With World Cup VI less than three months away, teams all over the world are gearing up for the competition of a lifetime. Regions across the US will hold tournaments that will give quidditch fans insight on which teams to watch for April 13th and 14th. In some cases, these tournaments will even decide who will be going to Kissimmee, Florida....
Due to the fact that Southern Regional Championship and Division 2 registration will not be taking place until six weeks before this year’s World Cup, the IQA is immediately opening applications to guarantee one Division 2 spot at the World Cup to the local team that demonstrates the best ability to sell tickets, recruit volunteers, and generally build buzz and bring out a large local crowd for the event – and is willing to get started on doing all of this right away......
All About Group Travel will again be offering its services in helping World Cup teams and fans to find lodging and other event related necessities. They have been the International Quidditch Association’s partner of choice for organizing accommodations at IQA events for a quite a long time.......
The IQA is excited to present a recap of the Italian Winter Cup series between SPQR Roma (Rome) and Latina Firestars (Latina) written by Firestars captain Mario Savo.
On December the 28th the town of Latina, Italy, hosted the latest edition of “Potteraduno,” a gathering organized by the association “Giratempoweb,” in which kids and adults had the opportunity to visit Snape’s potions stands, book shops and many other magical activities.
The theme of the festival was clear: the fantastic world that has come from the pen of J.K. Rowling. This time however, the organizers decided to outdo themselves and organize the Italian Winter Cup of quidditch, valid for the Italian Quidditch Championship....
(Luke Changet of the IQA Staff, January 15th, 2013)
The temperature was barely above freezing, the pitch was covered in giant mud puddles, and freezing rain was coming down for most of the afternoon, but there was no way this quidditch match was going to be cancelled. The best-of-three series between Bowling Green State University (Bowling Green, OH) and University of Toledo Toledo (Toledo, OH) was the first ever quidditch match ever to air on television. Buckeye Cable Sports Network (BCSN) aired the game at 5:00 PM EST on Sunday, January 13th, making quidditch history......
(Logan Anbinder of the IQA Staff, January 8th, 2013)
With an impressive resume, player-photographer Michael E. Mason of the New York Badassilisks (New York, NY) has established himself as one of the premier documentarians of the sport. Below are Michael’s top six photos from 2012, with his story behind each.....
(Brennan Lutz of the IQA Staff, January 7th, 2013)
In the midst of winter break, many players have returned home from school looking to find more quidditch-related fun. Some have returned to snow in the North and others have returned to sun in the South. Be it hot, cold or rainy, the weather heavily affects the strategy of quidditch teams everywhere.
Snow Way
The bitter cold – felt during last year’s World Cup V in New York, and the recent Snow Cup III – causes bludgers to sting more upon impact, and brooms and hoops to break more easily. Despite these problems, the cold also offers significant advantages. Snow is among the best of the benefits of cold-weather quidditch. With snow, players enjoy a rugged experience, and snowballs have been seen flying in place of bludgers at many northern team practices....
The official website of Western Cup IV, the Western Regional Championship Tournament, has been launched! Check it out for details on registration, travel, volunteering, and more.
The tournament will be held February 16th and 17th in Roseville, CA. Assistant Tournament Director Alexis Bristor can be reached with questions at alexis.bristor@internationalquidditch.org.
Just as the rules and athletic aspects of quidditch are constantly evolving, so is quidditch equipment. Unlike the equipment used in other sports, it is not possible to buy ready-made hoops, brooms and snitch shorts at a local sporting goods store. Therefore, it is up to teams to construct their own equipment from available resources or purchase them from other players with the necessary tools. The following descriptions of equipment are just a few examples of the many designs used by teams across the globe.
Kevin Peterson, a student and former quidditch equipment manager at the University of Texas (Austin, TX) summed up the mentality of those wishing to make their own hoops by saying, “You use what you have access to and do what you’re able to.” Luckily for quidditch teams in the Southwest, Peterson has the space, tools and knowledge necessary to construct custom hoops that have been adopted throughout much of the region......
Pockets full of holiday cash? The IQA is proud to announce the debut of our new online store, the IQA Pro Shop. Operated by Breakleft LLC, who are also organizing merchandise sales at each of this year’s Regional Championships and the World Cup, the shop is full of official licensed merchandise like t-shirts, bro shades, and hoodies.
So kick the new year off right by checking out the Pro Shop, either at IQAproshop.com or by clicking the “Store” button on our website banner. And let us know what items you’d like to see appear in the shop by commenting below!.....
The Game Play Department has recently finalized plans for two sets of procedures: a procedure for appealing official games, and a procedure for reporting major incidents which may result in the suspension of a quidditch player. We are hopeful that these procedures never need to be used, but we find it important to have them in place just in case. You can find the procedures below:
APPEALS PROCEDURE
The appeals process exists in order to fix correctable mistakes when the result of a game was impacted. Appeals are only for unusual and extreme cases, and we encourage teams not to submit them unless there are clear grounds for appeal. The only practical effect an appeal can have is the removal of an official game from the IQA rankings. Appeals which do not qualify under the grounds for appeal will automatically be dismissed. Here are the grounds for an appeal: “A clearly incorrect implementation of the rules that played a direct role in determining the outcome of the game. Judgement calls and missed calls do not apply.”.....
25 IQA quidditch teams will do battle in a fort this weekend at the Northeast Regional Championship tournament in Newport, RI.
The event, hosted by the IQA Northeast region in conjunction with Fort Adams Trust, All About Group Travel, and Discover Newport, will feature two full days of gameplay, food provided by IHOP, IQA merchandise, youth quidditch, and a Harry Potter-themed airsoft range!
The Northeast Regional Championship Committee toured the event site a few weeks ago and has a few insider tips for teams.....
McGill University earned another championship title at the 2012 IQA Canadian Regional Championship Tournament this past weekend, November 11th, in Kingston, Ontario.
McGill faced the University of Ottawa in the final match, having beaten Carleton University to proceed to the championship round. Carleton University ended up clinching the third place spot by beating host Queen’s University in a consolation game, thus securing themselves a place at World Cup VI in Kissimmee, Florida.
While McGill beat Ottawa with a snitch catch and a final score of 90 to 10, the match was intense and felt much closer than the final score reflected. Both of the teams entered the final match with an undefeated tournament record and fought hard for their first and second place spots.....
If you were driving around Drury University you may have thought you were passing Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry from the popular Harry Potter movie series.
More than twenty five students got together to celebrate Harry Potter and play Quidditch.
Quiddicth is a fanciful game played throughout the series of Harry Potter movies and books. Players play on broomsticks and in the books they are actually in the area, but for the sake of spectators they kept it on the ground today....
Quidditch players and fans can now pick up a piece of quidditch history. Three banners from the fifth World Cup are now available for online auction, from now until November 18th.
The large, vinyl banners (up to 8 feet long) are suitable for indoor and outdoor hanging, printed in full-color on one side, and have metal grommets for easy mounting or hanging. Each one features the World Cup V logo, designed by Andrew Nguyen.
The available banners are the main event banner from the center of the event (which made a cameo appearance in the NBC report of the event), the Team & Staff Entrance banner, and the Field 5 vertical banner.
Twenty-five of the best teams in the IQA’s Midwest US region will be descending on Mason, OH this weekend, November 10-11, to compete in the first Midwest qualifying tournament, the IQA Midwest Regional Championship.
The event will take place at Heritage Oak Park in Warren County. It is free and open to the public, and co-hosted and generously supported by the Warren County Convention and Visitor’s Bureau...
Villanova University clinched the Mid-Atlantic Regional Championship of 2012 with a nail-biting win over University of Maryland this past weekend, November 3-4, in Roanoke, VA.
Seeker and captain Billy Greco pulled the snitch for Villanova in the 19th minute when the team was down 30-50 against Maryland, bringing the final score to 60-50 in Villanova’s favor and earning them the championship. The team was also led by co-captains Zach D’Amico and Dan Takaki, and trailed narrowly to UMD (led by a formidable leadership group comprising Josh Marks, Sarah Woolsey, Liz Miles, Ricky Nelson, Kate Felton, and James Hicks), for most of the game. The final featured three players from Team USA: Hicks, Greco, and D’amico. Team USA’s Michael Parada also played in the tournament for Penn State, a team that was knocked out in the semi-finals by Villanova, 110-80.
To see all of the scores, head over to the IQA website
You are invited to attend the IQA Mid-Atlantic Snitch Academy!
The Mid-Atlantic Snitch Academy will be held in Richmond, Virginia, on Saturday, December 1st. Previous snitching experience is not required. Already-certified snitches are more than welcome to join as well, since the experience will be beneficial to all involved. Snitches certified at this academy will be eligible to snitch for IQA tournaments, including regional championships, and, of course, the World Cup. Please register here
After years of dedicated leadership in the Northeast, Kristina Moy will be stepping down from her post as the Northeast Regional Director. Kristina loves quidditch, and will stay on with the IQA in various capacities, but also needs to begin exploring possible career options and opportunities. She will stay on to direct the Northeastern Regional through to its successful completion.
Thus, the Northeast needs YOU! The IQA is looking for a dedicated, organized, and passionate leader to become the new Northeast Regional Director. The NE RD assists teams and develops quidditch in the states of Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Vermont and Maine.....
The IQA Game Play Department is looking to add members to its rules team. Rules team members have the opportunity to help update the current quidditch rulebook to be the best that it can be. Members will collect, propose, debate, test, and approve new rule wording.
Applicants to the rules team should be prepared for a serious commitment. Members will be expected to remain abreast of current trends in quidditch and stay involved with quidditch throughout their tenure. Applicants should have extensive knowledge of English, rules creation or interpretation, and quidditch....
Based on the recent official member survey, we can now announce the structure of Division 2 for World Cup VI. Here is the official structure of D2:
20 official member teams will register (first come, first serve) for the World Cup as Division 2 teams AFTER the Regional Championships.
Because the last Regional Championship is the weekend of March 2-3, registration for D2 will open March 9th, 2013 at 6pm EST (which is 3pm PST and 11pm GMT). It will be first come, first serve, and will require a monetary deposit. More details on how the process and deposit will work will be released closer to the date...
After weeks of accepting and evaluating nominations, and finally a week of voting by our Official Member teams, the winners of the 2012 IQA Membership Awards were chosen and announced at QuidCon in Chicago on July 15. Even if it’s months after the fact, these teams deserve the recognition that their peers gave them. Please see below for complete descriptions of the awards!
Check out all of the winners on the IQA website, right here!
The IQA Board of Directors decided at the most recent meeting at the end of September to uphold the “two minimum” gender requirement* in all circumstances.
The two minimum requirement in regards to gender promotes the inclusivity of all genders on the field and on the team, so that players can learn to respect and work with each other as equals in the type of safe environment that does not often present itself in the real world. The recent Board decision means that educational institutions that classify themselves as single-sex institutions must also follow the requirement; there will no longer be exceptions. The mission and values of single-sex institutions are admirable, but their methods do not align with those of the IQA.
It has been brought to the Board’s attention, however, that this decision was not made in a timely manner that was respectful of the official member teams’ preparations for the season. With this fact in mind, the Board has decided that the teams associated with single-sex institutions that have already registered and paid dues for the 2012-2013 season are exempt from the two minimum gender requirement for the remainder of the season. These teams should continue to try their best to follow the two minimum requirement and recruit the necessary players, but if they are unable to do so, they will not be penalized....
This past weekend I traveled to the town of Lesparre-Medoc in Western France to represent the IQA at European Regionals. Six teams, five from France and one from Italy, competed in a round robin tournament for the chance to represent their country at World Cup VI.
Upon arriving at the event site, everyone was excited. Friends were reuniting and anticipation of the day’s activities were growing. One thing I wasn’t used to, however, was that instead of greeting everyone with hugs, the French culture greets people with kisses on the cheeks. Needless to say, I may have overstepped my boundaries hugging French strangers.
The atmosphere was upbeat and exciting. Opening ceremonies began with all the teams lining up on the field, as the national anthems from France, Italy, England, and America were played. Finally, the games began!
After a long day of rain and sweat, these were the final results:
No matter how you want to experience World Cup VI, we have information for you! Teams, see below for registration packages and deadlines. Spectators, find out about the different types of tickets you can purchase, and what accommodations you can choose to utilize! Interested in volunteering? We’ve got that too!
TEAM REGISTRATION
Registration will be a little different this year, due to the regional championships acting as qualifiers for the World Cup. All accommodation packages may be booked through All About Group Travel (AAGT). Please note that ALL teams, even those that do not qualify to participate in the World Cup, may take advantage of this package offer. Accommodation registration will officially be open starting November 1st.
If your team qualifies to participate in the World Cup, you will be contacted by the World Cup Organizing Team (WCOT) after your regional championship is over and asked to confirm whether your team is attending by no later than ONE WEEK after your regional tournament. The player fees, payment schedule, and roster information will be given to you at that time.
Questions? Contact Marie at marie@allaboutgrouptravel.com.
With the World Cup Regional Distribution recently announced, teams across the globe are buzzing with anticipation as the heart of quidditch season gets underway. This weekend marks an important event: the very first regional qualifier tournament in IQA history: the European Regional Championship, hosted in Lesparre Medoc on Saturday October 13th.
Directed by Ingrid Vezy of Anthena Lesparre Quidditch, the tournament is being put on in conjunction with Hugo Rhaps of France Quidditch, in partnership with La Gazette du Sorcier, and with the coordination of all participating team captains. The Opening Ceremony is scheduled to begin at 10 AM CEST, with the event lasting until 6 PM.
All six official registered global teams from Europe will be in attendance, fighting fiercely for the top spot in the tournament and the qualifying slot for World Cup VI. The registered teams are:
QA Membership Services is pleased to bring its member teams the new Penpal Program! This new initiative, inspired by the efforts of Chellaston Quidditch (Chellaston, England) and Emerson College Quidditch (Boston, Mass., USA), is open to IQA Official Member teams. These teams must prove that they have one year’s worth of quidditch experience; they can be new IQA Official Members, but they must have one year’s worth of gameplay and organizing experience. The goal of this program is to facilitate experienced discussion about quidditch customs, gameplay strategy, and cultural exchange, but not to help new teams get off the ground (so to speak).
