 WFTDA Regional Championships Europe, and this result pushed that rivalry further in Antwerp’s favor. For a team whose highest-ever regional ranking is 7th, matching its seeding and then delivering a win of this size suggests a roster that is no longer content simply to survive the continental draw.

The broader opening-day slate in Namur reinforced how quickly a bout can turn once a team gains the first sustained edge. London Brawling edged Lomme 145-137, Nantes Les Duc.hesse.s beat Stockholm 151-92, and Helsinki All Stars rolled over Barcelona 195-70. Antwerp’s result stood out even in that company because the final score was so lopsided against a seeded opponent with postseason history and a proven competitive résumé.

The mechanics behind the margin were plain in the scoreboard. Antwerp put up 234 points, which meant its jammers were finding repeat scoring chances, while the 109 allowed showed Tiger Bay could not slow the tempo once Antwerp settled in. In a tournament bracket, that combination matters as much as raw talent: one team controls the flow, the other spends the afternoon reacting.

What this says about Antwerp’s ceiling is the real question now. The win looked like a team capable of turning seeding into separation, not just advancing by inches. For Tiger Bay, the loss may have exposed a tactical gap against a top-10 European opponent, or it may simply have come against the form team of the opening round. Namur’s opener suggested the answer could shape the rest of the weekend.