How to Captain at RC, the short version:
- Get an idea for a game theme and two teams. Find an opposing captain and make sure you both have passes. Trade contact info, decide on team names, light and dark jersey colors, skill level, gender restrictions (if any).
- On March 1st at noon Pacific, one captain submits your challenge(s).
- RollerCon validates your entry, then begins scheduling. We skip any entries that don’t have required info.
- When the game is scheduled, both captains will receive two emails; an invitation to the game in g-cal, and an edit link to your roster document. Google adjusts the time to your local time! Look in the calendar or app for your Vegas time.
- Captains collect player contact info and finish organizing the game.
- See below for more detail.
Detailed Tips & Instructions for Captains
Important Links
- *Tips, Reminders & Discussion for captains & players can be found in the RollerCon Challenge Discord
- Challenge submission form opens March 1st at noon Pacific for 24 hours. Challenges cannot be submitted after March 2nd at noon.
- Here’s a photo of the 2024 submission form. This has the questions we will ask you when you submit your challenge or bout. The real submission form (which may have small changes) opens on March 1st; links above.
Prepare these things before March 1st!
- You will need TWO captains’ info, including legal and skate names, unique email addresses for each captain and cell numbers.
- Both captains must have RollerCon passes. They can be volunteers, sponsors, staff or purchased passes, but they must have already redeemed / purchased the pass. We verify both captains.
- Captains may only captain one game. We don’t schedule if either captain has submitted an earlier game.
- Your teams must be DARK & LIGHT. Please check our uniform rules and scroll down for more info about dark vs light.
- Captains must list gender restrictions or that the game does not have restrictions.**Please note captains have the option to restrict their challenges by gender or not, but they absolutely may not exclude trans and non-binary people, who are eligible (when they fit the rest of the criteria) to play in restricted games that fit their gender identity. The players determine which gender restrictions fit them, not the captains (or refs or RollerCon or anyone else).
- If you’re missing any of the above info when you fill out the form (or you try to game the form, for example, by putting in the same person as both captains), we don’t schedule you – we just move on to the next *complete* form entry.
- Captains may begin collecting players for their game anytime. Many captains wait until after their game is scheduled. Some prefer to start immediately. Captains frequently use the RollerCon Challenge Discord to find players. We recommend collecting contact info in a google spreadsheet; super users frequently use g-forms to populate their rosters. Check out this facebook tutorial for using g-forms to populate a roster. The roster document we send you has a google form attached! Look in the roster at the “form responses” tab. There are simple instructions for how to use it to collect player info.
- Make sure your players know how to get in touch with you. We will not give you or them any contact info, period. Get their contact info and put it somewhere – it doesn’t have to be in the public roster document (tho that IS the most obvious place). But you should definitely have it!
- We allow large rosters because often skaters don’t show up. You don’t HAVE to play with 20 – you can play with less, if you choose. The officials are the final word about (small) roster size. If they determine that you do not have enough players to start or finish a challenge safely, they will stop (or not start) the game.
- Read the Challenge page, especially the part about how rabid we are about staying on schedule and how that affects your schedule spot.
- Make sure you don’t miss deadlines. They’re all on our TIMELINE page. Especially don’t miss the roster finalization date in July!
Important tips for Captains AT ROLLERCON
- Be early, or at least on time. Make sure your teams are on time.
- Bring your own helmet panties.
- If you forget, we have loaners you can check out, ask at the Roster Desk at C1. Return them or perish!
- You can use any matching sets of panties. It doesn’t matter if they match your jerseys. It does matter that the pivot and jammer match each other and that the colors on the panty are contrasting (so that the star and stripe are visible).
- Your “star” and “stripe” can be other images, as long as officials can identify them as the star and stripe. For example, the League of their Own challenge has high-contrasting softballs on the side of the jammer panties instead of stars.
- Games with lots of history at RC (especially full length games, which are often sponsored) sometimes have helmet panties in our inventory. Ask about that at the roster desk, preferably way before your game is scheduled to start.
- You may substitute eligible players or fill no show spots up until the 1 hour mark by updating your roster with the Stats Managers at the C1 Officials table. It’s not recommended, but it is possible to sub players trackside *before officiating check*: the captain (not the players) must discuss numbers with the NSO on the track; be sure they know about substitutes playing in someone else’s jersey (in case of injury).