Applicants will be paired with appropriate partner teams located at a significant geographical distance. An effort will be made to create international partnerships, but depending on the number and type of applications received, it is possible that national pairings will be made (West Coast United States with an East Coast US team, for example). Teams may state a desired country or region for their penpal partner, but it will not be possible to realize all wishes.
The registrations are in, the teams have been counted, and the bids have been tabulated. The IQA Game Play Department is ready to release the number of World Cup qualifying spots each North American region will receive.
There are 60 total bids to Div. I of the World Cup, six of which have been tentatively left aside for international teams. Based on the number of teams that signed up in Oceania and Europe, each of those regions will earn one spot for the champion of their respective regionals. Four additional spots will be available to international teams which do not have any regional available to them. More details about these international spots will be available soon.
This leaves 54 bids, 16 of which were distributed by results in World Cup V; each team that finished in the top 16 earned a World Cup VI spot for their region, though it does not serve as an automatic spot for themselves. The remaining 38 bids were distributed on the basis of current official member team density. Each region earned a percentage of the 38 bids equal to the percentage of the North American official member teams that exist in their region as of midnight on Oct. 7.
the final total of World Cup VI bids per region is:
THE Melbourne visitors may have taken home the top prize, but James Cook University's Quidditch team is now setting its sights on their next challenge.
Three teams took part in the inaugural Cairns Classic Quidditch Tournament at the JCU campus across the weekend with the Melbourne Manticores emerging as victors after a hectic day of matches.
"It was a great weekend and we’re already planning next year," JCU team founder Zach Bickhoff said.
(BRITTANY SHAMMAS of naplesnews.com, October 5th, 2012)
Maikol Brito paced in the middle of the field, a tennis ball in a sock tucked into the back of his shorts.
He looked from one end to the other, at two lines of teammates who knelt over PVC pipes they gripped with one hand.
"Brooms up!" Brito yelled, and the players sprung up from the ground, tearing toward four balls resting in the center while still clutching the pipes.
The Florida Gulf Coast University students lobbed the balls at each other and through three hoops standing at the end of the field. They reached for the tennis ball hanging at Brito's backside, running through plays in preparation for this weekend's quidditch meet.
(Annie McCallum of Roanoke.com, September 26th, 2012)
The Roanoke Valley will play host to a little magic in November when the area will be home to the International Quidditch Association’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Championship.
The whimsical game is based on the fictional sport depicted in Harry Potter novels, but it's a serious competition for players and a real economic development opportunity for area officials.
The tournament will be held Nov. 3 and 4 in Roanoke County’s Green Hill Park. In conjunction with the competition, the county is also hosting a free family event with competitions and activities called the Tri-Wizard Tournament on Nov. 3.
The IQA has done a preliminary World Cup regional distribution count to show how many spots each region will receive in D1 for the upcoming World Cup. This is not the final distribution count. The final distribution count will be done on October 7th. This count is to show how many spots each region would receive right now so that teams have a week to finish paying dues and becoming official members to positively affect the number of spots their region receives.
How the IQA is determining World Cup spots
The 60 spots in Division 1 at this year’s World Cup are being determined by a combination of regional official member team density and performance at World Cup V. The teams who placed in the Sweet 16 at World Cup V each earn their region one spot in this year’s World Cup. That breakdown is as follows:
With games taking place across the league, it is time to release the new edition of the rulebook. Formatting has taken longer than expected, and we don’t want you to have to wait any longer, so we are releasing a non-formatted version of the rulebook for general consumption until the prettier version becomes available.
These rules are available for use in IQA official games immediately. For the next month, these rules are optional; games will be played using 5th edition rules unless both teams and the head referee agree to use the updated rules. On October 25th, these rules become mandatory for all official IQA games.
The IQA is proud to announce that Sarah Woolsey, President of UMD Quidditch, has been selected to become the IQA’s new Development Director.
Sarah will be taking over from Aimee Howarth, who co-founded the Texas A&M Quidditch team with her sister, Kristen, and is one of the IQA’s strongest advocates for societal engagement, ranging from kidditch (youth quidditch), book drives, and to Title 9 & ¾. Aimee will be retaining her post as board member of the league and no doubt continuing to advocate for all of the causes she has championed, and helping the IQA continue to raise thousands of books for libraries and schools.
The post of Development Director is focused on fundraising for the IQA (primarily through grant applications and donations), as well as advancing the IQA’s community goals listed above. Sarah brings grant-writing experience to the table, and is very familiar with institutional messaging, having worked for the orientation office at the University of Maryland. Sarah is also the logistics coordinator for the upcoming Midatlantic Regional Championship, and she organized both the Shell-shocking spectacular and the Turtle Cup at UMD (spring and fall tournaments respectively).
Karen Kumaki, director of the IQA Summer Games in Oxford this past July, is taking over the post of International Director from Andrea Hill.
Andrea, who served with distinction for years, worked very hard to build relationships with players and organizers around the world, frequently waking and going to bed at bizarre hours throughout the years to accommodate conference calls with people in other time zones. Karen has been selected to fill the position by Andrea and other IQA directors, and will be inheriting a strong legacy.
Karen herself has demonstrated a superb ability to rally and organize teams around the country, having served as event director for the IQA Summer Games, which saw teams from the USA, UK, France, Canada, and Australia. She helped raise money, communicate with attending teams, and organize the logistics for a complex and ultimately successful international event that helped her, and the league, build relationships with players around the globe. Like the new Canadian Director, Karen is bilingual and will be working on learning other languages to help with the expansion of quidditch around the globe.
As Andrea Hill steps down from her dual position as International Director and Canadian Director, she has worked with other IQA Directors to appoint two new directors to fulfill both roles, and the IQA is proud to announce that Tegan Bridge has been selected as the Canadian Director.
Tegan co-founded and co-captained the University of Ottawa team and helped lead them to the fifth World Cup, where they quickly became fan favorites thanks to their spirit, competitiveness, drum squad, battle cries, beautiful uniforms, face-paint, sportsmanship – the list goes on. She went on to play on Team Canada in the Summer Games in Oxford, and her bilingual skills put her in a good position to unite teams throughout her country.
(Nicholas Yule, Northern District Times, September 21st, 2012)
Photo credit: Craig Wilson, Source: News Limited
Macquarie University's Quidditch Society kicked off their campaign in style, the society launched a milestone tournament on campus grounds which saw teams from all over New South Wales come to compete against the Macquarie Malaclaws.
This will become a monthly trend and includes a first-time "wheelchair quidditch" tournament.
"We hope to raise the profile of our team following our first home game win," said Kieren Tolley, Quidditch Society president.
Harrison Homel has been selected to replace Kristen Howarth as the IQA Teams Director. Kristen, who co-founded the Texas A&M with her sister Aimee, has been Teams Director since the position was created. She has stepped down from the position to focus on her career.
Harrison was one of the first directors to realize the full potential of a region’s vision, uniting the IQA’s smallest US region under the now-famous mantra “West coast, best coast,” and creating fierce regional pride. He has organized the largest IQA team tournament outside of the World Cup, attracting 19 teams at the third Western Cup (the same size as the third World Cup), and was the first to lead the development and perpetuation of a regional logo.
The IQA is very sad to see Kristen go (although she will remain involved as a board member) and proud that Harrison is inheriting a well-maintained post. We’re very excited to see what Harrison can do to replicate the spirit behind “West Coast, Best Coast” everywhere that quidditch is played.
Last night, the IQA was proud to announce QuidCon 2013 – the next installment of the widely-acclaimed QuidCon 2012.
Taking place at the Embassy Suites in Seattle, WA, QuidCon 2013 will build off of the success of this past summer’s conference in Schaumburg, IL.
QuidCon is a four-day conference combining the collaboration of the greatest quidditch minds from around the league. It’s a chance to represent your region, your team, and your personal brand of quidditch. It's a gathering of like-minded athletes, Harry Potter aficionados, driven volunteers, and IQA executives under one roof. It’s the opportunity to make lasting friendships and connections and the place where you hone your skills and gather knowledge to better your team and league.
Visit the brand new website to learn more, get excited, and register!
On Sunday, November 11th, the second Canadian Quidditch Cup will be hosted by the quidditch team at Queen’s University, in Kingston, Ontario.
The Queen’s Quidditch Club was founded last year and has since become a thriving, growing part of Queen’s spirit. The university has been compared by many over the years to J.K. Rowling’s magical world of Harry Potter, making it a fitting location for the next Canadian Cup. In addition to having a castle location in England, some of the buildings on the Kingston campus are compared to the iconic Hogwarts castle in the Harry Potter series.
The University and the Queen’s Quidditch Club are excited to welcome teams from across Canada to our school for an opportunity to be a part of such a fun, engaging, and active tournament. The Canadian Cup will feature a diverse range of teams who all have something in common; we are all Canadian, and we all love quidditch! The Queen’s Quidditch Club, as well as the city of Kingston, are proud for this opportunity to encourage passion, creativity, sportsmanship, and athleticism!
Zach D’Amico (Villanova ’13) has been selected by the IQA Board of Directors to join as the first ever Junior Director position, a post granted to a current player that is slated to change over on an annual basis, to guarantee that there is always at least one current player on the IQA’s Board of Directors.
Zach was a stand-out applicant, and was selected based not only on his outstanding role as a player and leader in the IQA, but also for his long term vision for the sport. He is particularly interested in the development and contrasting needs of national and international competition. Additionally, having sustained many injuries himself over his years of playing, he is motivated to spearhead initiatives to make the game safer.
The IQA’s Board serves to uphold the mission of the IQA and set long term goals for the organization…
Teams heading to the “quidatlantic” Regional Championships can feast their eyes (and sign up to register) on the new event website.
Designed by Katelyn Lanphier, the new site includes information about the event, registration, hotel and travel details, and more.
The MAR Championship is organized by Regional Director Logan Anbinder, along with an entire Regional Championship Committee (RCC) of dedicated volunteers.
The IQA is pleased to announce another in our soon to be long line of Snitch Academies! This Southwestern Snitch Academy is a one day workshop designed to bring snitches up to a high standard of fairness, athleticism, and comprehensive knowledge about the snitching process.
Previous snitching experience is not required. Already-certified snitches are more than welcome to join as well, since the experience will be beneficial to all involved. Snitches certified at this academy will be eligible to snitch for IQA tournaments, including regional championships, and, of course, the World Cup.
The Southwest Snitch Academy will be held in Austin, Texas, on Saturday, September 29th. Please register here. Attendees should bring lots of water and a snitch tail (tennis ball in a long tube sock) if possible. Water won’t be provided, so be sure to bring enough to keep hydrated. For anyone who was wondering, please don’t bring props.
To help alleviate costs (and because Southern Hospitality is totally a thing), Texas Quidditch can offer limited overnight accommodations. Contact Max Parks to reserve overnight space...
This just in: Australian director of the International Quidditch Association, Morgyn Benstead confirmed that the Australian Quidditch Association will send a team to compete with the United States and United Kingdom teams for the special expo matches to be held in conjunction with the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London, England.
As we reported previously, the selected teams from the US, UK, and now Australia will show off their quiditch skills on the pitch during a time that coincides with an Olympic Torch ceremony. The estimated date of this event is July 8th.
The IQA is also hoping to get a few other countries involved in the event and MuggleNet SnitchCenter will report of any further developing stories regarding this event.
On a day that seemed likely to rain and storm six teams walked away from Bowling Green State University’s campus (Bowling Green, OH) feeling pretty bright and sunny. Teams from all over Ohio and a team from Michigan arrived to Bowling Green looking for a fun day to get in some relatively light-hearted matches before the Ohio Cup. The round robin style tournament featured Ohio State University (Columbus, OH), Eastern Michigan University (Ypsilanti, MI), Denison University (Granville, OH), Ashland University (Columbus, OH), The Charles School Chimeras (Columbus, OH), and hosts BGSU. The following is a break down of each team’s performance.
The excitement is building, players are training, and summer is right around the corner. The time has finally come for athletes across the U.S. to band together to form one quidditch team to compete in the UK during the historic Olympic Games.
This is our official call for Team USA player nominations. All team captains are welcome to send in nominations for any players on their teams who exhibit excellent sportsmanship and athleticism.
Though we will field as comprehensive a team as possible, all players who are selected by the organizing team will be responsible for having an open availability at the time of the event and for contributing to the IQA’s fundraising efforts to cover the costs of airfare, accommodation (if necessary – UK contacts have already set aside a house for 10 players), and uniforms. ...
Calling all Northeasters: Do you love your region? Want to show some pride the next time you play Quidditch? Now is your chance! The Northeast Region has officially launched a regional logo contest!
This a great opportunity to show of some artistic skills and passion for a great sport. We are now accepting submissions for a logo that can represent more than 100+ teams on the East Coast
Submissions should:
Utilize 1-3 colors, at most
Be in at least 300dpi (in other words, high resolution for web and print purposes)
Incorporate images that can reflect Quidditch and/or the Northeast respectively
Be creative and original!
To enter this contest, please email your submission to Northeast Regional director Kristina Moy at k.moy@internationalquidditch.org. Limit one design per person. Please include your name, email address, location and team name (if applicable). Logo Submissions will close at 11:59pm EST on April 15th. ...
Are you interested in helping to make QuidCon2012 one of the most terrific experiences in the history of quidditch? Then apply today to volunteer at the Con!
From merch salesmen to videographers to DJs, there are lots of ways to help out! All volunteers will receive a free QuidCon2012 t-shirt and the eternal satisfaction that comes from knowing you helped staff the greatest convention of the year.
To apply, fill out this basic interest form. QuidCon representatives will contact you by the end of the month with a list of open volunteer positions. ...
(IQA News by LEAH SUMMERVILLE FARRAR, April 2nd, 2012)
On a not quite sunny, but not quite rainy, Sunday morning, teams from Shippensburg University (Shippensburg, PA), Chestnut Hill College (Philadelphia, PA), Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, MD), Kutztown University (Kutztown, PA), and Franklin and Marshall College (Lancaster, PA) gathered to battle it out in the name of the Weasley twins on a picturesque field on Franklin and Marshall’s campus. The Fred Weasley Memorial Tournament began at 11AM, and did not disappoint the spectators that arrived to watch the matches, many of them first-time quidditch spectators, including parents, students, three of the cutest kids you might ever see, and a few little dogs.
