2021 MLQ Championship Spectator Guide

This spectator's guide originally appeared on the Major League Quidditch website on August 19, 2021. I thank my coworkers who edited the piece and provided statistics.

Friday, August 20
As the day before the 2021 MLQ Championship finally arrives after a long countdown, you’ll want to finalize your checklist for the tournament. The weather in the Mid-Atlantic region is usually hot and humid in August, so plan to wear a light, breathable fabric (like your favorite quidditch jersey). Other must-haves include: some spending money to purchase MLQ merch as well as food and drinks at the event, sunscreen, sunglasses (even if there are clouds in the forecast), and an umbrella, which is useful both as a portable shade structure on the sunny bleachers and in case of a surprise afternoon shower. 

Finally, do not forget to bring a mask or two! MLQ is taking the rise in Delta variant cases very seriously. Howard County, Maryland recently reinstated its indoor mask mandate in county buildings such as the on-site bathrooms at Troy Park, and MLQ is additionally requiring all players, staff and spectators to mask up in outdoor areas where individuals may congregate like vendor tents and spectator areas. We appreciate your understanding as we do our part to keep our communities safe, especially ahead of the start of the school year! Once you have completed your checklist, load everything into a backpack or drawstring bag, which are permitted and even encouraged at the event, and get a good night’s sleep! 

Saturday, August 21
The action starts early on Saturday morning with two pivotal matchups in the play-in bracket. A double elimination tournament with two spots in the Benepe Cup quarterfinals up for grabs, the play-in bracket promises lots of one-off intense games between teams from different parts of the country. Though the games later in the morning are to-be-determined by results, the first matchups of the day at 8:30 a.m. are preset by regular season seedings.

On Pitch One, the League City Legends from outside of Houston, Texas take on the Cleveland Riff, who are making their first appearance at the MLQ Championship since 2016. The Legends hail from the smallest city represented in the league, yet they have proven that they belong on the field while receiving strong support from their community, almost like the Green Bay Packers of the gridiron. They have the ageless wonder, chaser Kody Marshall (No. 1), who helped to revolutionize the sport with his physicality during his days for the first national champion University of Texas squad. They also have a history of springing dramatic upsets, including past triumphs over franchises from Los Angeles and New York and a strategic masterclass over their rival San Antonio earlier this season. While League City is the clear favorite against Cleveland, the Riff and their young beaters will look to give the Legends a taste of their own medicine in the first time slot of the day. 

At the very same time on Pitch Two, the Charlotte Aviators square off against the Detroit Innovators. Charlotte is the first-ever trial expansion team in MLQ, meaning that the Aviators were invited to join the league for a single test season and hope to become a full member franchise next year. They temporarily replaced the Ottawa Black Bears in the East Division, one of two Canadian teams who did not compete this season because of the suspension of cross-border play due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Seizing their opportunity to showcase the emerging talent of their region, the Aviators have already surpassed expectations by qualifying for the 2021 MLQ Championship. In their debut at the marquee event against Detroit, watch for Aviators seeker Ryan Davis (No. 30), who leads the league with six snitch catches. Davis will duel with Innovators seeker Leo Fried (No. 3), who is tied for third on the season with four pulls and also leads the league in takeaways as a chaser with 29.

Two more can’t-miss teams debut in the next time slot at 9:45 a.m. after earning first-round byes in the play-in bracket through their regular season performance: the hometown Washington Admirals and the Kansas City Stampede. With a pass-first offense and an irresistible team spirit, the Admirals are an easy team to root for if you are a local. Look for chaser Julia Baer (No. 53) to make an impact on both sides of the ball. Baer is a University of Richmond alum and Team USA player who won two league titles with the Boston Forge before moving back to the Mid-Atlantic region. She brings a championship pedigree to the team that is heavily favored to advance out of the play-in bracket. For the Kansas City Stampede, one of the youngest teams in the league, the story is all about rising star chaser Darian Murcek-Ellis (No. 2), who introduced himself to a national audience with 17 goals in his first three games of the year.

After you have seen every team in the play-in bracket — and snapped a picture of their beautiful jerseys designed by Nick Leimbach and VII Apparel for your kaleidoscopic post-tournament photo collage — head over to the merchandise tent to browse the collection for yourself. What is your favorite jersey in the league? What color schemes do you like the best? What do you notice about the logos? (Hint: Quidditch is a mixed-gender sport and the branding of our franchises strives to reflect that!) For an even larger display of quidditch paraphernalia, visit the MLQ jersey exchange. If you have an old jersey on hand and you are interested in participating in one of the most unique traditions in the sport, drop off your former kit on Saturday morning and return on Saturday evening or Sunday morning to acquire a new one for free. 

As the play-in bracket wraps up in the late morning and early afternoon, catch bits and pieces of a few more games before heading to the food trucks for lunch. On Saturday, you can check out Althea’s Almost Famous Jamaican catering and pick up a snow cone in the afternoon from Happy Hippo. On Sunday, you can get Smoke Stack’s House of BBQ and return for yet another snow cone! Find your way back to the fields before the high-stakes final play-in game at 2:30 p.m. with a spot in the quarterfinals on the line. Strike up a conversation on the sidelines if there is a rule you are trying to understand or a team you want to know more about. 

Wherever the tournament takes you, 3:30 p.m. marks the start of the championship bracket for the coveted Benepe Cup — named after real-life quidditch founder Alex Benepe. With the potential for upsets and thrilling back-and-forth swings between closely contested teams, the quarterfinals are arguably the most exciting round of the tournament. Four different best-of-three series will unfold in alternating timeslots for the rest of the afternoon, with unexpected twists and turns almost guaranteed. 

