Quidditch Is Back in the United States

This year, many Muggle quidditch tournaments were canceled or postponed, and many teams couldn’t have practices. Now, quidditch is slowly starting again, and the song from Qeurovision “Everybody (Quidditch Is Back)” is finally happening.

US Quidditch (USQ) announced a program and policies for the 2020–21 season on July 29. USQ staff talked about it in a livestream on July 30. USQ will organize three regional championships in the fall and three other regional tournaments in the spring. The places and times of both were already announced:

• The Northeast Regional Championship will be held in Warwick, Rhode Island, on October 31–November 1.
• The Great Lakes Regional Championship will be held in Bloomington, Indiana, on November 7–8. 
• The Mid-Atlantic Regional Championship will be held in Goldsboro, North Carolina, on November 14–15.
• The South Regional Championship will be held in Columbia, South Carolina, on February 13–14.
• The Southwest Regional Championship will be held in Round Rock, Texas, on February 20–21.
• The West Regional Championship will be held in Livermore, California, on February 27–28.

All events will be open to teams from all regions but not open to spectators. Every championship has to have at least five teams for the collegiate division and at least four teams for the club division. There is also no obligation for teams to participate.

After regional championships, USQ Cup 14 will be in Salt Lake City, Utah, on April 17–18. The last USQ Cups were bid-based tournaments, but USQ Cup 14 will be an open invitational. There will be one division for clubs and two divisions for collegiate.

USQ and Major League Quidditch (MLQ) worked together on the return to play guidelines. Every player, coach, staff member, or volunteer has to follow these guidelines. Guidelines are divided into stages. Every member team will remain in Stage 1, at least until September 4. Then, USQ will announce if there will be a Stage 2 or if everyone will remain in stage 1.

Practices must be held outside and limited to a maximum of 10 people, with no contact permitted between them.

No one can share personal items, and everybody has to wear a face mask.

In Stage 1, all practices have to be outside with no more than 10 people. Every drill or every game has to be noncontact, and every player has to wear a face mask. The guidelines are very strict about this. If someone does not follow the guidelines, there will be consequences – including the possibility of being banned from USQ Cup 14.