Johns Hopkins took the tournament, and the gold trophy, with the best record and point differential. Said Audrey Zeldin, captain of the Johns Hopkins team, “Welcome to ouchtown! population: my legs. Welcome to Winnersville! Populations: HALLOWS.” Her first sentiment was shared by many, as bumps, bruises, and soreness were a common theme for the day. Her second was only shared by her teammates on the Hopkins Hallows, who went home with a tournament victory.
The tournament started with a battle between hosts Franklin and Marshall and a decimated Shippensburg team which could only pull together 10 players after their keeper dropped out that very morning. Despite the lack of substitutes, the Warlocks of Shippensburg were able to keep up with the powerful Franklin and Marshall team, reaching a score of 30-30 before the seeker floor was even up. Then Franklin and Marshall took the show, with a strong offensive attack and solid defense backed by their beaters, who retained bludger control for the majority of the match. Franklin and Marshall soared ahead to a score of 150-30, before Shippensburg Seeker James Holliday apparated out of thin air to grab the snitch, ending the match at a final score of 150-60 in favor of Franklin and Marshall. ...
The IQA board of directors is adding a position on the board for one current player within the quidditch community. The IQA board of directors is responsible for guiding the long-term vision of the league, ensuring its financial solvency, and evaluating the performance of its chief executives. It is the job of the IQA management team, comprised of the directors of the IQA’s six departments (Game Play, Teams, Marketing, Development, HR, Tech) to carry out that vision in the day-to-day operations of the company.
The junior director will have the same rights and privileges as every other director on the board. He or she will be required to attend two out of three board meetings per year, which take place in different locations throughout the United States. One meeting is always via Skype.
The junior director position must always be filled by an active member of an IQA official quidditch team and must be at least 18 years of age. The term limit for the junior director is one year. At the conclusion of each term, if the junior director still meets the requirements for the position, a new term may be considered. ...
The IQA will be co-hosting an elite quidditch tournament on April 28 with Emerson College, Boston University, and the Boston Cannons, a Major League Lacrosse team, as part of the Cannon’s season Opener. Teams may apply or nominate themselves (or other teams) now.
Want to play against some of the IQA’s best teams at one of the nation’s top collegiate sports facilities?
This April 28th, the Boston Cannons, one of the top Major League Lacrosse teams, will be co-hosting a quidditch tournament with Emerson College Quidditch, Boston University Quidditch, and the IQA, at the Harvard sports complex as part of the Cannons’ season opener against Rochester. ...
Every Tuesday night, NAU Narwhal players Michael “Meowmers” McKenzie and Eric “BearTrain” Andres take to the airwaves to host a new quidditch talk show, “Off the Pitch and On the Air.” With segments like “Who is Quinksy?” and interviews with IQA staffers and players, Off the Pitch is a playful mixture of quidditch commentary, tournament talk, trivia, and other fluff.
“Mike and I both love quidditch,” Andres said. “And we felt like there wasn’t a lot of consistent media coverage or updates other than the IQA website, so we decided to combine our love for radio and quidditch and have an hour of fun every week.”
Although the show broadcasts from the West, its listener base is expanding. ...
As the tournament bid process continues, bidding parties in each city are working with members of the IQA’s WCOT (World Cup Organizing Team) to determine if their location can support a large tournament. The bidding parties, with the WOCT’s aid, have begun filling out the extensive checklist that the WOCT developed regarding the requirements of hosting a regional or World Cup scale tournament.
However, some city bids have been dropped either by the original bidding teams, or due to a lack of response from the original bidders. We would like to open these bids up to continuation by other interested teams. The following locations can still be picked up by nearby teams (within two driving hours):
The day you may or may not have been dreading is finally here. IQA Rankings are starting up again, starting… now! You can go see them at the Standings page. Some of you were not expecting rankings to happen this half-season, since it is a shortened season without a World Cup in it, but that sounded to us like a great testbed for trying out a new way to rank teams, without immediate changes to who might qualify for what. These standings will reset with the new full season in the Summer or Fall.
These next few months, though, are a great time to still enter your games since November, and see how they affect your rank. We now have an open-ranking system, meaning that we have both an in-depth explanation of how the algorithm works (see below) and even a step-by-step technical one for those math-inclined. The actual code that powers the algorithm is even open source and available to the public. The code is built on a custom quidditch-ranking library that can be used to create any custom ranking algorithm.
The idea behind the open system is two-fold:
You should know how your team is placed the way it is. No smoke and mirrors, only numbers that your team creates through its playing ability. We want you to understand what factors move a team up and down in the standings
We want you to help improve it! If you believe there is a better method, we want to hear it. Maybe you’ve thought of a crucial aspect of the game that isn’t accounted for in the present algorithm. Tell us! The reason why we’re doing rankings in this half-season is so that we can test out this algorithm. If (knock on broom) it totally falls apart and doesn’t work this season, there is plenty of time to revise and come up with better solutions. We want you to be a part of that improvement while we have a great opportunity in the next few months to tweak things without major consequence.
Going back to the Dursley’s for the summer? Quidditch season doesn’t end for us.
Join the IQA for the first-ever Quidditch Convention in Chicago from July 12-15. Three days of programming, a Great Hall-style feast, a ball, referee and snitch workshops, a mini tournament, and sight-seeing around Chicago—all with your favorite quidkids. Don’t get left in the cupboard!
Each official member team can send up to three delegates. We’re also extending an invitation to all IQA volunteers and anyone who wants to become a certified IQA referee or snitch. Learn more and register at QuidCon2012.com!
USC won the Western Cup championship on Sunday, narrowly beating hosts UCLA 70-60 with a come-behind snitch snatch.
UCLA had just survived a thrilling semi-final match against the Utah Crimson Fliers, who had drafted visiting players from Texas A&M, LSU, Kansas and Villanova.
The event was superbly organized, well-reffed, and featured 19 teams from the Western region, including the Qwertyrians from Tijuana, Mexico. Glorious weather continued across both days and hundreds of local fans came out to support the teams.
A full report is currently in the works. For more details, check out the Daily Bruin’s article here, or click on the image below to watch their highlights video. ...
On March 10, the young team from Staffordshire, England became the first English team to host a series of International Quidditch Association-regulation matches. It also became the first quidditch team to win such a match.
Keele faced off against University of Leicester (Leicester, England) in three games. Keele took the first win 30-0, before losing the Leicester 50-10 in the second match. The third and final game was a nail biter that ended in a 40-40 tie after the Keele seeker snatched the snitch. The Keele team was able to snatch the snitch again during overtime to win the match and ultimately dominate the day two games to one. ...
(IQA News by LEAH SUMMERVILLE FARRAR, March 13th, 2012)
Group play pools and schedules for Ohio Cup have been announced! There are three five-team pools, guaranteeing each team at least four games. The top four teams from each group move on to the afternoon single elimination rounds, while the top 4 teams overall following pool play will receive a bye for the first round of single elimination.
The largest quidditch tournament in Ohio history will be held on April 14th at Fred Beekman Park on OSU’s campus. Admission for spectators is free.
Runners, ruffians and turned seekers catch snitch fever!
After less than a week, more than 80 snitches have signed up for the new IQA snitch program.
The best part about the response, according to IQA snitch coordinator Ethan Giventer, is that they come from all over the US and beyond. Hereâs the breakdown:
West - 5
Midwest - 12
Southwest - 9
South - 22
Northeast - 26
Canada - 7
International - 1
Snitches can and should still register! REGISTER HERE. More details about the program will be released later.
Keller High School in Texas is hosting a high school quidditch tournament this March!
Keller High School in Keller, TX will be having a High School Quidditch Tournament on Saturday, March 24, 2012, from 10am to 4:00pm.
Registration is open to any team, including community teams. Cost will be $50 per team and 25% of the proceeds will be donated towards research on Eoisinophilic Esophagitis.
The event is for students and players who are in the 9th through 12th grades, or ages 14 through 18. ...
The Kutztown University Kedavras hosted Shippensburg University and the Honey Badgers on Sunday, February 19.
Shippensburg Seeker James Holliday is now 5 for 5 in regulation snatches this season.
The day included a particularly interesting occurrence: Kutztownâs Keeper somehow shish-kabobbed a bludger on his broom when it was thrown at him (see photo).
The surprise act from World Cup V, University of Florida, has announced the second annual Swamp Cup, to be hosted in Gainesville, FL on March 24-25.
Last yearâs attendees will always remember the 2011 Swamp Cup: three days of grueling quidditch accompanied by two nights of amazing parties, hot tubs, and swimming pools.
While the organizers this year have decided to be a littler more sane (just two days of competition), they are still inviting anyone and everyone to come join in the actionâ¦and hit up the pool parties afterwards. ...
The University of Texas Quidditch team took hosts LSU by surprise yesterday, winning the Mardi Gras Cup championship.
Texas A&M finished in a narrow third place. Due to inclement weather, the tournament was moved to the LSU Parade Grounds and condensed into one day. All games took place on Sunday, February 19th.
The IQA is proud to announce the individuals selected for the World Cup VI Organizing team (WCOT). Scroll down to see larger bio pics and read more about each member.
As shown in the flow chart below (click to enlarge), less than half of the total leadership positions â over 50 â have been filled so far, but almost all of the top positions for the event have been selected, excluding the marketing director. Neither of these levels include general volunteer staff, who are recruited closer to the event, and surpassed 250 members at the fifth World Cup. ...
Click the image to see the bio's of all the individuals
Muggle Quidditch is taking university sports to new heights after two universities announced their plans to engage in a duel.
Although chasing a snitch around a pitch may not be everyone's cup of butterbeer the game has flown to popularity in the US. In January, Oxford University students got their brooms out and swatted a ball around a field for a couple of hours, much to the delight of the undergraduates who finally felt they were living the Hogwarts dream.
Now, Leicester University has announced it will be teleporting its students to Keele University (by coach, not flying car), for what shall presumably be an out-of-this-world encounter.
The game will be the first in the UK to be played to official International Quidditch Association (IQA) rules (yes, they do exist). ...
Members of the USC quidditch team are used to getting quizzical looks as they re-create the game made famous in Harry Potter books. After all, theyâre straddling brooms as they dodge and shoot for the hoop on a grass field outside Marks Residence Hall.
But they do want to make one thing clear: This is a full-contact sport, not a fantasy book fan club.
2. Slytherin:
LSU
Texas Deluminators
Southern Miss
Rice
3. Ravenclaw
Texas A&M
Sam Houston
Belmont
UNO
4. Hufflepuff
Uhigh
Hendrix
Florida Atlantic
Silver Phoenixes
Team Rocket
Hosts LSU and guests Texas A&M are the best known teams in the tournament, both finishing in the top spots in World Cup V (5th and 3rd respectively). Another team attending the Mardi Gras Cup, UT, also performed well at the World Cup, coming in 9th.
A variety of other southern and Texan teams will be attending the event, including the newly formed Rice University team.
The Florida Quidditch Conference convened for a tournament in Sarasota College on February 5th, and University of Miami was the standout team of the day, winning every game and catching every snitch.
A new team in the FQC, Florida Atlantic University, was present, and despite going 0-4 played extremely well and earned the admiration of all of the more veteran teams in attendance.
For all of the scores, head over to the MuggleNet SnitchCenter Section right here.
2011 was a great year for Quidditch, as the IQA traveled to various conventions in the U.S. (from C2E2 in Chicago, IL to LeakyCon in Orlando, FL). By hosting demo matches and presenting at panels, we were able to make many friends and get Muggles to fall in love with the sport. Soâ¦weâre doing it again!
If you missed out on one of our convention opportunities in the past, youâll have lots of time to plan ahead now!
The IQA is currently in the process of planning four great convention appearances for 2012:
Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo (C2E2)- April 13-15
Ascendio- July 12-15
LeakyCon- August 9-12
New York Comic Con- Oct 11-14
VCU defeats Virginia Tech before match cancelled
February 11th, 2012
Today, VCU defeated Virginia Tech during the first match with a successful snitch snatch while leading.
However, the remainder of play was cancelled due to a frozen pitch, as conditions were not safe for play. The remainder of the games will be played on another date in the coming months.
(IQA News by Morgyn Bernstead, February 9th, 2012)
Watch out, North America: Australian teams are joining forces to send a formidable national side to World Cup VI.
Since Australiaâs first intervarsity quidditch tournament â last Novemberâs QUAFL Cup â the Australian quidditch scene has been booming. Teams have formed the Australian Quidditch Association, which aims to bridge the gap between Australia and the IQA, and a rash of events are planned for 2012.
As the first large quidditch community to emerge outside of North America, Australian quidditch faces a unique set of challenges. For instance, most teams around the country have been playing with their own modified versions of the IQA rules, Alivanâs brooms are unavailable due to customs regulations and distances between teams (not to mention the distance to go to Quidditch events in North America) are vast. ...
This yearâs (totally unofficial) Western Cup will be the largest quidditch tournament ever held west of the Mississippi. While last yearâs event saw a total of 11 teams from the region, this yearâs spectacular is expecting close to 20.
The event promises a silly amount of quidditch over two days, live entertainment, and a quidditch dance party for the ages. The event will take place in sunny Southern California, on UCLAâs intramural field the weekend of March 10 and 11. ...
University of Victoria defeated University of British Columbia two games to one in Western Canadaâs first bout of inter-university quidditch matches.
Matches were held on UVic campus Feb. 4. The teams plan to face off again at UBC next month.
Rice students are no strangers to unusual sports â just ask one of them what 'beer golf' is. So it should came as no surprise that the university is now home to its first-ever quidditch team.
Yes, quidditch, as in the sport invented by J.K. Rowling and played by Harry Potter and his wizard friends. But don't let the fact that quidditch comes from the world of fiction fool you â players say this is a sport to be taken seriously.
"A considerable number of athletes say 'Yeah, right, I'm going to play a made-up sport,'" says Rice Quidditch Club president Sophie Bonifaz. "As soon as they get on the field they see how challenging it is." ...
The magic of âHarry Potterâ hasnât ended. This weekend Centerville hosted the second annual Utah Snow Cup. It was complete with the newest brand of Nimbus 2000s, golden snitches and fast-traveling bludgers. It wasnât Hogwarts, but with the sound of whooshing brooms and fluttering snitches, spectators could have closed their eyes and imagined it.