The reigning champion and most storied team in the league, the Boston Forge, kick off the action on Pitch Two against the North Division champion Minneapolis Monarchs, who got to choose their opponent in the first round and made the gutsiest pick possible. The Monarchs, an expansion franchise in 2019, opted to challenge the team with three titles to their name and one of the most impactful beaters in the sport in Max Havlin (No. 14). While Boston dropped series to New York and Washington in the regular season and finished second in the East Division unlike past years, Minneapolis showed immense trust in their deep beating corps, especially starting beater Sean Pagoada (No. 6), in deciding to face the Benepe Cup holders. 

Simultaneously on Pitch One, the San Antonio Soldados meet the Indianapolis Intensity in a rematch of the most riveting series from the 2019 MLQ Championship. Indianapolis entered the series as the four-time North Division champion and the higher seed, but San Antonio scored a memorable upset with their lightning-quick fastbreak offense and tricky zone defense. Now, the Soldados begin the weekend as the favorite and the Intensity will have to surprise the doubters. Keep your eyes on beaters like Kylie McBride (No. 93) for San Antonio and Tim Kwan (No. 8) for Indianapolis, who won the last two college national titles with the University of Texas and the University of Rochester respectively.

Finally, at 4:30 p.m., you will get your first look at the co-favorites for the 2021 Benepe Cup title: the East Division champion New York Titans and the South Division victor Austin Outlaws. The Titans technically enter as the number one overall seed because of a higher strength of schedule, but New York is coming off its first-ever division title, never having dispatched the archrival Boston Forge in a three-game series before this season. They are relatively new arrivals to true title contention. A big part of their breakthrough this year has been chaser J.C. Arencibia (No. 88) and his ability to drive through tackles and rip shots from distance. 

Indeed, with two previous league trophies in 2017 and 2018, the Outlaws are expected by many quidditch players to return to the top in 2021. They have the most decorated individual athlete in quidditch, keeper Augustine Monroe (No. 10), who leads the team on offense with 29 goals and 20 assists. But Austin prides itself on the defensive side of the ball. In addition to her 20 goals, chaser Kaci Erwin (No. 2) in particular is one of the most feared tacklers in the game, a headliner to a roster that is filled with Team USA veterans and standout performers. After falling in the finals of the most recent MLQ Championship to the Boston Forge, the Outlaws will attempt to once again prove the old maxim that defense wins championships.

With a long day behind you, head to the Mutiny Pirate Bar and Island Grille for dinner, where you can cool off and keep watching the tournament on television! Located conveniently at the entrance to Troy Park, Mutiny Pirate Bar is showing the games from the nearby fields all weekend, so you won’t miss a moment. You can enjoy a meal and a drink while seeing live quidditch with onscreen scoreboards, trained commentary, referee microphones and postgame interviews. You won’t want to leave your seat! By tuning into the livestream, you will also join a worldwide community of quidditch players in almost 40 countries, including the United Kingdom, Australia, and Brazil, that is following the tournament online.

Sunday, August 22
For the most part, you know what you are doing by now and what you enjoy the most, whether it is spectating specific teams in-person, browsing around the merchandise tent or watching the livestream at Mutiny Pirate Bar. You will want to know a couple of important times, location changes and special events for day two of the tournament though. First, the opening best-of-three semifinals series begins at 9 a.m. on Pitch One, which will shift slightly within the beautiful Troy Park complex to a larger field. The second best-of-three semifinals series starts at 10 a.m. in the same place, as the two matchups will trade off every hour on the featured field until the finalists are determined. The semifinals are sure to produce emotional performances and highlight-reel plays as teams attempt to write their place in history.

Meanwhile, over on Pitch Two, MLQ will host its inaugural Next Gen Showcase, a chance for practice squad players to compete against each other. Though MLQ is the highest level of quidditch in North America, the league is dedicated to developing the talents of tomorrow and strengthening the sport at the grassroots level. Expect to see the tables turned as older, more experienced players in the stands root for younger, less experienced players on the field.

Last but not least before the finals, don’t miss the closing ceremonies at 3 p.m. on Pitch One, where the co-commissioners Amanda Dallas and Ethan Sturm will announce the divisional MVP awards sponsored by the Under Armour Brand House in Columbia, Maryland and the volunteer and manager of the season awards. A short break will follow as the two remaining teams start their warm-ups. What do you notice about the team drills they run or the pregame routines of your favorite players to watch? 

As you will soon find out, the Benepe Cup finals are a unique experience because the players will hear their names announced before the games with walk-up music and more. It is the closest real-life quidditch players come to the hype that athletes in professional sports stadiums feel before a game. Cheer loudly and settle in with the crowd for a best-of-three series that will determine the next champion. Remember, only two teams have ever hoisted the Benepe Cup: the Boston Forge and the Austin Outlaws. And since those esteemed programs were slotted into the same side of the bracket, at least one franchise will get the chance to compete for its first title. Stick around for the trophy presentation at the conclusion of the final match.

Monday, August 23
But wait, there’s more! MLQ will host the hugely anticipated Take Back the Pitch tournament on Monday. A showcase for athletes who are not cis men, Take Back the Pitch will challenge your understanding of gender in quidditch and create an opportunity for some of the best cis and trans women, non-binary folk and trans men in the sport to compete on the field together. With the first games beginning at 9 a.m., the event will feature four teams drafted in advance by general managers selected from a pool of applicants. In the morning, the games will take place simultaneously on two pitches, just like the days before, in a round robin format.

