London Brawling splits Namur opener, then falls hard to Paris

London Brawling left Namur with a split that told two different stories about the same roster. At 10am, the Seed 6 side survived Lomme 145-137 by eight points; by 6pm, Paris All Stars had pushed the same London squad into a far steeper 184-102 defeat.

That contrast is what makes London one of the most dangerous teams in a short tournament bracket. The morning bout against Seed 12 Lomme was tight throughout, and the 145-137 finish fit a team that came into the event with a modest Europe line of 8 games played, 3 wins, 5 losses, 992 points for and 1288 against, plus a 295.97 GPA. London did not overwhelm Lomme, but it did enough to hold position when the game stayed scrappy and narrow.

The evening was different from the first whistle. Paris, the tournament’s Seed 3, came in with a stronger Europe line, 8 games played, 5 wins, 3 losses, 1312 points for and 1018 against, and a 368.76 GPA. That edge showed up in the scoreboard: 184-102, a result that turned London’s competitive opening into a lopsided second outing. In a bracket like Namur, that kind of swing says as much about game-state management as it does about raw talent. London could absorb pressure in the opener, but once Paris imposed pace and scoring efficiency, the margin quickly widened.

The setting made the volatility more consequential. The 2026 WFTDA European Regional Championships ran June 12-14 at Centre Namurois des Sports Tabora in Namur, Belgium, hosted by Namur Roller Derby and positioned as part of the road to the 2026 WFTDA Championships in Malmö, Sweden. Friday’s schedule put London against Lomme at 10am and Paris All Stars at 6pm, a same-day test of whether one roster could reset fast enough to survive both styles.

WFTDA also listed dorkmistress as head announcer for the weekend in Namur, with Toxic Lady and Hémo’ as assistant head announcers, underscoring the scale of the event around London’s day of extremes. The larger lesson from Friday is clear: London still has the toughness to escape a trap game, but its path deeper into the bracket depends on cleaner pack control, better scoring efficiency and a faster answer when an opponent can turn a close bout into a race.