The Cougar Quidditch Team was among one of the teams flying into the tournament along with the Utah Crimson Fliers, UNC Griffins, NAU Narwhals and Denver Dementors, as well as two mixed teams comprised of athletes from colleges around the country. Quidditch is not an official college sport but, according to the International Quidditch Association, it âis a magical nonprofit dedicated to promoting the sport of Quidditch and inspiring young people to lead physically active and socially engaged lives.â There are more than 300 universities and high schools in the United States that have adapted the sport, as well as 12 other countries. ...
On the weekend of November 12th the Chestnut Hill College Quidditch team went to Randallâs Island in New York, for the 5th annual Quidditch World Cup. This was Chestnut Hillâs 4th World Cup and the Griffins were ready! We were one of nearly 100 teams to compete in the two day tournament with teams from all over the country and a handful of international teams. The Griffins had a great weekend filled with some epic battles, brilliant snitch catches, and many, many laughs!
Here are what some players had to say about the event:
Senior and four year Quidditch veteran Jeremy Miles said âI have been thrown on a team full of students who may not have spoken until Quidditch. Seeing all these people who donât know each other at the beginning, then play as one cohesive team as if they have been playing together for years is truly amazing.â
âThe World Cup was a great experience. I met people from all over the world and got to spend time with great friends,â said first-year Cristina Diaz.
Caroline Stutz, a senior chaser said âIâve been a part of many team sports, and the sportsmanship, positivity, and support that our CHC World Cup Team showed was greater than anything Iâve ever experienced. Despite the hardships we faced during our World Cup games, we gave it our all, playing both aggressively and cleanly. The World Cup and Quidditch in general, should always be a fun, entertaining, light hearted event.â
Although the Griffins did not take home the trophy, we played our favorite game and had an incredible weekend!
The largest quidditch tournament in Ohio to date is coming to OSU on April 14.
From the OSU Captain Luke Changet:
The 2nd Annual Ohio Cup will be held on April 14th from 10:00 AM to 8:00 PM.
The tournament will be held at Fred Beekman park on OSUâs campus in Columbus. It will be hosted by the OSU Quidditch League, and we plan on having all IQA-official Ohio teams attending, as well as several high-profile area teams.
Pre-registration is open to anyone. IQA official teams will have priority in registration, followed by Ohio teams, then priority will be given in the order final registration is received. We were planning for 12 teams, but due to high demand, we are considering adding a third field and expanding the tournament to 14-15 teams.
This is by far the largest tournament in Ohio history to date, and will also be the last large quidditch event of the year in the Midwest.
This Friday, February 3rd, is the final day to pre-register. You must fill out the pre-registration to attend. Filling out the pre-registration will only sign you up to receive an email with more information in the coming weeks.
The link, and most of this information, can be found right here.
Harry Potter fans across Italy will soon have the chance to witness the countryâs first quidditch tournament in Milan.
Attendees of Potteraduno â an Italian Harry Potter convention happening the first weekend in February â are invited to register teams to play in a small tournament on Feb. 5. People are also welcome to sign up individually to be placed on a team.
Four teams are expected to compete. Games will be played by IQA rules.
Some Italians who have watched muggle quidditch matches online hope the event will help generate interest in the sport so that Italian teams can start forming. ...
IQA Referee Cameron Kim discusses plans for the referee development team to aid, train, and improve referees and raise the standards of reffing everywhere. Read more below, and apply to join his team by following the link at the bottom of the article.
The International Quidditch Association has grown exponentially for the past five years, from a âWorld Cupâ with two teams in 2007 to nearly 100 teams in 2011. There are quidditch teams in 44 US States and at least twelve other countries. In 2011, for the first time, the IQA sponsored regional tournaments across the United States and Canada, and with growing demand from other countries regional locations will only increase in 2012-2013. To meet this growing supply, players and spectators alike have been demanding more careful treatment of the rules of quidditch, which is where the referees come into action. ...
Quidditch. It's not just for Harry Potter anymore.
It's a legitimate, semi-mainstream competitive sport requiring a modicum of speed, athleticism, and coordination of its players.
It's played pretty much everywhere, even at some U.S. colleges, like my own neighborhood institute of higher learning, Chestnut Hill College.
There's even a Quidditch World Cup which currently features over 100 colleges from around the globe that travel to New York City annually to play in the tournament. ...
Saturday on the Rice University intramural fields was pretty much like any other mild-weathered weekend afternoon: College kids grappled with lacrosse nets and Frisbees, muddying their shoes and enjoying the warm sunshine after a rainy week. But down at the stadium end, a small crowd gathered to watch the first-ever Rice-hosted practice tournament for Quidditch.
Yeah, you read that right: Quidditch.
If you don't read or watch movies or the news or still think that "Hook" is the fliest kids movie ever and still use words like "fly", Quidditch is the sport played by wizards-in-training at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the "Harry Potter" series. ...
This September the Tufts University Tufflepuffs, taking a break from their rigorous World Cup training, participated in their schoolâs annual Community Day by welcoming local kids of all ages on to their pitch to learn how to play quidditch. While a few team members finished setting up hoops, kids and team members got to know one another by shouting their names as loudly as possible in unison and discussing their favorite Harry Potter books and movies. After going over the basic rules of muggle quidditch, a quick stretch and warm-up, and a lively debate about whether Ginny Weasley played seeker or chaser for Gryffindor (it turns out she played both), the team and their new young friends broke into two teams and got ready for the refâs âBROOMS UP!â
Despite some children being too tiny (and too adorable) to hold a broom and ball simultaneously, the kids and the team had a wicked time and are hoping to make kidditch a regular site around Tuftsâ home cities of Medford and Somerville, MA. ...
Ten quidditch teams, along with many volunteers and fans, gathered during the Delaware Park Flurrious Winter Festival last Saturday for the Second Annual Ives Pond Invitational tournament.
Quidditch is a full-contact, high-paced game based on the sport of the same name from the wildly popular Harry Potter book series. As the sport approaches its sixth season, participation is higher than ever and International Quidditch Association commissioner, Alex Benepe, only wants it to keep growing. So much so as to call upon the 10 quidditch teams in attendance to help multiply the number of quidditch players by 10. ...
A new team at Oxford University is featured in one of the UKâs largest newspapers today, The Guardian.
From The Guardian:
âDespite its success in the States and Canada, Muggle Quidditch has been slow to catch on in the home of the Harry Potter stories, although it has been attempted by students at universities including Nottingham and Warwick and there has been talk of setting up a British league.
Barry and his fellow players hope that its time has finally come. âThe word is spreading,â he said. âI think each time weâve played weâve pretty much doubled our numbers. We started off with 20, then 40, then 80.â Many of the players would like to see Quidditch recognised as an official university sport, a step that would open the way to a Varsity match against Cambridge and a Half Blue, such as Ultimate Frisbee and Eton Fives.â
A new team at Oxford University is featured in one of the UKâs largest newspapers today, The Guardian.
From The Guardian:
âDespite its success in the States and Canada, Muggle Quidditch has been slow to catch on in the home of the Harry Potter stories, although it has been attempted by students at universities including Nottingham and Warwick and there has been talk of setting up a British league.
Barry and his fellow players hope that its time has finally come. âThe word is spreading,â he said. âI think each time weâve played weâve pretty much doubled our numbers. We started off with 20, then 40, then 80.â Many of the players would like to see Quidditch recognised as an official university sport, a step that would open the way to a Varsity match against Cambridge and a Half Blue, such as Ultimate Frisbee and Eton Fives.â
Pittsburgh went undefeated through the tournament and overcome the hosts Ives Pond in the finals 90-50 (Ives Pond grabbed the snitch) to win the Ives Pond Invitational this afternoon in Buffalo, NY. Ten other teams participated in the tournament, which was part of Flurrious, the Buffalo winter festival.
Pittsburgh went undefeated through the tournament and overcome the hosts Ives Pond in the finals 90-50 (Ives Pond grabbed the snitch) to win the Ives Pond Invitational this afternoon in Buffalo, NY. Ten other teams participated in the tournament, which was part of Flurrious, the Buffalo winter festival.
The temperature is dropping at Delaware Park in Buffalo, NY, home of the 2nd Annual Ives Pond Invitational. While there is a moderate level of snow on the ground, it is nothing, thankfully, compared to the blizzard conditions of last year.
All ten teams are in great spirits and there is a joyous spirit in the air, thanks to the winter festival taking place around the tournament.
Competition has been clean but fierce. One concussion has led to an ambulance trip for a SUNY Geneseo player, while a U Ottawa player had a bleeding nose, among other injuries.
Tune into @mugglequidditch and @Benepe on twitter for pictures and updates.
Current Standings:
Pittsburgh 4-0
Ives Pond 3-1
Ottawa 3-1
Rochester 3-1
RIT 2-2
Carleton 2-2
Geneseo 1-3
Edinboro 1-3
WEQL 1-3
Syracuse 0-4
The top 6 teams are advancing to finals. More information coming soon, with video later tonight.
(IQA News by Kathleen Richter, January 12th, 2012)
This January, teams from four quidditch clubs will converge on the Stanford Wilbur field to have themselves a jolly little tournament. Representatives from Berkeley, San Jose State, the Silicon Valley Skrewts, and Stanfordâs nascent team will face off on the 28th, starting their day with something new: a referee-training workshop.
The idea for the referee training workshop came out of a collective frustration with the lack of experience of many referees at the fifth World Cup, coupled with the understanding that many of them had volunteered last-minute and were doing the best they could with the experience they had. According to Caroline Wurden, co-captain of the Berkeley team and member of the IQA ref council, âThere currently isnât a program to train referees, which is a problem for well-officiated matches. The IQA Referee Council has been working on a program to fix that, so this ref workshop is the first step to training and certifying potential refs.â ...
Please note:
Some locations are listed in multiple regions, due to the fact that some US states may be switching regions based upon demand from teams. ...
You can see all of the nominations and what happens next on the IQA website right here
Quodpot, described by J.K. Rowling as the American version of quidditch, has joined the club of real-life fictional sports.
Chris Kostick and several other players of the IQA thought it would be fun to try and adapt the sport to reality and submitted it for publication. It has been posted online here for the first time.
These rules are not officially endorsed by the IQA and we cannot guarantee their safety. if you play this game you might get hurt, die in a freak accident, explode etc. (donât worry, the rules do not actually call for explosives) and we are not held accountable for any of your medical bills or financial remuneration etc. This falls into the category of âfan-generated contentâ and we thought it would be fun to share with the league and help Chris get feedback. ...
I just got back from the Quidditch World Cup in NYC and wanted to share some observations on why I feel the evolution of Quidditch as a sport embodies so much that is good about young people and gives me hope for our nationâs future.
First a little background. Quidditch is the flying broomstick game from Harry Potter. In the mid 2000s Alex Benepe, then a student at Middlebury College, founded a Quidditch team and it spread like wildfire among the northeastern small private schools. College Quidditch organically emerged from a generationâs love of Harry Potter and is totally self-organized and run by volunteer enthusiasts. Once the quaffle was rolling in Middlebury, the sport snowballed across the world. (We watched UCLA play Finlandâs team.) ...
***Be sure to read the entire artice on the IQA website right here***
My name is Alex Benepe, and Iâm the commissioner of the International Quidditch Association. Today it is my pleasure to lay out a road map for the future of the IQA and real-life quidditch. So pull up a chair, grab a mug of hot butterbeer, and settle in, because weâve got a lot to look forward to.
In case youâve been locked up in Azkaban, 2011 was a big year for quidditch. The IQA just held its fifth annual World Cup in New York City. Weâve come a long way in the five years since a ragtag gaggle of freshmen first played real-life quidditch on a field at Middlebury College in Vermont. Last month, 93 college and high school teams comprising over 1,600 players from 27 states and four nations (Canada, Finland, Iceland, and of course the United States) descended on New York City to compete in over 300 games on nine fields over two days. I would like to congratulate Trinity High School, Purdue University, and Middlebury College: the high school, D2, and D1 champions respectively. ...
***Be sure to read Alex's entire "State of the League Address" right here***
Quidditch, an exciting and often dangerous sport, features heavily in the popular books and matches have provided the backdrop for plenty of drama. Itâs captured the attention of both book worms and sportsmen at the University, who have now established a weekly training session and hope to find other universities in the country who they can play against.
The unusual challenge is part of a wider initiative being run by the University to get more students taking part in sport. Other diverse activities being introduced as part of UBuACTIVE include dodgeball, Lacrosse, Korfball and Ultimate Frisbee. ...
Grab your brooms, your Quaffles and Bludgers and your running shoes â and if youâre Seeker, try to grab your Snitch! The world-famous International Quidditch Association is going to be bringing Quidditch to Ascendio at Universal Orlando Resort from July 12 â 15, 2012! ...
Kneeling beside a small broom on the ground of Normanâs Landing in Central Park, 17-year-old Jane Jacoby closed her eyes and waited. Beside her waited six others, and yards across from them, another seven. Moments later, âBrooms up!â someone in the middle of the pitch shouted, and Jacobyâs eyes shot open. She and the others surged forward, straddling the brooms between their legs.
A beater on the New York Badassilisks â one of 95 teams that competed in the Fifth Annual International Quidditch Association Quidditch World Cup on Randallâs Island, on Nov. 12 and 13 â Jacoby was preparing to win. ...
Quidditch Flies High
(Rollins, December 5, 2011)
It only seems fitting that Christian Kebbel (Class of 2012) was in Europe when he first took steps to start a quidditch team at Rollins. An athletic offshoot from the U.K.-based Harry Potter books series, the sport of muggle quidditch has gone from being a peculiar pastime born in Middlebury, Vermont in 2005 to becoming an international sensation with more than 300 teams sprouting up around the globe.
In the fall of 2010, Rollins quidditch gained official student organization status and a year later its 80 members and 14 players began an unforgettable season playing this hilarious but challenging sport on campus and at tournaments near and far. ...
No-Fly Zone: Quidditch for Non-Magical Folk
(NBC New York, December 7, 2011)
A lot of people are familiar with Harry Potter.
In fact, Ms. Rowling conceived such a fully realized world, many fans have confessed wanting to live in her world more than their own.
But thereâs a sad realization that comes over a lot of these fans after a certain age. In the Potter World, prospective witches and wizards are notified of their acceptance to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry at the age of eleven. Meaning that even if Harry Potter were real, magic existed, and you didnât have to take out crazy student loans to attend Hogwarts, if youâre over the age of eleven, youâre not magical. Which for many is a pretty tough break.