For the Kyoshi Warriors, the team drafted by New York Titans manager Mitch Usis that is named for the order of female warriors in the Avatar: The Last Airbender series, watch out for chaser Emma Vazquez. Vazquez will have played a key role for the revamped Detroit Innovators offense if they defeat the Charlotte Aviators and make a run through the play-in bracket. Ocean’s 17, a reference to the Ocean’s 8 heist comedy film, will feature the talents of local Washington Admirals and Team USA keeper Rachel Heald. A veteran ballhandler at the top of the key, Heald leads all women in the league with 10 assists.

The final two teams, Team Ruth Bader Winsburg and The Red Guardians, were both drafted by women who serve in coaching positions for their franchises. Mel Kite is an assistant coach for the San Antonio Soldados and Jeannette High is the head coach for the Detroit Innovators. They will look to bring their coaching expertise to game plan for their opponents and put their players in the best position to succeed. Look for the advantage that they provide in the placement games: the third-place playoff at 1 p.m. and the championship match at 2 p.m.

Jack McGovern is the Press Coordinator for Major League Quidditch.

Dev Cup 2020 and the Story of a Weekend with OUQC

It's hard for me to believe it's been ten days now since I left the United Kingdom. So much has changed for so many people in the past month, but only a week before that, it's crazy to think that I was heading to Manchester in a minibus with my Oxford Universities Quidditch Club (OUQC) teammates for Development Cup 2020 (Dev Cup). As we all do our part to "flatten the curve" of the COVID-19 pandemic by staying home, I want to bring you back to that time and place. I want to tell the story of that weekend and offer a few takeaways for quidditch on both sides of the Atlantic.

Photos by Fraser Somers and Xena Felton.

OUQC had fallen short of qualification for British Quidditch Cup (BQC) at regionals. I wrote a first-hand account of that for my school paper in November, but despite dropping all three of our pool play games and slotting into the loser's bracket, we improved as a team throughout the tournament and ended the weekend with two feel-good wins. We immediately set our sights on Dev Cup, believing that if we worked hard, we could continue to improve, use the tournament as a learning experience and even challenge for a trophy in the process.

A tournament for teams that failed to qualify for BQC at regionals but still wished to play their way into the national championship, Dev Cup presented a lifeline for us. We refused to let go of our grand ambitions for BQC and instead extended our training sessions when we returned from winter break. We had something to work towards and an opportunity in the near future to test ourselves against our level of competition. As the days lengthened and the weather warmed, we had some of our best trainings of the year, including joint scrimmages on Sundays with the local Oxford Mammoths community team.

During those practices, I could not help but think that under the old bid allocation rules of US Quidditch (USQ), our season would have been over. Even under the new rules, with at-large bids available, our future would have been uncertain at best. While the opportunity to advance to nationals by meeting expanded season play requirements is absolutely a step in the right direction, it is by no means enough. More than anything, teams need to specifically play other teams at their level of competition.

Of course, a developmental tournament for lower-level teams contested only weeks before the season-ending national championship is much easier logistically in a country half the size of California. We had a short three-hour drive to Manchester to play teams from across England, Wales and Scotland that many American teams would kill for. But USQ should still take a more active role in organizing regional or super-regional events for teams that are seeking an at-large bid and trying to meet expanded play requirements. By comparison, the resources in time, energy and money that Quidditch UK (QUK) devoted to Dev Cup were exemplary.

Photos by Fraser Somers and Xena Felton.

First, by their direct planning and organizing of the tournament, QUK ensured an event that all teams could count on. I believe our executive committee booked our accommodations months ahead of time for a cheap rate. They could trust that the tournament would not get cancelled or moved to a different weekend once the dates were announced.

Second, players, even inexperienced players, could walk away from the weekend feeling valued by their national governing body. The facility was the same used by the top teams in the country only weeks earlier for the high-level European Qualifying Tournament. The pitches were 3G artificial turf, there was an indoor common area and there were four private changing rooms for the teams.

Beyond the space, the community turned out to make the weekend possible. If they didn't already have one, each team was assigned a non-playing coach from a more experienced team. In between matches, the Team UK head coach offered his services for additional strategy and skills workshops. Games were livestreamed on Facebook with commentary. Photo albums from hired photographers were posted the next day. There were full-time non-playing referees and pitch managers. Other members of more experienced teams, including several members of the Mammoths, made the journey simply as spectators to support their various affiliated squads.

The all-hands-on-deck approach reminded me of what I have seen from afar about the Massachusetts Quidditch Conference (MQC) this year. Since the split of college and community teams in the US, long-time players have rallied around university teams in the greater Massachusetts area. Many have coached teams for several semesters now, but their efforts culminated this season in a conference that organized 12 high-quality round robin events and produced the most professional media content that I have ever seen in quidditch.

Photos by Fraser Somers and Xena Felton.

If you haven't already, check out the MQC Facebook page to see for yourself. Matches were livestreamed and recorded with commentary. Statistics were diligently taken, compiled and published. All-star and all-rookie teams were named after the fall semester. Games and players were hyped on social media with slick graphics.

While we are all staying home instead of playing quidditch for now, the people behind the MQC are offering their time to hold informational meetings about how to run a quidditch conference over the next few weeks. As USQ reflects on a series of drop-outs from what would have been its national championship and QUK works to reevaluate their season structure and move towards a league-based system with a split between university and community teams, I would encourage that national and local leaders everywhere sign up to hear about the experiences of the MQC. I am signing up for one myself because even if I cannot start a team at my college, I want to get involved next year.

So USQ should explore its options for hosting a Dev Cup or more likely sponsoring a series of super-regional Dev Cups around the country. And everyone, but particularly QUK because it has intentions to move towards a league-based system, should learn from the MQC. As always, the goal is to provide more opportunities everywhere for balanced and regular competition at different levels.

