The Big O. The Big Friggen O. One of the greatest tournaments and weekends of derby, a tidal wave of amazing derby is about to wash over us all streaming live from WFTDA.tv. Like any self respecting stat rat or derby fan, you should start preparing yourself early. Here is our checklist.

Do Your Laundry, Do Your Dishes and Cut Your Grass Now!

Derby viewing guilt typically sets in on day 2 of a mass viewing event such as Playoffs, Champs or the Big O. By day 3, you start to question what you have done with your life. You can avoid A LOT of derby viewing guilt by making sure that your grass is cut, your kitchen is spotless and your laundry is done prior to Friday. Immersing yourself in 3 days of derby watching is intense and life is going to hit you hard when you come out of it, but you don’t have to set yourself up to get Beyonslayed. If you got kids, this just becomes that much more important. Get your shit in order!

Keep Your Flat Track Stats, Derby On Toast and the Stat Repo Browser Open

The Derby Stat Rataissance is real. You are going to want to keep Flat Track Stats open all weekend to gauge how teams are moving in the FTS ranking system and algorithm. You will also want to keep Michael Watson’s latest tool open as well — the Derby on Toast head to head tool — which works as a real time calculator and predictive tool. This will save hours of my life, I hope it saves hours of yours as well. Last but not least, the Big O is a tournament that gets updated to the WFTDA Stats Repo (half times and post game), so you can follow along with game and skater stats in almost real time, which is basically my favourite thing.

Do Your Homework

This is all a lot more fun if you actually feel like you have skin in the game. Make your picks on Chatterbox, check out the team social media pages to see what they are up to and what charters they are bringing, and spend a couple hours scrolling our site (best viewed on a tablet). You can always find the Big O schedule here and below and it is also best to have your viewing schedule lined up going in. There are some real toughies that overlap. For folks outside of the Big O Time Zone, you can also rely on the Scottish Roller Derby time zone tool for help.

Forgot Your Twitter Password? Get a New One and Fire Up #Talk2WFTDA

Roller Derby Twitter>Roller Derby Facebook. Ya I said it. Join the conversation this weekend and pour praise upon the announcers on the #Talk2WFTDA tag. If Twitter doesn’t make a lot of sense to you just keep trying. Same as roller derby. If you are an instagram keener, #BigO2017 is the tag.

If you are looking to make derby pals on twitter we’ve got some suggestions. Click thru and follow the folks suggested in this thread.

Prep Meals Like A Boss

If you want to come out of this weekend feeling ok about yourself, try and limit yourself to ordering out just once. Prep some basic meals, sandwiches, chilli, etc. and get groceries before Friday. If you don’t prep meals, get delivery every day cuz you are glued to your screen and go to bed Sunday with piles of laundry and stacks of dishes to do along with grass to cut, God help you for the derby viewing hangover you will experience on Monday.

Pace Yourself

Texas and Denver and Victorian and Rose on Friday is going to ruin most people emotionally, but there will still be two more days of great intense derby! Friday of WFTDA Champs was so beautiful I was blown out emotionally by Sunday. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. Keep reminding yourself.

Full Big O 2017 Schedule

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