Despite this, some people have decided to make lemons into a large-scale intramural sport. Iâm talking about Quidditch.
I recently attended the World Cup of Muggle Quidditch at Icahn Stadium on Randall's Island in New York City. Now, I know what youâre asking yourself...
âIsnât Quidditch played on broomsticks with everyone flying around?â
The broom part has stayed. Everyone who plays this sport runs around with a broom between his or her legs. Unfortunately, no one has, at this time, figured out how to make the brooms fly. But that hasnât stopped the players of this magical sport to grow their intramural club into a fully formed league. At the Cup, there were thousands of people, some dressed in costumes, others covered in paint. There were sword swallowers and team supporters. And the biggest surprise?
Quidditch is hard. Like, really hard.
Watching a game can be confusing, but once one understands the rules and positions (and there are a lot), one begins to appreciate just how athletic the participants truly are. With a mashup of basketball, lacrosse, and, to an extent, wrestling, no one wins a game of Quidditch by slacking off.
They win it by catching the snitch. ...
Big plans for Stony Brook Quidditch
(The Statesman, December 7, 2011)
The most important part of the Quidditch season is past. The World Cup has ended, practices have slowed down in preparation for finals and all seems fairly quiet in the most magical sport on campus.
But that is not the case, for while Stony Brook Universityâs Varsity Quidditch team may not be on the Physics field every night practicing now that the Cup is over, the team has been working harder than ever to build the program into a well-run organization.
SBU Quidditch founder and team captain Daniel Ahmadizadeh has completely reorganized how the team is managed, creating an administrative group that boasts of tournament organizers, marketing leaders and a new Quidditch program president. ...
Quidditch tournament to be held
(The Lion's Roar (Southen Louisiana University), December 6, 2011)
The "Harry Potter" saga comes to life at Southeastern in the form of a Quidditch Tournament which will be held in February at Lee Hall Field.
This will be the first annual Quidditch Tournament at Southeastern. The teams will be composed of ten players, or Muggles, and are required to complete a registration packet which must be submitted either via email to William Takewell, director and founder of The Big Event and Student Government Association (SGA) chief justice, or dropped off in the SGA Office, Room 207. ...
USF's team keeps 'Harry Potter' alive
(TBO (Tampa Bay Online), December 4, 2011)
Lacrosse players run passing drills near the entrance of Sycamore Fields at the University of South Florida as a soccer team masters dribbling nearby.
In the back corner, behind the soccer goals sit two sets of three homemade vertical hoops. On this side of Sycamore, the athletes play while holding PVC pipes between their legs.
This new sports club plays the formerly mythical game of Quidditch. ...
U Quidditch League throws Yule Ball to raise funds for traveling team
(TwinCities, December 1, 2011)
Among butter beer, hors d'oeuvres and candlelit decor, nearly 800 guests danced to a bewitching mix of hits Friday night at the Yule Ball on the University of Minnesota campus.
Made popular by author J.K. Rowling and her "Harry Potter" series, the Yule Ball is a formal event that takes place during the Triwizard Tournament in the fourth book, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire." It is a night of camaraderie and enchantment during the fierce competition for the Triwizard Cup.
No competition preceded the U's event, held in the DQ Club room at TCF Bank Stadium, but it was a night of friendly encounters and holiday spirit, all planned and coordinated by the university's Quidditch League. ...
Quidditch team One Knoight Stands soars to World Cup, places 35th
(SUNY Geneseo The Larmon, December 1, 2011)
On Nov. 12 and 13, the Geneseo Quidditch team flew to Randall's Island in New York City for the fifth annual Quidditch World Cup, hosted by the International Quidditch Assocation.
Although the club was founded two years ago, this was its first time appearing at the World Cup. Geneseo's Quidditch team, known as One Knight Stands, was one of 98 teams from 27 states, the District of Colombia, two Canadian provinces and three countries outside of North America. ...
Quidditch team wins division at World Cup
(Purdue University news service, November 23, 2011)
Purdue Universityâs Quidditch team took home the World Cup title in its division at the fifth International Quidditch Associationâs World Cup.
Going into the tournament, which was held on Randallâs Island in New York City, the teamâs record was 0-7. Yet, the team managed to go undefeated throughout the tournament.
âWe didnât expect to win a single game, let alone our entire division,â said Karla Bentcover, president of the student organization. âIt was truly an underdog story.â
The final score against opponent Richmond Institute of Technology was 60-20. ...
UNSW sweeps Aussie Cup
(IQA News by Andrea Hill, November 26, 2011)
University of New South Wales became Australiaâs first quidditch champion Saturday after defeating University of Western Sydney 90-60 in the finals of the Quidditch Universities of Australia Federation League (QUAFL) Cup. Australian National University finished third. ...
Quidditch team wins division at World Cup
(Purdue University news service, November 23, 2011)
Purdue Universityâs Quidditch team took home the World Cup title in its division at the fifth International Quidditch Associationâs World Cup.
Going into the tournament, which was held on Randallâs Island in New York City, the teamâs record was 0-7. Yet, the team managed to go undefeated throughout the tournament.
âWe didnât expect to win a single game, let alone our entire division,â said Karla Bentcover, president of the student organization. âIt was truly an underdog story.â
The final score against opponent Richmond Institute of Technology was 60-20. ...
SBU set to host a Northeast tournament
(IQA News by Alex Benape, November 25, 2011)
The Stony Brook University team is hosting a Northeast Tournament on Saturday, March 31st, 2012 at Stony Brook in Long Island, NY.
Veteran team commissioner Daniel Ahmadizadeh is organizing the event, and heâs gained the backing of the school, a key play in any successful event. The games will be taking place on the schoolâs intramural fields (where the rugby, field hockey, and frisbee teams play and compete), and the school is bringing in bleachers, EMTâs, and other preparations and amenities for the tournament, along with SBUâs dance squad and other local bands to perform. ...
Harry Potter's sport captures the imagination of a small band of students at FSU
The game of Quidditch has taken the Muggle World by storm and universities across the country are getting in on the action.
Drury University hosted its second annual Quidditch tournament on Saturday. ...
First Aussie tournament to happen Saturday
(IQA News by Andrea Hill, November 23, 2011)
Look out Aussies â Australiaâs first-ever quidditch tournament is happening in Sydney this weekend.
The Quidditch Universities of Australia Federation League Cup â or QUAFL Cup for short â is taking over the Physics Lawn at University of New South Wales on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Five teams from across the nation are competing to be Australiaâs first quidditch champion and more than one hundred fans are expected to show despite a forecast for rain.
The competing teams include Australian National University (Canberra), University of Wollongong (Wollongong), University of Newcastle (Newcastle), University of Western Sydney (Sydney) and host University of New South Wales (Sydney). ...
Quiiditch defeats top-ranked Middlebury at World Cup
(The Michigan Daily, November 20, 2011)
In the Michigan Quidditch team's second year as an organized program, it was able to upset the No. 1 Quidditch team in the world, Middlebury, in the preliminary round of the Quidditch World Cup on Nov. 12.
The Wolverines were ranked 51st in their first-ever World Cup appearance. Founded in 2007, the International Quidditch Associationâs fifth annual World Cup took place in Randalls Island, New York. A tournament-record 94 teams participated this year, hailing from countries all around the globe.
The tournament took teamwork, dedication and savvy for the Harry Potter-inspired sport.
Michigan was placed into a preliminary division with Yale, UCLA and a squad from Finland, but its first matchup was against the Middlebury powerhouse. ...
Drury hosts 2nd Annual Quidditch Tourney
(OzarksFirst.com, November 21, 2011)
Even though the Harry Potter saga has ended, his favorite sport lives on.
Drury students, dressed in cloaks, put on the second annual Quidditch tournament Sunday.
Since their magic is lacking, students adapted the sport to a mixture of rugby, soccer and frisbee.
Organizers say even though Harry's no longer on the silver screen, this round-robin tournament will keep coming back. ...
Middlebury Celebrates their Fifth Quidditch World Cup Win
(Yahoo Sports, November 19, 2011)
Vermont Middlebury College continues a winning streak by defeating the University of Florida on November 13, 2011 in the Quidditch World Cup Finals. This event took place in New York City at Randall's Island and it was an amazing (albeit not surprising) victory for Middlebury. They walked away with their fifth Quidditch World Cup Win in a row and maintained their position as reigning champions in the sport.
This small college in Vermont came up with the original idea to create an official sport of Quidditch based on the fictional game played in the Harry Potter movies but with a few modifications for "Muggles" (non magical folk). ...
No Need for Flying at this Year's Student Quidditch Tournament
(OzarksFirst.com, November 19, 2011)
Even though the Harry Potter saga has ended, his favorite sport lives on.
Drury students --- coated with cloaks --- put on the 2nd Annual Quidditch Tournament.
Since their magic is lacking --- students adapted the sport to a mixture of rugby, soccer and frisbee.
Organizers say even though Harry's no longer on the silver screen, this round-robin tournament will keep coming back. ...
Quidditch is a growing sport
(The Advertiser-News, November 18, 2011)
They can't fly but the game's still fun
Vernon â For many young people who came of age during the Harry Potter craze, the desire to inhabit the world of Hogwarts and magic has been a fantasy. What fan of the books didnât wish they could walk up to platform 9 and three quarters and enter the wizarding world?
Magical powers might still be out of reach, but since 2006 there has been a new opportunity for those Potter fans to experience a real-life game straight out of the pages of the beloved novels. Quidditch, the whimsical sport played on flying broomsticks, is now a real varsity sport, played by thousands of college students, and some high school players too. ...
UF's Quidditch Club team takes second place at World Cup
(The Independent Florida Alligator, November 15, 2011)
The Florida Quidditch team left Gainesville last week for the 2011 World Cup as a 21-member group with high hopes.
Monday, players returned with sore legs, hoarse voices and the title of second-best Quidditch team in the world.
After going undefeated in the pool and bracket stages, the team of UF students faced four-time World Cup champions Middlebury College for the title.
The finals game, held in Icahn Stadium in New York, started at 10 p.m. on Sunday. After a few yellow cards and with only a few minutes left in the game, the score was Florida 80, Middlebury 70. ...
UMass team plays in the fifth Quidditch World Cup
(The Massachusett's Collegian, November 15, 2011)
The University of Massachusetts Quidditch team zoomed and soared on their brooms dodging bludgers and seeking snitches last weekend at the fifth Quidditch World Cup at Randallâs Island in New York.
The team unofficially came in 32nd place out of 60 teams in Division I said Brent Tenerowicz, the teamâs vice president and one of the teamâs chasers. He said the official brackets havenât been posted yet. ...
UF's Quidditch club team takes second place at World Cup
(The Independent Florida Alligator, November 15, 2011)
The Florida Quidditch team left Gainesville last week for the 2011 World Cup as a 21-member group with high hopes.
Monday, players returned with sore legs, hoarse voices and the title of second-best Quidditch team in the world.
After going undefeated in the pool and bracket stages, the team of UF students faced four-time World Cup champions Middlebury College for the title.
The finals game, held in Icahn Stadium in New York, started at 10 p.m. on Sunday. After a few yellow cards and with only a few minutes left in the game, the score was Florida 80, Middlebury 70. ...
Quidditch 1 Poof! Tufflepuffs disappear early from Quidditch World Cup
(The Tufts Daily, November 14, 2011)
The Tufflepuffs, Tufts' Quidditch team, became the darlings of the muggle Quidditch world last fall with an epic run through the World Cup to force a matchup with Middlebury, the sport's founders, in the final.
Quidditch â a fastâgrowing sport adapted from the game from J.K Rowling's "Harry Potter" series â has grown exponentially in popularity since last year. The World Cup field this year has doubled to nearly 100, the average player of Quidditch has become far more athletic, and Tufts has slid back into the pack after a 1â3 showing in pool play, a performance not good enough to earn the Tufflepuffs a spot in the singleâelimination bracket. ...
Enthusiastic fans keep the Quidditch World Cup from taking itself too seriously
(NYU Local, November 14, 2011)
The only possible hitch in this weekendâs Quidditch World Cup was its up-in-the-air status: silly or serious? Certainly, it had more-than-enthusiastic fans, most of whom donned scarves in Hogwarts House colors and some of whom wore robes, slashed wands at empty air, and used facepaint.
It was easy to recognize the fans who boarded and exited the water taxi to the Cupâs site on Randallâs Island. But the eventâs semi-silly atmosphere didnât stop its many employees from distinguishing work from play. Or, more skillfully, integrating âplayâ into the enormous task of overseeing entertainment, vending, and the games themselves.
Read more: Wacky Fans And Great Commentary At The Quidditch World Cup · NYU Local http://nyulocal.com/on-campus/2011/11/14/enthusiastic-fans-keep-the-quidditch-world-cup-from-taking-itself-too-seriously/#ixzz1diHZo2qy
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution. ...
Stony Brook quidditch struggles in second world cup appearance
(The Statesman, November 14, 2011)
There was nothing in the sky on Saturday morning that indicated that strange and mysterious things would soon be happening on Randallâs Island in New York City. However, the strange, the comical and the magical came to life in a small stretch of land where the 2011 Quidditich World Cup, the fifth such event, would be played.
âItâs really awesome that to see [the crowds] find out more about the sport,â said junior Gabe Albright of Emerson College, who volunteered to be a snitch for the cup. As opposed to it being a ball as in the Harry Potter books, the snitch is a person in this version of the game...
Quidditch team comes up short in World Cup
(The Daily Kansan, November 13, 2011)
Close to 100 teams and 2,000 athletes battled on broomsticks for two days, all wanting to be crowned the International Quidditch Association World Cup champion.
Kansas quidditch started the weekend wanting to prove they deserved their No. 2 ranking in the world. Instead, they fell in the Sweet 16 to Minnesota with a score of 70-40.
âOther teams, they watched us, they see our talent, they see what we have going on at Kansas,â captain Doug Whiston said. âPeople recognize that we are a good team and we collapsed in one game.â ...
In the end, it all came down to a snitch. And Pitt was out-snatched.
Pitt Quidditch lost to the University of Florida in the Elite Eight round of the Quidditch World Cup Sunday evening. The tournament, in which 93 teams participated, took place on Randallâs Island in New York City this weekend.
Middlebury College caught the snitch for a 100-80 win over the University of Florida and its fifth consecutive title of Quidditch World Cup champions. ...