Alright, back to the story of a truly unforgettable weekend that I believe I promised.

I was the last person to successfully locate the minibus in the parking lots around the Radcliffe Science Center on a sunny Friday afternoon in Oxford. I was predictably late already and after struggling several times to close the sliding door, I took quite a ribbing from my teammates. But we were off! Music played, snacks circulated and three hours later, we arrived at a roadside Travelodge on the outskirts of Manchester, where I impersonated one of my teammates who had not yet arrived at the front desk.

Photos by Fraser Somers and Xena Felton.

After we had a laugh about that, we shuffled down the hallway from room to room and eventually gathered in one to hear the story of our coach, who stopped at three Travelodges before finding the right one and misplaced his passport in the process at BQC the previous season. We headed to bed early, knowing that we planned to leave the next morning at quarter after six. I boldly set my alarm for six on the dot and somehow managed to put on layers, make a sandwich, pack my things (without forgetting my mouthguard or my headband!) and get out the door on time.

We arrived to a parking lot just beginning to buzz with activity and helped unload a van of equipment from the tournament committee. As I carried hoops onto the empty pitch and looked towards the Manchester skyline in the distance, I stopped for a second to smile. There is really no better feeling than the morning of a quidditch tournament, when a quiet field is slowly transforming into a lively event before your eyes.

I didn't have much time to stand around though, as our first match against Sheffield was scheduled for 8 am. We went through an extended warm-up as a team and separated into lines to run a half-court drill. Our non-playing coach, a veteran of the sport who now competes with and coaches for the Mammoths, later confessed to worrying about her task at that moment, when we mostly dawdled through the drill and sent lazy passes behind each other's arms.

We then practiced quickly sorting ourselves into our pre- and post-snitch on pitch rotations and selected a starting lineup. I would start at keeper (as my rotation partner and our most experienced player preferred coming on later) alongside another American exchange student who started playing only weeks before and a chaser who hadn't trained in over a year because of injury. As we took our positions on the keeper zone line for brooms up, I told my fellow Yank, a speedy former runner, to slap the quaffle back to me if he got there first.

Photos by Fraser Somers and Xena Felton.

When the "b" of "brooms up" sounded, he heeded my advice all too well and slapped the quaffle back with so much force that the ball ricocheted off my shin, into an opposing chaser and back into my arms. Our sideline erupted in laughter and at that point, I relaxed and surveyed the field. While we didn't score on our first possession, we settled into our man-marking chaser defense and let the beaters go to work. As they managed to knock out opposing beaters and chasers alike and put on a highly aggressive press, I roamed as a keeper in a free safety role. I knew that my beaters would eventually force a turnover and I just needed to stay ready.

In the end, we won convincingly, with our beaters dominating control and many of our chasers getting on the scoresheet. The rest of our day mostly proceeded in the same way, but we first badly underestimated our next opponent, Swansea, who brought only nine players. I had played with four of them at a fantasy tournament and so I knew they were individually talented (as well as lovely people!), but even I didn't anticipate how well they would compete together as a team. They challenged us mentally and physically in that second time slot and forced us to raise our game.

After we won two more games in the afternoon to clinch a bye in the bracket, we helped pack up and returned to our motel for showers before walking twenty minutes as a big boisterous group to the nearby Trafford Centre, a sprawling indoor complex that is part shopping mall and part Disney World, for dinner. On our way there, one of our players who is also a varsity gymnast did backflips and sprinted down the up escalator in a highly impressive feat. Another ran ahead Forest Gump-style and then hid in a bush to give the rest of the team a well-deserved scare. When we arrived, we rearranged about a dozen tables into a long line right down the middle of the food court.

Longing for something like a fat and filling Chipotle burrito, I couldn't resist ordering Mexican food from a British chain. The taste surprisingly met my (admittedly low) expectations, but the portion size was decidedly un-American and I think I complained about that to anybody who would listen for the rest of the night. On our way back, we couldn't resist stopping at a Wetherspoon's (where else?) and celebrating a birthday with a few drinks. We had earned a first-round bye after all!

Photos by Fraser Somers and Xena Felton.

It was a fun night — I will remember the big group walks more than anything — but when we woke up, we knew that we had business to take care of. We were on a collision course with the London Unbreakables, a community team that we had played three times already in the fall. We had beaten them twice, but they had reloaded their roster with two transfers: a keeper who had graduated from OUQC the previous spring and stayed in close touch with the team and a beater who wore an American flag arm sleeve and was quickly dubbed Captain America by my teammates. With the transfers, they had entered the tournament as co-favorites and secured the other bye.

We had scouted the Unbreakables on Saturday so we could take our free time on Sunday morning to prepare, both with the Team UK head coach in a hour-long workshop and with our captains and coaches in shorter sessions. Specifically, we knew that they were playing a Baylor defense that maximized the talents of their beaters, especially the aggressive style of Captain America, and that they were setting frequent picks that freed their keepers and chasers for drives and confused opposing defenses. We set to work teaching our teammates how to ready themselves for both and made a couple adjustments to our own defense. Most notably, we decided to add a secondary point defender, a role that was eventually fulfilled by our keepers at the edge of the keeper zone.

Following a rematch against Swansea in the semifinals, we tried to loosen up with music and snacks before the final, which we knew would present a whole different type of challenge. Meanwhile, we tried to reflect on some of the success stories of the weekend. My fellow American study abroad student had battled anxiety on Saturday morning and needed to carry around a bright yellow bucket for a period, but had gained confidence and grown into an unstoppable force on brooms up, often scoring the first couple goals of the game.

Photos by Fraser Somers and Xena Felton.

