US Quidditch Rulebook 9 Release

The ninth edition of Quidditch rules was released Monday night with some minor and major changes to how Quidditch will play beginning next season. The rule book again improves upon US Quidditch core values and especially provides provisions with player safety in mind.

The majority of changes within the upgraded rule book are centered around clarity, where considerable changes to the wording and structures of rules should address issues of misunderstanding. A changelog is provided at the end of the book to notify all major changes in regulations, rule structure, new rules, and referee discretions.

An additional four pages have been added to Rule 6.3 Physical Contact to clarify and dissuade dangerous play. Helpless receivers have been granted a wave of new protection guidelines against pushing or wrapping contact. Lowering the shoulder or leading with an elbow into a charge, as well as moving picks, have been ruled against. Low hits are also out since exerting force at or below the knees is now considered illegal.

The Technical Foul Rule 1.4.2 has been renamed for the Blue Card it represents, which now incurs a one-minute penalty. The offenses will not stack into further punishments such as Yellow or Red Cards, though.

In Rule 3.3.6 measures have been taken to speed up offensive moves. To encourage as much quaffle play as possible before the seeker floor, it is now considered a blue card with penalty to deliberately delay the game after warning. Resetting the Quaffle into a team/s own half after crossing halfway, without attempting to pass to an eligible receiver or shooting at goal from behind the hoops, is also a turnover.

An odd formatting for Rulebook 9 is not updating the Contents page, which is copied straight from Rulebook 8, even with many of the pages changing because of the new additions.

Which rule change do you think has the greatest impact?