- No changes to the roster may occur after the Officiating check. No exceptions.
- No players (on the roster or not) may join the game after Officiating check.
- Please make sure you and your players are all familiar with the Player tips.
- After the game, please take team photos OFF THE TRACK so that the next teams can play. Tag #rollercon when you post them. Thanks!
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Can I have a different schedule than the one I got? Like if I have a schedule conflict?
A: Your best bet is to work on changing the other half of the conflict – or find a new captain to replace you that doesn’t have a conflict. You can cancel your game, but we do not reschedule by request.
Q: Can I change out captains after the roster was submitted in March?
A: Yes. However, captains can still only captain one game, so make sure of it before you recruit them. Then send an email to rollercon@gmail.com and copy the two submitting captains and the new captain. The email should include the new captains full name and contact info, which you should also update in the roster (which you should share with them).
Q: Can I change our team theme, colors, skill level and/or restrictions after being scheduled?
A: (30 min challenges) We prefer that you don’t because we have to update that in many places! But if you must, the answer is: for challenges, probably yes, as long as the changes still conform to our rules. Please send an email with your challenge name, day, time and track to rollercon@gmail.com.
A: (full length bouts). Probably not. Those were factors that determined if and when we scheduled you. Please send us an email with your challenge name, day, time and track to rollercon@gmail.com and let’s talk about it.
Q: Can we swap schedules with another game?
A: [Sighs] Maybe, but please don’t. If you must… [sighs again]. Just know the schedule is huge and complicated and we really, REALLY don’t want to move things once they’re scheduled. If you absolutely have to, we might approve it, but we will really grumble & roll our eyes about it. First, all captains must be on board with the trade. Email rollercon@gmail.com. Your email should include both schedules, all the team names, all the captain contacts, and you should copy all captains on the message. Try to give us all the relevant info you can think of so we don’t have to look things up – then we might not be quite as bitchy and peevish about it. Once it’s approved, notify all the players and update your roster, if necessary.
Q: What if my roster changes after the roster deadline date?
A: Yep, that’s super common. It’s up to you to bring the most recent, correct roster to the Stats Desk at C1 Officials Table AT LEAST 1 hour before your challenge (for either track). They love when you hand them a printout, but if you don’t have a printer at RC, you can (legibly) write down changes and bring it them – for example, crossing out player names and writing in new names legibly at the bottom of a list. *An old-timey list! On paper. Not on your phone.
BOUT & CHALLENGE SCHEDULING NOTES
General
- Everyone asks for Thursday & Friday. Coaches like those days best for classes, and those are also the most popular slots captains request, as well. Its worth noting that if your roster includes lots of coaches, you might want to rethink your request!
Single Period Challenges
- Challenges are scheduled based on prioritizing interesting themes, taking the captains’ scheduling preferences into account, and conforming to our attendee demographics (including rulesets, skill levels, all that stuff we ask you when you get your pass) as best we can. That demos page may not have been updated recently, but it has been pretty similar every year for the last 20.
- Themes that sounds super interesting and rivalries that have great visual appeal are prioritized higher, especially over black vs white themes.
- We are unlikely to schedule teams with multiple entries more than one time. The goal is to let as many people have a chance to play as possible. We voted & had a lively discussion about it on FB: check it out.
- Almost everyone wants Thursday & Friday. Teams that are more flexible in their schedule tend to get the last few spots over teams that have a lot of days marked unavailable.
Full length Bouts
- All the prime time full-length bouts are A level, most are AA. For a great theme, we will also consider A/B level.
- We look for the very best themes for the full length bouts. Teams with great visual and conceptual themes and rivalries are selected first. We’re looking to book games everyone wants to watch (not just play in), so it is more fun for watchers and so that we can raise as much money as possible for charity. We only raise money for charities we have researched thoroughly.
- We lean towards historically awesome full length games, because those teams have proven they can play a great game that raises a ton of money for charity. But we’re always looking for the Next Great Game, too.
- We do not schedule “Team X color vs color” for full length bouts.
- Please don’t ask anyone at HQ to schedule your bout in advance. That’s not how it works.