Our newly-trained seeker had caught his first snitch in our semifinal after working tirelessly and tearing up his knees on the 3G on Saturday. Even after his triumph, he continued to practice on the side with an experienced snitch who volunteered their time to help out between games. Our beaters had held bludger control for almost the entire tournament, usually starting the offense themselves with a timely beat. Many of our chasers had scored their first goals on solo runs after collecting a loose ball. All players were communicating with each other on defense as second nature.

In short, I was already satisfied with our performance. I wanted to win, but I was prepared to lose, especially after we learned that we would be attacking into a blinding sunset that hovered directly over the opposing hoops. We would need to pass around the back of the hoops to break down the Baylor defense, but any passing would prove difficult under the conditions. My fears were realized during my first shift, when I failed to connect with our social chair behind the hoops on three consecutive half-court offenses. Our defense remained strong, but I subbed out and desperately hoped that my rotation partner could bring a different style on offense.

He did. Waiting patiently to allow our beaters to create a no-bludgers situation before driving through traffic, he got on the scoresheet and calmed our nerves with his experienced and relentless ball-carrying. We fought to stay in range for the rest of the seeker floor and entered the snitch game hoping that our beaters, including a group of recently-converted chasers trained specifically for bubbling, could hold off Captain America, who also took shifts as a seeker.

Photos by Fraser Somers and Xena Felton.

While I was mostly distracted from the beater battles, we tried something new for snitch on pitch in the chaser game. Our two most experienced ball-carriers, one of whom had been heroically beating all weekend to make the rotations work during the seeker floor, took the pitch together. They had just scored to stay out of overtime range and pull within 20 points when play was stopped for a potential snitch catch. I turned to see Captain America with the snitchsock in hand.

The refs huddled. There were no opposing beaters in sight. They exchanged a few words and slowly turned their bodies outwards to survey the pitch. My heart sank. They were checking gender. I braced myself to hear the final whistle and accept a second-place finish when a teammate whispered that something was wrong. Suddenly I couldn't see straight and I couldn't count to seven. My heart started to race. The head ref approached the Unbreakables captain for a brief conversation, then stepped away to announce that the catch was no good and brandish a yellow card.

Once again we had a lifeline. I didn't even hear the timeout called, but all of the sudden I was running on the pitch behind my teammates for a huddle. Our captains and coaches told us that momentum had shifted dramatically in our favor. I nodded along and hoped that we could take advantage of our second chance, but remained skeptical. I saw how easy we could lose. We were still teetering on the edge of snitch range and had struggled to score for the better part of 20 minutes.

Photos by Fraser Somers and Xena Felton.

Our two most experienced ball-carriers started the comeback. They scored on the restart thanks to the man advantage and added another goal to tie the game only a minute later. At the same time, our most experienced beater and a converted chaser playing her first minutes at beater of the tournament regained bludger control and sealed off a bubble around the snitch. I then made the risky decision flip my headband from green to white and reenter the game, leaving us with no keeper subs. I knew we would have to strike quickly and push to get out of range before we tired.

My first offense was a sign of good things to come. I raced behind the hoops waving frantically only to find that I was completely unmarked. I retrieved a missed shot and lofted a pass back over the hoops when a couple opposing defenders quickly arrived to meet me. Our keeper gathered my pass and fired a mid-range shot through the small hoop to take the lead. We never looked back from there.

I can't remember how we forced each turnover, but soon enough, I was sprinting down the wing again and again (and again), usually unmarked, and lifting my left arm as I curved behind the hoops each time. I would then receive a long, perfectly-weighted pass from our keeper from the midfield and face a wall of arms from the Baylor defense. I had been telling my teammates the night before that I really preferred off-ball chasing to keeping. They hadn't believed me, but I think I convinced them in the final. Three possessions, three goals.

On defense, our captain, who hurt her hand and decided to stay in the chaser game during snitch on pitch because she could no longer grip a bludger, joined me as a point defender well past the midline in the opposing half. We formed a tag team that harassed the opposing ball-carrier and shuffled from side to side. When our high press was inevitably broken, a beater always made a timely intervention or a chaser stepped in to intercept a key pass.

Photos by Fraser Somers and Xena Felton.

I subbed out after we finally pulled ahead by 40 points. A sense of relief swept over me. We could no longer lose in an instant. We had scored seven unanswered goals, six of them since the disallowed snitch catch. Gasping for air and searching for water, I mentally started to prepare for a 45-minute game, knowing that we could prevail on quaffle points if the snitch proved too difficult to catch.

A minute later, play stopped again. We had surrendered a goal and fallen back into overtime range, but this time our seeker, who had worked so hard throughout the weekend, had the snitchsock in hand. I crouched at the end of the bench, barely able to withstand the tension. When the refs turned their bodies outward from their huddle to check for gender, a smile crept across my face. I exploded upwards and rushed across the pitch when the catch was ruled good, launching myself into a group hug that quickly toppled over into a pile. In a way that could only happen in quidditch, we had truly snatched victory from the jaws of defeat.

A medal ceremony and photographs followed. Through everything, the Unbreakables were incredibly courteous and congratulatory. In the end, we couldn't have asked for a better team to compete against. I packed my things and helped with tearing down and cleaning up, but mostly I just wandered around the complex, feeling on top of the world but unsure of exactly what to do with myself. We had checked out of our motel early in the morning, so we headed into central Manchester in full uniform and blue face paint in search of a Pizza Hut — a time-honored club tradition for post-tournament meals that I first mocked and then quickly grew to cherish — that could accommodate our group.

Photos by Fraser Somers and Xena Felton.

