Dallas Voice Drillers

As we mentioned last week, seven teams from Dallas are in Chicago competing this week in the 35th annual Gay Softball World Series. This is the largest annual gay sports event in the world with more than 3,000 people participating this year.

Rugby star Ben Cohen was on hand for the opening ceremonies. Cohen will be at Dallas Pride on Sept. 18. The opening ceremony took place at the Navy Pier on Monday night.

More than 150 teams from 41 North American cities are participating. In addition to the competition, there will be a street fair in Boystown over the weekend. Tournament winners will be recognized on Sunday on the field during Pride Day at Wrigley Field for the Cubs game.

The first two days of play are called pool play. Keith Dossiere of the Dallas Voice Drillers said pool play is a warm up and determines rankings for the double-elimination tournaments that begin today. In each division, the team with the best record in pool play plays the lowest-ranked team, the second-place team plays the team ranked next to last, and so on.

Results can be found on the World Series website. You can also follow the World Series on Facebook and Twitter. And stay tuned to Instant Tea for updates on the Dallas teams.

UPDATE: Pool play standings in the Gay World Series taking place this week in Chicago are in. Pool play determines ranking for the elimination round.

A Division

Dallas Round Up TKO lost both of their pool play games and go into the elimination round in seventh place. Ten teams are competing in the top division.

B Division

The Eagle/Hidden Door Assault and Woody’s X-plosion each won one, lost two and tied one game. They go into the elimination round ranked 22 and 23 out of 37 teams in Division B.

C Division

The Round Up Fuse won three games and lost one in pool play. Dallas Voice Drillers won two and lost two. The Fuse go into the elimination round as 19th and Dallas Voice as 29th out of 53 teams.

D Division

Round Up Diesel and Dallas Boom each won two and lost two games. They enter the eliminations at No. 23 and 31, respectively, out of 48 teams.

In elimination play, teams are eliminated when they lose two games. The highest ranking team in pool play plays the lowest ranking team in the division. All of the Dallas teams that are playing in Chicago ranked around the middle of their divisions and should be fairly evenly matched for their first games.

Atlanta teams go into the elimination round in first place in Division A and Division B. A Chicago team leads the C Division and the Austin Ball Busters lead Division D.