A Game Worthy of a Wizard
(The Wall Street Journal, November 12, 2011)
This weekend, Alex Benepe will trade the sport coat and tie he sported last year for a tuxedo and crimson-and-gold bow tie. The upgrade is appropriate. The tournament he oversees costs $200,000, features almost 2,000 athletes and has at least one Curacao-based casino assigning odds.
It is also based on a fictional game that requires magic to play.
Benepe, a New York City native, is the commissioner of the International Quidditch Association (IQA), a nonprofit organization he founded last year to develop the game that originated as a plot point in J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" novels. ...
Pitt Quidditch team competes for World Cup
(The Pitt News, November 10, 2011)
Quidditch World Cup
Donât ask them if the sport is magical.
Itâs not. Thereâs nothing magical about sweat, hard work and injuries.
Donât ask them if they play for Slytherin or Gryffindor.
The answer is neither, and the question is asked far too often.
But ask the members of Pittâs Quidditch World Cup team who they do play for, and theyâll proudly tell you they represent the Quidditch team that took third place in last yearâs international World Cup. And this year, they plan to win it all. ...
Weekend Picks: Foo Fighters, Quidditch World Cup and more
(am New York, November 10, 2011)
Quidditch World Cup
The fictitious "Harry Potter" sport comes to life during this two-day event, during which 100 teams battle it out to be named top wizard. (Sat.-Sun., $4.99-$99.99, Randall's Island). ...
NYU will compete in the upcoming Quidditch World Cup
(NYU Local, November 10, 2011)
This upcoming weekend our schoolâs beloved v̶i̶r̶g̶i̶n̶ ̶s̶o̶c̶i̶e̶t̶y̶ quidditch team honorably takes wood in hand in the 5th annual Quidditch World Cup. Ranked 54th out of 100 competing teams, our Nundu will need to pull out all the stops in order to earn a place of distinction in what is considered the athletic highpoint of NYUâs academic calendar. ...
Quidditch team travels to first World Cup
(University Daily Kansan, November 10, 2011)
Today, the quidditch team travels to New York City. Tomorrow, the teamâs first International Quidditch Association World Cup begins. Twenty Kansas quidditch members are going to take on the other 86 World Cup caliber teams Saturday and Sunday. ...
Toms River team heads to the World Cup...of Quidditch
(The Star Ledger, November 11, 2011)
Harry Potter fan Ryan McGilloway had a simple wish: to try his hand at Quidditch, the magical game played on flying broomsticks in the J.K. Rowling books and associated movie franchise (and video games and amusement park). He'd seen the rules for the grounded version of the game online, yet he was skeptical. ...
A Look at Muggle Quidditch on the Eve of the 5th World Cup
(Midwest Sports Fan, November 11, 2011)
This weekend hundreds of athletes without an ounce of magical blood in their bodies will descend on New York for the fifth annual Muggle Quidditch World Cup.
This year top-ranked Middlebury College, winners of the first four world cups, will try to stave off #2 Kansas and contenders such as LSU, Texas A&M, and McGill University in Montreal to win its fifth consecutive title. ...
Quidditch 101
(The Crimson White, November 10, 2011)
Quidditch on the Quad is back for its second year in a row, and with nearly double the amount of teams signed up to play. Preliminary rounds begin tonight at 7 p.m. at the Student Recreation Center fields. Games continue on the Quad Sunday at noon. ...
ASU Quidditch off to the World Cup
(State Express, November 10, 2011)
This weekend, 20 ASU students will travel to Randallâs Island, New York City to compete in the fifth annual Quidditch World Cup, a 100-team, 2,000-athlete affair put on by the sportâs governing body, the International Quidditch Association.
This is far from some sort of Harry Potter fantasy camp. ...
Richmond in Quidditch World Cup
(The Collegian, November 10, 2011)
If you see a guy sprinting across campus wearing tight gold gym shorts in the afternoon, donât be alarmed, itâs quidditch.
Senior Jessie Kelley founded Richmondâs quidditch team in 2009 when she learned that other schools had started playing and competing in the magical game. The Richmond team was christened âAcromantulaâ after a type of giant spider found in the Harry Potter series, senior Jeff Hunt said. ...
Watch the Quidditch World Cup November 12-13
(Time Out New York, November 9, 2011)
Grab your best broomstickâit's time for the fifth annual Quidditch World Cup! Hosted by Randall's Island, the Cup invites families to experience the Harry Potter sport brought to life in an event that's one part athletics and two parts kid-friendly carnival. In addition to the game itself, this weekend's Randall's Island event includes live Harry Potter-themed music, Quidditch demos for the little ones, Harry Potter paraphernalia for sale, live owls, fire jugglers, face-painting and even some Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans. Sat Nov 12âSun Nov 13 at 10am. Randall's Island Park, Robert F. Kennedy Bridge (at Randall's Island). worldcupquiddich.com. $5â$100.
Rugby for student wizards
(azdailysun, November 9, 2011)
Quidditch: It's not for the skittish.
The rugby/basketball/dodge ball/tag game played by Harry Potter and his mates has jumped off the page and screen and is now a real competitive sport, minus the ability to fly on brooms. ...
Triwizard Tournament hits campus to raise money for URI Quidditch Club
(The Good 5¢ Cigar, November 8, 2011)
The University of Rhode Island's Quidditch Club brought the Harry Potter book series to the quadrangle during its first Triwizard Tournament last Friday on the Quadrangle.
The Triwizard Tournament consisted of three events: a cross-campus scavenger hunt, an obstacle course and catch the "golden snitch" battles. ...
Club Quidditch team heads to World Cup
(The Independent Florida Alligator, November 8, 2011)
From a distance, the cluster of UF students practicing at the center of Flavet Field Sunday night might have looked like an ordinary sports team.
But upon closer examination, the details were different. Players rode on PVC pipes, running, leaping and dodging balls under the moonlight. ...
The World Series is over: Get ready for the Quidditch World Cup
(Blastr, November 7, 2011)
There are no flying broomsticks. Hogwarts does not exist. Harry Potter is a work of fiction. But that hasn't stopped fans from creating the International Quidditch Association. And if you happen to be in New York City on Nov. 12 and 13, you can cheer on the team of your choice at the Fifth Quidditch World Cup. ...
The College of Charleston is one of 100 universities that will participate in the 2011 Quidditch World Cup on November 12 and 13 in New York City. The College was ranked No. 12 in the world following their first Quidditch World Cup performance in 2010. The team formed in spring 2010. ...
Quidditch | Tuff love: Emerson sweeps Tufts in World Cup tune-up
(Tufts Daily, November 7, 2011)
In the final tuneâup before next weekend's Quidditch World Cup in New York City, No. 14 Tufts faced off in a trio of games with No. 4 Emerson College Sunday on the Res Quad. After falling 90â0 in the opening match and falling behind 60â0 in the second, Tufts found its rhythm, outscoring Emerson for the remainder of that match, but ultimately lost the final game on a snitch catch, 100â50. ...
For Your Muggle Entertainment: Quidditch club flys at Pierce
(Pierce Arrow, November 5, 2011)
Boston University has one. Even Yale has one. The sport played in the popular "Harry Potter" movies has become a new feature of many universities and colleges, and Franklin Pierce wants a piece of the magical action called Quidditch.
Founders of the recent club, freshmen Kyle Rao and Emily Bliss, met on the Monadnock climb at the beginning of the semester. "We ended up hiking up the mountain together and starting talked about what we wanted to do this year," recalled Rao. "We found that a bunch of people wanted to start a Quidditch team," added Bliss. With the excitement of numerous newly found "Harry Potter" fans, the pair went to Campus Recreation to propose the idea. Right now, Quidditch operates as a club. "We have meetings and advertise mainly to freshmen but we want everyone to know about us." The club holds meetings every Thursday at 7 p.m. in the Marcucella lecture hall and uses Facebook to get the word out. ...
Quidditch goes from fiction to reality at Canadian universities
(Carelton Now, November 2, 2011)
Andrea Hill has always been a Harry Potter fan â so when she found out there was a quidditch tournament happening in Vermont, she had to go see it for herself.
âI was blown away by what I saw,â said Hill, a fourth-year biology and journalism major whoâs also the Carletonâs quidditch team captain. â(Quidditch) is so fun and exciting. People are so enthusiastic and thereâs so much sportsmanship. So I knew I had to make it a part of my university experience.â ...
Next weekend, "The Wackness" will take a magical field trip to one of the wackiest competitions in the world: the Fifth Annual Quidditch World Cup. Yes, Quidditch. Based on the flying-broom sport from the 'Harry Potter' series, muggle Quidditch involves two teams competing to throw a deflated volleyball - or 'Quaffle' - into one of three goals, while each team's seeker pursues a human 'Snitch,' usually a cross country runner or wrestler dressed in yellow tights with a sock-and-ball tucked inside. ...
Club teams an active part of VC sports
(The Miscellany News, November 2, 2011)
Vassar's resident quidditch team, the Butterbeer Broooers, are in the process of preparing for this year's International Quidditch World Cup. The No. 33 Broooers will be competing in Division I this year, which marks the first time the World Cup has been split into two divisions. The Broooers have been pooled with No. 6 nationally ranked Texas A&M University, No. 18 University of Miami, No. 55 New York University and No. 102 Ithaca Community quidditch teams. ...
Quidditch comes alive at NAU
(North Arizona News, October 31, 2011)
A sport that was invented by the imagination of J.K. Rowling, the author of the famous Harry Potter series, has now turned into a real-life international phenomenon. Although the broomsticks need to be held and feet are planted firmly on the ground, this unusal sport still managed to become its own association. ...
McGill's wizards, witches head for N.Y. quidditch pitches
(The Gazette, November 1, 2011)
McGill University's quidditch team mastered its (broom)stickhandling to become tops in the country after winning the first Canada Quidditch Cup in Ottawa on Saturday. The team now ranks eighth in the world and will head for New York City on Nov. 12 to compete in teh World Quidditch Cup, which has 100 teams participating. ...
McGill wins Canadian Cup
(IQA News by Andrea Hill, October 29, 2011)
McGill University maintained its title as Canadaâs top-ranked quidditch team this weekend after dominating in Canadaâs first-ever quidditch tournament in Ottawa. ...
Think quidditch is a game for Harry Potter nerds? Think again, say fans of the sport, which combines speed, strength and mischief. Carleton University played host to Canadaâs first national International Quidditch Association-sponsored tournament Saturday, an event that attracted teams from eight universities, including one from the U.S. ...
Club teams want more field space
(The Statesman, October 29, 2011)
âFour acres for 300+ clubs,â âThis sign is bigger than our fieldâ and âDonât fence us inâ were a few of the signs at Wednesdayâs rally against the lack of available field space on campus and the fee that Three Village Soccer Club, which rents the South Parking Lot field, charges club sport teams for games. ...
Halloween Quidditch at Syracuse
(IQA News by Kristina Moy, October 28, 2011)
Looks like Halloween is going to be a busy weekend for some Quidditch! In addition to the Halloween tournaments hosted by UVA and Briarcliff, Syracuse University will also be hosting a tournament on October 30th from 2pm and onward at the Syracuse University Womenâs Building Field. SUNY Cortland and Iveâs Pond Quidditch will be joining the fun as well. All players will be in FULL costume. So, whether you see werewolves, vampires, Lady Gagas, or Harry Potter himself on the field, definitely come by to watch these matchesâ¦and bring a camera! ...
A BU Victory at the Lily and James Memorial Tournament
(IQA News by Kristina Moy, October 25, 2011)
This past Saturday (October 22nd) was filled with excitement and determination as Boston University, Emerson College, UMass Amherst, and Westfield State University took the challenge to climb to the top. Butterbeer, Dragon Eggs, Witches Hats, Snitch Cupcakes, and a food truck were able to satisfy the taste buds of Muggles as they watched some heated matches between these MA teams. Raffle prizes also contributed to the fun. ...
One local college has stepped in to fill the void if you are having Harry Potter withdrawls now that the popular franchise is over. CSU Monterey Bay is holding a Quidditch tournament Friday and Saturday. Quidditch is a sport that is normally played by wizards flying around on brooms but in the Muggle world there are a few different rules. ...
NYU Quidditch is Officially A Club
(NYULocal, October 26, 2011)
Congratulations to the NYU Quidditch Team, NYU Nindu (formerly the much-wittier Hipster-Horcruxes), for finally becoming an official NYU club! The team was victorious over the NYU club budget committee, which is without a doubt just as terrifying as a dementor, joining the ranks of NYU clubs who deserve money. The announcement was made public on their twitter on October 22nd. ...
The allure of Quidditch
(UWeekly at OSU, October 26, 2011)
One of the things that makes Ohio State's campus so remarkable is the range of student involvement opportunities. Students can share a common Buckeye spirit while participating in unique niches. Be it a fantastical sport like Quidditch, an innovative game like Chadminton or simply going Ga-Ga, OSU has several unique sports clubs that are making their mark on campus. ...
UVA to host Halloween Tournament
(IQA News by Logan Anbinder, October 25, 2011)
Grab your brooms, but keep your mountain trolls in check - the University of Virginia will be holding the Blue-Ridge Halloween Tournament on its campus this Sunday, Oct. 30. ...
UVA to host Halloween tournament
(IQA News by Logan Anbinder, October 25, 2011)
Grab your brooms, but keep your mountain trolls in check - the University of Virginia will be holding the Blue Ridge Halloween Tournament on its campus this Sunday, Oct. 30. ...
Summit Showdown preview
(IQA News by Winter Schwaid-Lindner, October 24, 2011)
In the far distant land of Arizona, teams are few and far between. For the first time ever, these teams will be meeting to comete in the Summit Showdown. Bringing these teams together is no small feat, say Arizona State Representative Alexis Bristor: "Generally, we have to travel at least six hours to get to the nearest official teams." But thanks to their new official member status, and having a locale in between the other Arizona teams (the Sun Devils and the Thunderbirds). ...
USC defeats Cal in weekend matches
(IQA News by Tom Marks, October 24, 2011)
On October 15th, USC travelled up to Cal in Berkeley for two official games ending with a win each and a USC victory in overall points. The games were high energy and incredibly competitive, with around 200 fans out to support their respective teams, but the most interesting part of the match-up was what happened when the two teams' very different play-styles met on the pitch. ...
