Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Roller Derby opens second annual B-team tournament

The bracket got its own spotlight at Revolution Ice Centre as Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Roller Derby opened the second annual Bears, Beets, Battle of the B Teams tournament on June 5. The three-day event ran through June 7 in Pittston, with bouts scheduled from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. each day on Old Boston Road, and it put the league’s B-level skaters at the center of the weekend.

That matters more than it sounds. In roller derby, B teams are not filler or a side show. They are the development pipeline, where skaters earn game reps, build chemistry, and push for bigger roles when the A-team or travel roster needs reinforcements. For Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, hosting a repeat-format tournament like this is a statement of depth and ambition, because it gives the local league a chance to test its own next wave while drawing regional competition into the same building.

The Low Rolling Deuces, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s B team, were part of a field that pulled in local and regional squads from across the Northeast. That gave the tournament built-in stakes from the opening whistle, with each bout feeding the next layer of the bracket and turning the weekend into a true competition rather than a casual exhibition. The second annual tag also tells you this is already more than a one-off calendar stop. The first edition did enough to bring it back, and the league is clearly trying to grow the event year over year.

The off-track details mattered too. Vendors, raffles and a concessions stand turned the rink into a destination for the full weekend, giving the event a broader footprint than a single night of games. That combination of bracket pressure and rink-side activity is exactly why B-team derby can carry so much weight for a local league: it keeps skaters active, keeps fans engaged, and gives the host venue a tournament atmosphere that lasts longer than one bout.

For Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Bears, Beets, Battle of the B Teams was a showcase for the roster below the top line and a clean measure of where the region’s derby hierarchy is headed next. If the second annual version keeps growing, Revolution Ice Centre just became a more important stop on the Northeast derby map.