Southwest roller derby bracket delivers close battles and lopsided wins
Rumble on the Rio mixed eight-point and 10-point finishes with 100-point routs, and Albuquerque took the hardest hits in a bracket that never settled.
Rumble on the Rio 2026 gave the Southwest bracket a split personality in Albuquerque: tight games at the top, runaway scores in the middle, and a host-side squad that got buried twice. The third annual event ran June 27-28 at the National Guard Armory and brought together roller derby teams from across the Southwest for a two-day round-robin hosted by Los Alamos Derby Dames, Elevated Roller Derby and Albuquerque Roller Derby.
The opening day set the tone immediately. FoCo opened with a 141-133 win over Treasure Valley, the closest result of the weekend and an eight-point finish that showed how little room there was for error in the better-matched games. Boise River followed by hammering ERD Dawn Patrol 203-115, Courageous beat Albuquerque 211-110, Los Alamos fell 164-144 to Boise River, and FoCo closed the day by beating Elevated 132-101. That mix of margins mattered: one game came down to possession and pace, while three others were decided by 30 points or more, leaving Albuquerque with a 101-point loss that separated the contenders from the teams still trying to find competitive footing.
Sunday brought a different kind of read on the bracket. Los Alamos responded with a 205-184 win over ERD Dawn Patrol in a higher-scoring rematch, showing more staying power after its Saturday loss to Boise River. Elevated also recovered from its opening-day defeat, edging Treasure Valley 197-187 in one of the weekend’s most competitive games and proving it could turn a close scoreline into a win. Courageous handled Chuco Town 151-132, but Albuquerque again ran into trouble, falling 176-93 to Chuco Town. The host-heavy event did not produce a clean hierarchy so much as a rough draft of one, with Elevated and Los Alamos leaving stronger impressions because each answered a loss with a competitive result.
Flat Track Stats lists the tournament as an invitational, and the official event materials called it the third annual Rumble on the Rio after earlier editions in Los Alamos, including the first one in 2023. The Albuquerque Journal preview said the tournament was making its Albuquerque debut and listed tickets at $25 for a one-day pass and $40 for a two-day pass, with children under 12 admitted free. Albuquerque Roller Derby skater Lisa “Katnip Karnage” McKitrick described roller derby as “fast-paced and full-contact,” a fair fit for a weekend that swung from an eight-point thriller to a string of lopsided finishes.
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