Last weekend (October 14-16), some 40+ IQA players and volunteers brought Quidditch to one of the biggest conventions in the Northeast. New York Comic Con was an absolute hit for the sport, with the NY Badassilisks and NYU Nundus playing in a demo match on Sunday, and Stoneybrook and the Jetpack Ninja Dinosaurs doing the same on Sunday. ...
Australians teams prepare for tourney
(IQA News by Andrea Hill, October 23, 2011)
A handful of Australian teams are training hard in preparation for the nation's first-ever quidditch tournament happening next month. The Quidditch Universities of Australia Federation League Cup - or QUAFL Cup, as it is known - will see five teams across New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory competing in Sydney on Sat. Nov 26. ...
Quidditch team mounts its brooms
(The Daily Pennsylvanian, October 23, 2011)
On Saturday afternoon, people passing by 34th Street between Walnut and Chestnut streets stopped at the sight of Penn students tackling each other on broomsticks. Penn's new Quidditch team held its first practice on Hill Field, with about 20 students sporting athletic gear and brooms organizing themselves into a scrimmage. ...
Ryerson Muggles to play in Canadian Quidditch championships
(The Star, October 23, 2011)
There are some obvious differences, the players being Muggles and all. Most striking, the brand of the game played by the Ryerson University Quidditch team lacks flying brooms. Indeed, in the absence of any magical powers, the team has been compelled to temper significantly the sport played with such wizardly elan by Harry Potter and his Hogwarts pals in the movie and novel franchise. ...
Muggles Make Quidditch Their Own in Texas and Across the Country
(Yahoo Sports, October 21, 2011)
The Teaxas Quidditch team held their scrimmage this month and will have their Quidditch scrimmage on Sunday, October 24th at 4pm. Texas Quidditch is an award-winning organization bringing the magical game of Quidditch from the Harry Potter books and movies to Muggles (non-magical people) so that it can be played on the ground. ...
Muggle Quidditch is struggling with gender equality
(The Mary Sue, October 21, 2011)
You might not expect a real-life game based on a fictional game in a fantasy book series would be dealing with real-life issues as gender equality, but it is. Muggle Quidditch leagues are, apparently, dealing with a new ruling that states that every team must have 4:3 ration of male players to female and vice versa, and some are not dealing with it well. ...
OSU Quidditch League gains popularity
(The Daily O'Collegian, October 21, 2011)
An OSU club has taken a make-believe sport and magically turned it into a real athletic contest. The OSU Quidditch League is in its third year of existence on campus and is growing in popularity. Ashleigh Cloud, president of the OSU Quidditch League, said more people are playing throughout the coutry, and there is competition between schools. ...
The boy who lives on
(the Kaimin, October 20, 2011)
Five women stalk through the store on a quest, but finding what they need is proving to be more difficult than they'd expected. They wind through the aisle, and when they reach rows of cooking spices, they realize they have to turn back. Snaking past mops and lines of brightly colored soaps, they know they're getting closer. ...
The wonderful world of Quidditch
(The Cavalier, October 19, 2011)
On my tour at U. Va. last year, I, like most of my peers, was dreadfully bored. I was only looking at the tour as a way to sleep in avoid a math test. I listened vaguely to the history of the buildings and when is the best time to work out, but I was mostly thinking about what I was going to eat for lunch and how well-dressed everyone was. I was getting tired of walking back and forth until something caught my eye. I stopped and the tour group walked around me, chattering excitedly. My mom eventually noticed that I was missing and turned around to find me gawking at the wall. I was staring at a drawing of the mark of the Deathly Hallows. "This is it," I remember saying to her. "Harry Potter approves of this school.". ...
Quidditch 'takes to the sky' over WSU
(The South End, October 19, 2011)
Mount your brooms, Wayne State. Quidditch has come to campus. The Quidditch season took flight October 6, uniting Harry Potter fans and sports enthusiasts to bring the once-fictional sport to life. Organizers were "basically trying to capitalize on the Harry Potter momentum," said Mort Harris Recreation and Fitness Center Intramural and Club Sports intern Jeff Taylor. ...
Brotherly Love Cup: Report
(IQA News by Max Kaplan, October 18, 2011)
Potter magic and quidditch filled the air this weekend in Philadelphia's Chestnut Hill neighborhood. Visitors from near and far gathered for the first-ever Harry Potter weekend and second-annual Philadelphia Brotherly Love Cup, hosted by Chestnut Hill College, with 16 teams playing for nearly 2,000 spectators. Chestnut Hill would go on to win the tournament over Villanova University in the finals. ...
It takes more than lost teams and a late start to dampen the spirit of quidditch players. The Middlebury Classic on October 16, designed to celebrate the sixth anniversary of the beginning of Middlebury College's campus because many of Vermont's roads have been rerouted since Hurricane Irene tore through the state earlier this fall. ...
Three western Ontario teams faced off in Toronto October 15 for some intense games of quidditch. The newly formed McMaster University team of Hamilton, Ontario won its two games with scores of 100-30 over University of Toronto and 50-30 over host Ryerson University. University of Toronto bounced back from its loss against McMaster to defeat Ryerson 110-10 in the final match. ...
Texas Quidditch holds first scrimmage of season
(The Daily Texan, October 17, 2011)
Students rode broomsticks and wore Hogwarts house colors while playing muggle, or non-magical, Quidditch, based on the wizarding sport played by the characters in J.K. Rowling's young adult book series "Harry Potter". ...
Quidditch among highlights of Harry Potter Weekend
(Newsworks, October 16, 2011)
They run with brooms between their legs. Chasers toss the Quaffle past the keeper. Beaters heave Bludgers. And the seeker relentlessly pursues the Golden Snitch. Fans of Harry Potter will recognize these as the elements, more or less, of Quidditch. It's a game that sprouted from author J.K. Rowling's amazingly productive imagination and it features prominently in most of the Potter books. ...
Harry Potter devotees mix it up
(The Philadelphia Inquirer, October 16, 2011)
As the twentysomethings nursed their post-Harry Potter feelings of emptiness with Butterbeer rum concoctions at McNally's tavern on Germantown Avenue, a more brutal form of Harry Potter-opothy was playing out farther up the hill. ...
He dons a bright yellow shirt and a smirk that boasts "catch me if you can." His wicked speed and clever maneuvers make him nearly impossible to catch. He's the coveted snitch in muggle quidditch, the earthbound version of the fictional sport made popular by the Harry Potter book and movie series. ...
Harry Potter comes to life at Texas A & M
(The Eagle, October 15, 2011)
When Tori Smith turned 11, she checked the mail each day for the acceptance letter to Hogwarts, the school of wizardry in the Harry Potter series. It never came. These days, the Texas A & M student trods a field straddling a broom, trying to toss a quaffle into a three-foot wide PVC pipe hoop while dodging beaters hurling rubber balls at her. ...
Harry Potter mania takes over Chestnut Hill this weekend
(Philly Burbs, October 14, 2011)
I am convinced that one of the main reasons I decided to attend Chestnut Hill College for my undergraduate degree had something to do with the fact that the school reminded me of Hogwarts Castle. So it seems fitting that the quaint Philadelphia town is playing host to a weekend packed with Harry Potter festivities sure to entertain both muggles and wizards alike. ...
Quidditch returns to Middlebury
(The Rutland Herald, October 14, 2011)
Since the Quidditch World Cup moved from Middlebury College to New York City last year, the visibility of the magical Harry Potter sport seemed to dwindle, said Andrew Hyatt, co-commissioner of the Middlebury Quidditch Club. ...
Rain on Saturday didn't put a damper on Fall Fest for some people, but others fled under the shelter of tents and buildings as a storm front moved over the annual even at Bethal College in North Newton. During the morning before the rain started, many stood around the Green on campus, dining on a variety of food, including kettle corn, talking, hugging and getting reaquainted with people they hadn't seen for a while. ...
From the view at Denny Chimes, the field looks smooth as velvet. At both ends of the Quad stand three gold hoops, fifty feet high. The Crimson figure on a broomstick moves so fast, it becomes blurred. Teams are lined up, ready to go. The second annual Muggle Quidditch World Cup is about to kick off. ...
Video: Villanova students take up quidditch
(The Main Line, October 11, 2011)
On fall Sunday afternoons, most Villanovans are either headed to the library, setting their fantasy football rosters, or deciding whether or not they ought to get out of bed and face the proverbial sunshine. But for a handful of Villanova University students, Sunday afternoons mean one thing: time for practice. ... Quidditch takes flight at CMU
(The Tartan, October 10, 2011)
The CMU Marauders are Carnegie Mellon's newest club sports team on campus - Quidditch. The game of Quidditch is based off the game played in the 'Harry Potter' series. Quidditch consists of players flying on brooms and shooting at hoops high in the air for points, while players hit balls at each other, and one player attempts to catch the Snitch. ...
Kansas University Wins Midwest Cup
(IQA News by Alex Benepe, October 10, 2011)
After Kansas upset apparent favorites Michigan State in a close 100-70 semi-final match with the snitch snatch, and Pittsburgh knocked out ISU with a convincing 90-40 win (ISU's snatch) in the other semi-final, KU and Pitt were locked in for an epic showdown. The final match initially looked like another steamroller victory from Pitt, as they took an early 50-10 lead over the blue cre from the Midwest. But, ...
Thirty years ago this Halloween the wizarding world was changed forever. Lily and James Potter gave their lives to protect their only child, Harry, from He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. While Harry lives, so does the memory of their sacrifices. To honour them, UMass Quidditch will be hosting their annual Halloween tournament,...
UMass hosts 2nd Annual Lily and James Potter Memorial Tournament
(IQA News by Kristina Moy, October 9, 2011)
Thirty years ago this Halloween the wizarding world was changed forever. Lily and James Potter gave their lives to protect their only child, Harry, from He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. While Harry lives, so does the memory of their sacrifices. To honour them, UMass Quidditch will be hosting their annual Halloween tournament,...
UCLA and USC start off the LA Quidditch Conference
(IQA News by Harrison Homel, October 10, 2011)
The Los Angeles Quidditch Conference began with the biggest rivalry of the season. On the type of October afternoon that makes the casual observer believe autumn is a myth, UCLA and USC took the pitch in the first of a series of conference games that will run through the semester. They join Occidental College, Moorpark College, and the Hollywood Harpies community team in a race for glory, and the coveted (though not yet constructed) LAQC trophy. ...
UCLA and USC start off the LA Quidditch Conference
(IQA News by Harrison Homel, October 10, 2011)
The Los Angeles Quidditch Conference began with the biggest rivalry of the season. On the type of October afternoon that makes the casual observer believe autumn is a myth, UCLA and USC took the pitch in the first of a series of conference games that will run through the semester. They join Occidental College, Moorpark College, and the Hollywood Harpies community team in a race for glory, and the coveted (though not yet constructed) LAQC trophy. ...
Largest Midwest Quidditch Tournament
(WISHTV8, October 10, 2011)
Conner Prairie was the host Sunday to the largest Quidditch Tournament ever held in the Midwest. 18 teams, totalling 300 people, participated in the official International Quidditch Association regional tournament in Fishers. ...
USF dominates recent FQC games
(IQA News by Alex Benepe, October 8, 2011)
University of Florida was consistently up by 20 for the whole game; it came down to the snitch catch. It was an epic battle for the snitch, and USF beat UF to the grab. We had some pretty great plays on the field, and the snitch came running the whole time that Brian was out there. A lot of injuries. ...
Hang on to your sorting hats, Hogwarts fans. Chestnut Hill is transforming into Diagon Alley for an epic Harry Potter Weekend, October 14-16. The event coincides with the free, open-to-the-public 2nd Annual Philadelphia Brotherly Love Quidditch Cup....
Harry Potter fans embrace Quidditch
(Luther College Chips, October 6, 2011)
Harry Potter fever hit Luther College this past week as students participated in the inaugural game of Quidditch on Farwell Clearing. Director of Rec Sports Vicky Jaeger helped set up the event....
Syracuse Quidditch
(Kickstarter, October 7, 2011)
Here at Syracuse University, alongside our sister college, the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF), students who seek a non-traditional escape from the college routine join together at the Women's Building Field each Sunday for Quidditch...
Weekend events: Quidditch tourney, benefit for state fair stage collapse victim
(INDYSTAR.COM, October 6, 2011)
Get out and enjoy the weekend at some of these events set Friday through Sunday in the Indianapolis area. Saturday and Sunday: 2011 Quidditch Midwest Cup - Fishers: More than 300 college athletes seek to best each other in two days of real-life Quidditch. Ball State and Purdue host 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. October 8, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. October 9...
Virginia Tech takes the Turtle Cup
(By Logan Anbinder of the IQA, October 4, 2011)
A come from behind snitch grab allowed Virgina Tech to edge the University of Maryland in the finals of this past weekend's Turtle Cup, hosted by UMD on their campus in the city of College Park. ...
Loyola has a Quidditch team
(The Gambit, October 4, 2011)
College is all about hangin' out in the quad and engaging in made-up sports ("hacky-sack," "Ultimate Frisbee"). Now, Loyola University is home to everyone's favorite made-up sport: Quidditch. For those of you who aren't knowledgeable about 'Harry Potter' culture, ...
IQA launches second book drive
(By Aimee Howarth of the IQA, October 4, 2011)
After collecting more than 9,000 books for donation to Project Literacy last year, the IQA is thrilled to announce the start of the Association's second annual national book drive event! ...
2011 Brotherly Love Cup Promotional Video
(Saturday October 15, 2011 at Chestnut Hill College)
The Quidditch demo that took place this past weekend at the 2011 Fort Tryon Medieval Festival was a tremendous success as hundreds of people showed up for the event and witnessed an incredible display of Muggle Quidditch. Thanks to Jonathan Rosenthal of the NY Badassilisks, we have a great selection of photos available at the above link....
Emerson Quidditch raffles off a date with Commissioner Alex Benepe
(By Allison Guillette of the IQA, October 3, 2011)
Alex Benepe, CEO, Commissioner, and President of the IQA, will be raffled off in order to raise money for the Vermont Irene Flood Relief. The event is being sponsored by Emerson College Quidditch, although the raffle will be open to all of IQA. ...
Fun games unite Ottawa teams
(By Andrea Hill of the IQA, October 3, 2011)
Two Ottawa teams got some playing experience this weekend despite blustery weather. Carleton University and University of Ottawa faced off at Carelton for a series of four fun matches October 1. The first match, played by the schools' competitive teams, went to Carelton with a score of 60-50. It was a nail biter of a game that ended with University of Ottawa snatching the morph-suit clad snitch 30 minutes into play. ...