At the restaurant, I floated between tables. I found the other American exchange student and reflected on how we met only a month before and how we learned to work together on brooms up. I found our seeker and laughed when he admitted that he could not remember exactly how he caught. The Facebook livestream cuts out early, so we are now anxiously awaiting a YouTube recording.

I listened to our most experienced beater name not just the current US president but all of the first sixteen US presidents to prove that he was not concussed. I reconnected with my keeping and point defending partners throughout the weekend to recount our silky-smooth passing, quick-shift subbing and tireless pressing. And I impatiently pestered our social chair to bring out the birthday cake we had forgotten about the night before and start into a rousing rendition of happy birthday for the converted chaser who played her first minutes at beater in the final.

As the dinner drew to a close, I started to compose individual notes for our post-tournament compliments thread in my head, but I also tried to take a snapshot of the moment. The first COVID-19 case had been announced at Oxford the day before and I feared it was only a matter of time before my program pulled the plug. Over six months, OUQC had been the team I always imagined. If Dev Cup was my last tournament with OUQC, I really could not complain.

Club Hub Abroad Edition: Quidditch at WEPO

This article originally appeared in the November 20, 2019 edition of the Williams Record, the independent student newspaper at Williams College where I served as sports editor for a term. I thank my former coworkers for their edits on this piece.

Photo by Paul Watts.

The Williams-Exeter Programme at Oxford offers students the chance to participate in a wide variety of British sports, from the conventional and ubiquitous like rugby to the utterly ridiculous and appallingly aristocratic like beagling, the hunting of hares on foot through meadows with a pack of beagles.

The first chance for students to survey these offerings is the “Freshers’ Fair,” an overwhelming extravaganza which takes thousands of first-years on a winding two-hour journey through every nook and cranny of a nineteenth-century examination hall. 

As I found my way through the chaos and proceeded to sign up for just as many listservs as any other self-respecting fresher, I will admit that I was looking for one particular table: the Oxford Universities Quidditch Club. 

Since I first found out about the real-life version at the age of 11, I have always wanted to play quidditch, the mixed-gender sport adapted from J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter book series at none other than Middlebury in 2005. While the game originated on the leafy campus of a NESCAC rival in Vermont, it has since spread to more than 45 countries around the world. And it has especially flourished in a place like Oxford, where filming of the Great Hall and the Hogwarts Infirmary in the Harry Potter movies occurred.

So as I walked through the fair, I politely declined to join the American football club — which, I am deeply embarrassed to say, picked me out of the crowd as an American from my blue jeans and sweatshirt — and finally found the quidditch club. I got the training schedule and told the captains that I had previously tried to start a team at my own uni and knew (at least some of) the rules.

Several weeks of training sessions, local scrimmages, rulebook presentations and bonding activities later, I found myself looking out at a frosty field on the outskirts of Oxford well before dawn on a Saturday, ready for our biggest tournament of the term. Southern Cup, our regional competition, would serve as a qualifier for British Quidditch Cup, the national championship in the spring.

We knew that our path to qualification would not come easily. We were missing several key players, and I was recovering from the flu, despite getting a flu shot in America before I left (but not a “flu jab” in Britain once I arrived).

Anyway, we dropped our first game to a London team that we had beaten in a scrimmage two weeks earlier. That was the first sign of trouble. We were shut out in our next game by another hard-hitting London team, who went on to win the tournament, before coming up short against Bath, a lovely tourist destination but a tricky quidditch opponent, in our final contest of the morning.

As the forecasted rain inevitably fell and turned the chilly day into a freezing washout, we retreated indoors to a nearby cafeteria to count our losses, demoralized from an 0–3 start to the tournament. With several players nursing injuries and the temperature plunging towards zero, our captains surveyed the team to ask whether we wanted to forfeit our afternoon game and drop out of the tournament. We later came to recognize that such a dramatic measure would have been a mistake, but I greatly appreciated at the time that our captains were looking out for our health and safety, both physically and mentally.

With that reassurance, we rallied for a final contest of the day against Bristol under the lights on a turf pitch. Assisted by a dominant performance from our beaters, stellar positioning from our chasers and a highlight reel-worthy snitch catch from our seeker, I felt like it was my best game of the weekend. With a 200-90 victory, we stayed alive and advanced to a series of one-off qualification games for nationals the next day.

We returned just as early on Sunday morning, eager to show how much we had grown as a team and relieved that rain was not in the forecast. Although we fell, as expected, to a third London team in our first match, we knew that we had one more opportunity against Bournemouth to qualify. Unfortunately, on a muddy pitch that got shut down after our game by the tournament staff, we lost narrowly.

A consolation match against the first London team was some consolation, as we avenged our initial loss with an all-around team victory and another highlight-reel snitch catch. Even better was the news that we could still qualify for nationals through a backdoor: a developmental tournament in the spring against teams from northern England and Scotland that sounds perfect for our relatively inexperienced team.

That is the goal now. And although we were surprised and humbled at regionals, if we are honest, not only do we think we can qualify at that tournament, we think we can win that tournament.

A New Champion: Thestrals from University of Rochester Defeat Longhorns

At the very beginning of the 2016-17 season, I messaged Mike Pascutoi.

Jack: "What can you tell me about URochester and RIT for this upcoming season?"

Mike: "From a completely unbiased perspective, UR has the higher ceiling but RIT is better now. RIT is older; their core is about to graduate. UR is a team built around a core of sophomores and a few juniors."

This was news to me. The University of Rochester had failed to qualify for US Quidditch Cup 9 in 2016, losing to Emerson College at the 2015 Northeast Regional Championship on their home turf. Before that, Rochester had always languished in the middle tiers of the Northeast, best known around the country for its crosstown rivalry with Rochester Institute of Technology and for an unfortunate string of losses in the first round of bracket play at Nationals (Ives Pond. Michigan State. UCLA. Blue Mountain. Florida's Finest). After missing Nationals altogether, I had counted them out and left them for dead. I certainly did not think of them as a team with a high ceiling. The prospects for any rebuilding college team looked incredibly bleak at the time.

