Tournament Structure

The British Championships was the first British roller derby tournament to feature a fluid structure for progression and development, featuring promotion and relegation at the end of the year. In 2021 we rebranded to Five Nations Roller Derby, recognising the importance of explicitly including all teams across the UK and Ireland, and the exclusionary nature of our previous name and logo.

In all divisions, each team plays each other once. Winning teams get 3 points for a win and 0 points for a loss. These points are totaled up and teams are placed in their divisional table in order of points scored. In the event of multiple teams having the same tournament points, game points differential will be used to define the higher placement (game points differential = total game points scored – total game points conceded).

The make up of the tiers, including the number of divisions in each tier, change each year depending on the number of teams participating. Generally where a tier has multiple divisions, the top 2 teams will go to playoffs to find the overall winners of the tier and are promoted to the tier above (where applicable). The bottom 2 teams will be relegated to the tier below (depending on the structure the following year).

Due to the changing nature of which teams signup year on year, we do not guarantee promotion/relegation will exactly follow this, as we will also look at statistics such as Rankings and Geographical Location in determining which teams to invite to which Tiers.

As a summary, here’s how the Tournaments will resolve themselves:

WFTDA-SIDE TOURNAMENT

TIER 1 – PREMIER (1 DIVISION)

  • Bottom 2 teams are relegated to Tier 2 (2 teams total)

TIER 2 – NATIONAL (2 DIVISIONS)

  • Top 2 teams from each division proceed to Playoffs (4 teams in total)
  • Top 2 finishers at Playoffs are promoted to Tier 1
  • Last place finisher from each division is relegated to Tier 3 (2 teams in total)
  • Second last place finisher from each division is considered for demotion based on sign ups and new entries

TIER 3 – REGIONAL (4 DIVISIONS)

  • Top 2 teams from each division proceed to Playoffs (8 teams in total)
  • Top 2 teams at playoffs are guaranteed promotion to Tier 2
  • 3rd and 4th place teams will be considered for promotion based on sign ups and new entries
  • Last place finisher from each division is relegated to Tier 4 (4 teams in total)
  • Second last place finisher from each division is considered for demotion based on sign ups and new entries

TIER 4 – LOCAL (4 DIVISIONS)

  • Top teams from each division are promoted to Tier 3 (4 teams in total)
  • 2nd place finisher from each division are considered for promotion based on sign ups and new entries
  • Last place finished from each division is relegated to Tier 5 (4 teams total)
  • Second last place finished from each division is considered for demotion based on sign ups and new entries

TIER 5 – LOCAL (3-4 DIVISIONS)

  • New in 2026 Season, Tier 5 offers opportunity for developing Teams and B-teams to participate in 5N.
  • We anticipate the size of Tier 5 to fluctuate more than other Tiers year on year.
  • Top teams from each division are promoted to Tier 4 (4 teams in total)
  • 2nd place finisher from each division are considered for promotion based on sign ups and new entries

MRDA-SIDE TOURNAMENT

TIER 1 – PREMIER (1 DIVISION)

  • Bottom 2 teams are relegated to Tier 2 

TIER 2 – NATIONAL (1 DIVISION)

  • Top 2 Teams are promoted to Tier 1 
  • Bottom 2 finishers are relegated to Tier 3

TIER 3 – REGIONAL (1 DIVISION)

  • Top 2 Teams are promoted to Tier 2

(Playoff structure to be finalised as no divisions in MRDA in 2024)

JRDA COMPETITION

  • Top 2 teams from each division proceed to Playoffs (4 teams total)
  • No promotion or relegation.