Quidditch: Everywhere

      

Quidditch

The only fantasy sport that will make you sweat

This blog focuses on real sports in real countries. Despite the origin of this game being based on the best-selling "Harry Potter" series by J.K Rowling, the sport of quidditch has come to life. 

International Quidditch Association

IQA logo

The mission statement of the International Quidditch Association is as follows: 

The International Quidditch Association, Inc, is a magical nonprofit dedicated to promoting the sport of Quidditch and inspiring young people to lead physically active and socially engaged lives (IQA).

The program, which has been around since 2005, governs the magical sport across 12 countries with over 300 teams at the high school, college and recreational level. The three components the game strives to teach are creativity, community and competition. This whole concept started by a group of dedicated J.K Rowling fans at Middlebury College (IQA).


Regular season tournaments are held as teams work their way to play in the Quidditch World Cup in New York City. This year's events will be held on November 11-13 (IQA).


Umm..we are muggles
For those of you who are familiar with quidditch (which I assume everyone is because you would have to live in a black hole to have never read or watched the Harry Potter series) know that one main component is missing....magic. Clearly humans cannot fly on magical brooms and no ball has wings. Therefore, the game has undergone several modifications to make it compatible with gravity.

The most obvious rule change is flying on brooms. Players run with brooms in the Muggle-version of the game. All of the positions, goal posts and scoring remain the same as described in the book. Volleyballs and dodgeballs are used in place of the quaffle and the buldger in terms of balls. However, the elusive snitch was rather a challenge to replace. At first, flying toy helicopters were used. But now the official rules (which are available for purchase by the International Quidditch Association) deem an actual person as the snitch. The snitch, who has a flag similar to flag football in their shorts, may hide anywhere they please on campus. It is the job of the seekers to find the snitch and steal their flag to end the game (IQA).


This video clip explaining the muggle version of the game is from a CBS News broadcast.

Rankings

This link will give you a list of colleges in the United States who are active members of the International Quidditch Association.


Our very own University of Texas is ranked as the 35th team in the country with a .500 record of 3-3. Point me in the direction for that tailgate!

Quidditch in the News
It is amazing to see so many prestigious journals have sent their reporters to write about a fairy tale game. The International Quidditch Association has graced the pages of the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Boston Herald, The Washington Post, Time Magazine, The LA Times, Chicago Tribune and ESPN.com. Respected news stations such as CBS, CNN and ABC Good Morning America have captured the sport in their broadcast (IQA). 


Below is a commercial shot for MTV that exposes the sport of muggle Quidditch in a movie advertisment for "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince".

How much do you love Quidditch?

References

International Quidditch Association. (http://www.internationalquidditch.org/).