Two years later, thanks in large part to the landmark decision by US Quidditch to divide college and community teams into separate tournaments at Nationals, Rochester is a national champion. The core of now juniors and a few seniors, supported by a fast-learning class of freshmen and vaulted over the finish line by three snitch catches from Pascutoi, defeated the three-time national champion University of Texas on Sunday. 

Photo by Miguel Esparza. Courtesy of the Eighth Man.

Heading into the finals as heavy underdogs, Rochester exploded out of the gates, scoring three consecutive goals to take a commanding 30-0 lead. Texas fought back but Rochester weathered the storm and stayed within snitch range. While anybody with memories of the Texas three-peat probably expected the Longhorns to pull first, Rochester flipped the script, prompting players from across the country to rush onto the field and mob the players. 

As the new and worthy champion, Rochester now carries the flag for the college division of the sport. Rochester becomes only the third college team to claim the US Quidditch national championship after Middlebury College and the University of Texas. The eventual champions suffered a Saturday loss to Arizona State, but finished with an impressive 9-1 record at the tournament. On the road to the championship game, Rochester defeated a long list of teams from four regions: Oklahoma State, RPI, Texas Tech, Lock Haven, Penn State, UTSA and Kansas.

Rochester's championship is even more remarkable because the team has played only two official games this spring. Over 100 inches of snow rained down on the city of Rochester this winter, making practices almost impossible. Yet, after capturing the 2017 Northeast Regional Championship with a dominant 6-0 record in November, Rochester showed few signs of rust.

Rochester is nicknamed the Thestrals, the skeletal horses from the Harry Potter series visible only to those who have witnessed death. The nickname is eerily fitting for a team that survived the crushing failure to qualify for Nationals only two years ago. A team that survived many graduations and rebuilt from the bottom up. A team that always faces one of the longest and coldest winters in the United States. A team that stumbled on Saturday, but eventually found its groove.

Photo by Miguel Esparza. Courtesy of the Eighth Man.

While quidditch should definitely celebrate its many thestrals, Rochester was not the only success story of the weekend in Round Rock. Texas and Texas State proved once again the gold standard of college quidditch programs. Without a doubt, both teams played some of the best all-around quidditch of the tournament. Several players from both teams made strong cases for Team USA this summer. While I have no idea about graduating classes, Texas and Texas State seem well-positioned for the short-term and long-term future. I was also thrilled to see UCLA, Kansas and Cal with new names and faces back in the later rounds of bracket play after an extended absence. 

But beyond wins and losses at the highest level of the sport, I think and I hope that US Quidditch Cup 11 marked a new beginning for quidditch. The large crowds and jubilant scenes under the lights harkened back to World Cup V at Icahn Stadium in New York City. The long and well-deserved tunnels, snaking across the fields, showed a healthy and supportive community. 

Over the summer, following the long-awaited announcement of a college community split, I wrote an article for this blog but never published it. I quickly forgot about it until I logged in to The QuidKid tonight. I just posted the piece, which is not exactly my best work but nicely captures the feeling at the time. Here is an excerpt from that article.

All of the sudden, the 2017-18 season is very interesting again and most of that intrigue comes from the brand new college division. Although Texas State is perhaps the early favorite, there is that exhilarating feeling that the national championship in the college division is up for grabs. It is the same feeling that made the 2012-13 season and World Cup VI so special. Back then, teams like Texas, UCLA, Baylor, Bowling Green and Emerson dared to dream because anything was possible in the absence of Middlebury. The team with much more experience and all the advantages was gone. Now that the best all-star community teams are also out of the picture, college teams can once again think big and shoot for the moon. And maybe that's what convinces an athletic recruit to stick around for another tournament or an average backup to spend extra hours in the gym.

Think about it. In less than 10 months, 21 new individuals somewhere out there right now will get to call themselves national champions. There will be school newspaper articles, victory celebrations, congratulatory tweets, social media posts, shoutouts from famous alumni and local media features. There will be much greater name recognition for the team on campus and dozens of new faces at tryouts in the fall. On a smaller scale, similar things will happen for college teams that win regional championships or make dramatic runs to the Final Four or Elite Eight. As younger, inexperienced players get a taste of success on the national stage, up-and-coming programs gain momentum for the next season. 

So get excited! The 2017-18 season and beyond now offers incredible opportunities for college teams. With all the twists and turns, it is sure going to be fun to watch.

Photo by Miguel Esparza. Courtesy of the Eighth Man

Congratulations to Rochester and all the teams that competed under the sun this weekend. You have brought new life to American quidditch! Now, it's time to turn our attention Down Under. It's time to build the Redeem Team, knock off Australia and bring the World Cup back home.

The Future Is Now

Perhaps today—on the eve of the 2017 European Games in Oslo, Norway, in the midst of the Major League Quidditch and Quidditch Premier League seasons—it is difficult to remember that quidditch was started by college freshmen. It is difficult to remember how college students organized and traveled across the country to the very first tournaments. It is difficult to remember that quidditch in the United States was almost exclusively played by college students until 2013. 

On Thursday, June 29, US Quidditch (USQ) announced that college and community teams would compete in separate divisions at regional and national championships beginning in the 2017-18 season. It was an exciting surprise from USQ—probably the best news since Alex Benepe and Alicia Redford departed the organization in 2015. It shows that USQ is thinking about a wide range of important issues including safety, liability, fairness, morale and marketing. It indicates that USQ is not satisfied with the status quo and is willing to take a big leap of faith.