Water taxi tickets on sale for World Cup
(By Alex Benepe of the IQA, September 29, 2011)
Water taxi tickets are now on sale as one of the primary transportation options to World Cup 2011 this November 12 & 13. The taxi costs $9.00 round trip. It departs from 90th street and the East River in Manhattan, and arrives at the ferry dock at Randall's Island, which is immediately adjacent to the World Cup site. ...
Story Idea: Quidditch Fast Becoming One of College's Hottest Sports
(College Media Matters, October 01, 2011)
The Daily Kansan described the sports match-up in three words, each getting their own sentence: "Rivalry. Competition. Broomsticks." The article by Kansas University student Hannah Wise previewed a recent "Border Showdown" between KU and the University of Missouri. As the last word of Wise's opening description hints, the sport is not one most people associate with intercollegiate athletics. ...
IQA to play at NYC Medieval Festival
(By Kristina Moy of the IQA, September 28, 2011)
Looking for something fun to do this weekend? Why not take a Time-Turner back into the Middle Ages by heading over to the New York City Medieval Festival to see some quidditch! The IQA will be holding a couple of short demo matches at Manhattan's Fort Tryon Park in New York on Sunday, October 2nd. ...
Quidditch casts spell on Loyola
(The Maroon, September 30, 2011)
Quidditch, a Loyola clu, offers members a chance to straddle broomsticks and participate in their favorite sport. Featured in J.K. Rowling's 'Harry Potter' books, the game was adapted as a sport under the name of "Muggle Quidditch" or simply "Quidditch."...
Quidditch team hits the field
(The Good 5 Cent Cigar, September 30, 2011)
A seeker, three chasers, a goalie, two beaters and a huma snitch dressed in gold make up the players on a team during Quidditch matches at universities worldwide, including the University of Rhode Island's Rhody Ridgebacks. Quidditch has begun to make its way around the country, and not in the form of Harry Potter books. Muggles, a word used in the series for people lacking magical abilities, from all over campus....
Is the hottest sport in college...Quidditch?
(USA Today, September 28, 2011)
The Daily Kansan described the sports match-up in three words, each getting their own sentence: "Rivalry. Competition. Broomsticks." The article (which was posted in SnitchCenter news several days ago) by Kansas University student Hannah Wise previewed a recent "Border Showdown" between KU and the University of Missouri.....
Fall Cub, Intramural Sports Start Out Strong
(The Occidental Weekly, September 28, 2011)
Last Saturday marked the first day of fall intramural sports at Occidental. Adding one new sport each, intramural and club sports are expanding rapidly with the incorporation of singles tennis and Quiddditch, respectively. This year, there are 55 teams and over 500 registered participants in club and intramural sports....
Campus plans Baylor welcome
(The Baylor Lariat, September 29, 2011)
Baylor students and visitors on campus should expect to encounter a massive gathering of student organizations and even watch a game of Quidditch at Fall Premiere this weekend. Quidditch, a sport played in the Harry Potter series but modified slightly for "muggles," involves two teams of players running....
NIU students bring fictional pastime of Quidditch to life
(Kane County Chronicle, September 29, 2011)
Tamara Carlson admits it's kind of nerdy. However, that doesn't stop her from getting together with a group of Northern Illinois University students each week to play Quidditch - a sports game lifted from the pages of the Harry Potter book series....
10 Reasons Why You Should Come to the Quidditch World Cup
(The Huffington Post, September 28, 2011)
Randall's Island: Home to events like Rock the Bells, Electric Zoo, the Dave Matthews Band caravan, and Usain Bolt's 200 meter world record, this is a historic, world-class event venue that is well cared for by the Randall's Island Sports Foundation with great views of the city skyline, miles of water-side bike trails, and best of all? You can take a boat to get there. "First years, this way!"......
The NY Badassilisks have announced their 2012 player lineup
(TGTSNBN news, September 28, 2011)
The NY Badassilisks quidditch team composed of members from TGTSNBN (The Group That Shall Not Be Named) 'Potter' fan group, have just announced their 2012 team lineup. Along with 19 returning members from last year's squad, 12 new members made the cut after a vigorous try-out process held recently. The team still needs to who will be the 21 members to attend the Quidditch World Cup in November, and when that is complete, MuggleNet SnitchCenter will have the update. Additionally, you can check out their new Tumbler account right here. You can check the team out when they attend the NYC Fort Tryon Medieval Festival on Sunday October 2nd.
Quidditch puts Smith under its spell
(The Sophian, September 28, 2011)
Quidditch, the magical game made famous by Harry Potter, has grown into a sports phenomenon only five years after Middlebury student Xander Manshel adapted the sport from J.K. Rowling's novels. Now being played by over 400 teams internationally, Quidditch has embedded itself into the Smith community over the past year......
Statute of Secrecy exposed! Muggles playing Quidditch!
(The Northerner, September 28, 2011)
In the world of witchcraft and wizardry, there is a fast paced, pulse pounding game known as Quidditch. How to play: To score, a player must throw a quaffle through one of the three upright hoops. Players must watch out for bludgers while keeping an eye out for the golden snitch. See, simple. Even 11-year-old boys with glasses could do it. J.K. Rowling crafter Quidditch for her.....
IQA launches survey
(IQA News, September 27, 2011)
Help the IQA measure the impact of quidditch and prove that this sport is more than just a game. The IQA is proud to partner with Teaxas A&M PhD candidate Adam Cohen to study the effects that playing quidditch has on the lives of players everywhere.....
41st Fall Festival to feature lots of fun
(Bethel College, September 27, 2011)
The 41st annual Fall Festival at Bethel College will focus on fun. Fall Festival officially begins with Taste of Newton downtown on Thursday, Oct. 6 - featuring all kinds of food and live entertainment marking the event's 25th year - and runs through Sunday, Oct. 9, with most events Saturday, Oct. 8, on campus. Besides Ultimate Frisbee, this year there will be Quidditch (introduced in the Harry Potter book series). ....
Last call for Canadian Cup
(IQA News, September 27, 2011)
Registration for the Canadian Cup on Friday, September 30. The first-ever Canadian quidditch tournament is being played Saturday, October 29 in Ottawa, Ontario. For many teams, it will be the last opportunity....
Chestnut Hill to host 13 teams
The IQA is requesting that players, captains, and fans nominate alumni players for the game, which will be played at the beginning of the finals games in Icahn Stadium on Sunday, November 13. ....
Rochester washes SUNY Cortland
(IQA News, September 26, 2011)
Game highlights include a UR goal shot from half-pitch. Additionally UR Beater Justin Kieber-King actually blocked an incoming Cortland shot with a thrown bludger. Snitch Adam Ginsberg also stored containers of water on the pitch to dunk incoming seekers. ....
IQA recruiting Northeast State Representatives
(IQA News, September 24, 2011)
The IQA is seeking volunteer state representatives for the following states: New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire. State reps are the primary IQA contact for their state. Tasks include ....
IQA Seeks Editorial Volunteers
(IQA News, September 23, 2011)
Website features intern - assign, edit, and post feature stories, including staff profile pieces. Brainstorm ideas for other features (such as weekly team or player profiles)....
All the World's a Quidditch Match
(SwampscottPatch, September 24, 2011)
The quidditch game got curiouser and curiouser. In the end the rain won. But the first 80-100 players and spectators weathered much of the wet weather on Friday at Swampscott High's first quidditch match. ....
SMC Quidditch Club sorts teams for season
(The Observer, September 23, 2011)
Saint Mary's students may have been assigned a dorm when they first arrived at the College, but some receieved a new home last weekend when members of the Saint Mary's Quidditch Club were sorted into their respective houses....
10 Reasons Why You Should Come to the Quidditch World Cup
(Huffington New York, September 23, 2011)
Randall's Island - Home to events like Rock the Bells, Electric Zoo, the Dave Matthews Band caravan, and Usain Bolt's 200m world record, this is a historic, world-class event venue that is well cared for by the Randall's Island Sports Foundation, with great views of the city skyline, miles of water-side bike trails, and best of all? You can take a boat to get there. "First Years, this way!"...
You Can Now Bet On the Quidditch World Cup
(The Village Voice, September 22, 2011)
You heard it here first, gamblers: it's coming time to place your bets on who will win the Quidditch World Cup. Yes, the Quidditch World Cup is real, don't you remember? It's coming to New York in November. And now an online betting site has set odds for six of the teams competing in tournament...
Hit it and Quidditch
(The University of Texas-Pan American: The Pan-American online, September 22, 2011)
The valley could be poised for a shortage of brooms, dodge balls, and lightening bolt-shaped temporary tattoos if the University newest club has its way, The MuggleQuidditch League at UTPA will have its first meeting today in the Student Union's Sage Room...
NCSU Wolfpack vs. UNC Old Well Wizards
(IQA News, September 21, 2011)
The North Carolina State University Wolfpack quidditch team will be playing against the University of North Carolina Old Well Wizards this Saturday, September 24th, at 2pm. This is the third time that the two NC teams have met on the pitch, and three games will be played...
The Fins are coming
(IQA News, September 21, 2011)
This November the World Cup will host the first intercontinental team in history - the University of Vaasa Centaurs from Vaasa, Finland. While it may be the first time that a team from across the Atlantic will attend the World Cup, these will not be the first US games for the Finnish squad. Captain Beto Guzman led his team...
Reduced price championship tickets available for players
(IQA News, September 21, 2011)
With space for a performance stage area, vendors, and nine quidditch fields, the Harlem River Event site on Randall's Island will hold up to 33,000 people over the two days of World Cup competition...
Harry Potter fans Unite for Bread
This weekend, clash of the titans gets redefined when the 4th ranked team, Texas A&M, will compete against the 3rd ranked team, Louisiana State University....
Click here for all of the World Rankings by the IQA
Yes, friends, September brings with it both the new school year and Quidditch season. J.K. Rowling's fantastical sport of witches and wizards has been adopted by college and community teams the world over, and is gaining traction despite its fantastical leanings...
Quidditch - Not just for Hogwarts anymore
(SMU The Daily Campus, September 20, 2011)
Calling all muggles, witches and wizards! A new club sport will be present on SMU's campus this spring that is bound to excite all Harry Potter fanatics. ...
IQA Quidditch Handbook 5 on sale now
(IQA Preview, September 21, 2011)
The IQA is proud to announce the fifth release of the official IQA Handbook, available as a 9 X 7 paperback or PDF download. At a hefty 173 pages, the paperback edition is the most effective way to learn everything there is to know about Quidditch....
You can now add some quidditch to your Halloween weekend. the Briarcliff Nearly Headless Nicolas Cages are hosting a high school quidditch tournament in Briarcliff Manor, NY on aturday October 29....
(Creative Campus - University of Alabama, September 20, 2011)
Magical planning sessions have begun! Mark your calendars for November 10 & 13 for a HUGE Quidditch tournament. We're looking at an NCAA sized bracket for tournament play that will include as many UA students...
Kansas quidditch trounces Tigers
(The University Daily Kansan, September 19, 2011)
Kansas Quidditch made quick work of the Missouri Tigers, winning the Border Showdown match 2-1 with scores of 110-40, 80-40 and 60-90. Kansas' speed and endurance was a major factor in both wins. ...
Does the thought of zipping around a Quidditch field, avoiding Bludgers and tossing Quaffles, make you salivate? Well, clean yourself up. It's time to join the big leagues. Quidditch has made its way to Columbia's campus. ...
Harry Potter Weekend in Chestnut Hill
(Destination -> Chestnut Hill, September 16, 2011)
Wizards Fly into the Hill at Harry Potter Weekend
Whether or not you have ever read Harry Potter book, you won't want to miss the Chestnut Hill Harry Potter Weekend/Philadelphia Brotherly Love Cup Quidditch Tournament October 14th - 16th. ...
Quidditch border showdown this weekend
(The University Daily Kansan, September 15, 2011)
Rivalry. Competition. Broomsticks. The Kansas quidditch team is preparing to face off in its Border Showdown against Missouri this Sunday at 3 p.m. This is the team's first match-up of the season. The match makes the start of the second season for Kansas Quidditch. ...
Quidditch sweeps through campuses
(The Tufts Daily, September 15, 2011)
You don't have to be Harry Potter to play the magical wizarding game of Quidditch. Although you may not be able to zoom through the air on a broomstick, the earthbound version - Muggle Quidditch - still has the perks...
Quidditch Tournament Coming to Conner Prairie
(The Tufts Daily, September 14, 2011)
When the first Harry Potter movie was still in production, I couldn't wait to see how they would depict the game of Quidditch. Now I have the chance to see the game played...
This is your invitation
(The Tufts Daily, September 14, 2011)
When people think about Tufts University, they may consider our recent rankings in U.S. News & World Report (#28) or Forbes (#34) for top national colleges. They may recall...
Quidditch team seeking club status
(The Eyeopener, September 13, 2011)
A year after it was created, Ryerson's Quidditch team is looking to become an official campus club. Alan Hudes reports The Harry Potter franchise can ..
Papillion Students Start Quidditch League - Video
One group on the Kalamazoo campus is called the Childish Games Commission, whose members engage in scavenger hunts, zombie tag and a Quidditch tournament ...
Quidditch team takes flight
(The Shield, September 12, 2011)
The first official meeting of the USI's new Quidditch team took place Sunday night. About three dozen potential members received information about joining ...
October 1998 - Warner Brother secures the rights to the first two Potter books and begins working on production for the first film, Philosopher's/Sorcerer's Stone. J.K. Rowling was quoted as saying, "I think Warner Bros will do a good job and be true to the character. Other chil
Ah, well, people can be a bit stupid abou' their pets.
Hagrid Goblet of Fire
So many fans visit King's Cross station to take pictures of platforms 9 and 10 that the station management erected a sign that says 'Platform 9 3/4 which, in the Potter books, is invisible to Muggles but acts as a gateway for witches and wizards.
Int'l Harry Potter Day - 15th Anniversary of Battle of Hogwarts
May 2nd, 2013 Victoire Weasley B-day
May 2nd, 2013 MISTI-Con Convention
May 9-13, 2013 Pomona Sprout B-day
May 15th, 2013
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