As many of my old readers and social media followers know of course, I have been one of the loudest advocates for a college community split. I personally did not think this day would come until next summer or beyond. I was somewhat disengaged, even disillusioned, and I definitely was not alone. I am relieved and excited that USQ acted now but I also know that this is going to be an extremely complicated process. This is the toughest challenge that we have faced yet and we need to get it right. With that in mind, I wanted to carefully consider what the future looks like for college teams and community teams in the United States. 

College: A New Beginning
All of the sudden, the 2017-18 season is very interesting again and most of that intrigue comes from the brand new college division. Although Texas State is perhaps the early favorite, there is that exhilarating feeling that the national championship in the college division is up for grabs. It is the same feeling that made the 2012-13 season and World Cup VI so special. Back then, teams like Texas, UCLA, Baylor, Bowling Green and Emerson dared to dream because anything was possible in the absence of Middlebury. The team with much more experience and all the advantages was gone. Now that the best all-star community teams are also out of the picture, college teams can once again think big and shoot for the moon. And maybe that's what convinces an athletic recruit to stick around for another tournament or an average backup to spend extra hours in the gym.

Think about it. In less than 10 months, 21 new individuals somewhere out there right now will get to call themselves national champions. There will be school newspaper articles, victory celebrations, congratulatory tweets, social media posts, shoutouts from famous alumni and local media features. There will be much greater name recognition for the team on campus and dozens of new faces at tryouts in the fall. On a smaller scale, similar things will happen for college teams that win regional championships or make dramatic runs to the Final Four or Elite Eight. As younger, inexperienced players get a taste of success on the national stage, up-and-coming programs gain momentum for the next season. 

So get excited! The 2017-18 season and beyond now offers incredible opportunities for college teams. I can't make any guarantees but I am definitely more likely to invest my time and energy in starting a team at Williams now. Even if I am not immediately successful, I will be closely following the drama from afar. With all the twists and turns, it is sure going to be fun to watch.

Community: Two Paths
There is much more to figure out about the future for community teams. The community division at nationals is fairly straightforward. It has kind of been done before with the Bat City Showcase and it is likely to produce many great games again. There are multiple strong title contenders from across the country. It will feel smaller and different but it will still be intense and rewarding. I think most community teams realize that. 

Community divisions at regionals on the other hand are by far the biggest question mark for the upcoming season. Most regions only have enough community teams for a small tournament. To make these regionals worthwhile for community teams, USQ's staff and gameplay volunteers need to start a dialogue now with players and coaches. USQ should propose unorthodox tournament formats, discuss shortening the community competition to one day and even allow community teams in the smallest regions to go elsewhere. For example, Great Lakes community teams should probably attend the Mid-Atlantic Regional Championship in the suburbs of Pittsburgh or the Midwest Regional Championship in Madison, Wisconsin. 

On the other side of the table, community teams have to accept that regionals are going to be very different. Instead of a large two-day event with pool play and bracket play, most community teams are probably going to play a double round-robin. It will be more like the regular season in Major League Quidditch or qualification for the FIFA World Cup in soccer. Community teams will travel long distances to play two or three matches each against their closest rivals. It is not perfect but it is not the worst thing in the world. 

So there are two paths forward for community teams. First, community teams could stay involved with USQ, buying membership, attending regionals and working out the kinks together.  Second, community teams could abandon USQ and create their own cheaper alternative tournaments. I think the first path is thankfully much more likely and while I understand some of the motivation, I think the second path would be a terrible mistake.

Community teams need USQ and USQ needs community teams. USQ gives community teams legitimacy, certainty and structure. Are the best all-star community teams really going to rely on individuals to organize a national championship year after year? That is incredibly risky. What if no one steps forward one year? 

USQ is a professional organization that is known and respected by many other sports governing bodies and city tourism boards. When USQ lists a community team on its website or invites a community team to its national championship, that means something. It carries weight and presents more opportunities for official recognition by the media, government, business and civil society. Without a doubt in my mind, community teams that stick with USQ are more likely to secure sponsorships, get field space and attract new recruits in the long run.

Of course, community teams are indispensable for USQ too. Community teams introduce new strategies, recruit new athletes, provide experienced referees, develop future stars for Team USA and mentor college teams. Throughout the 2017-18 season, community teams will still entertain thousands of spectators with evenly-matched, down-to-the-wire games. Most importantly, community teams show that quidditch is dynamic and popular even beyond college campuses. 

So don't get me wrong. I think community teams are important and I think the future is bright for community teams too. Especially as MLQ becomes more structured and more closed, USQ community teams allow any group of friends to get together and rise through the ranks to the highest levels of the sport. I expect the number of community teams to continue to increase and I hope to see crosstown rivalries and local derbies soon, as well as larger and more interesting regional championships. Finally, and this is my final wish, can we start calling them club teams now? 

College Essay

I submitted the following essay for the Common Application. I applied early decision to Williams College in western Massachusetts and I found out last weekend I was admitted. That's where I will be for the next four years and I am very excited to start the next chapter in my life. As far as I know, Williams does not have a quidditch team right now. I picked Williams for its intimate community, small class sizes, academic opportunities and picturesque setting. I would love to start a team but I just don't know yet if it is possible. Next fall will be overwhelming and only time will tell. For now, I wanted to share this essay as a thank you to the sport and the community. 

When I first found out about real-life quidditch in sixth grade, I naturally had a lot of questions. How did the golden snitch work? Did they have flying broomsticks? I remembered reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone back in kindergarten. He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named had frightened me, but I had liked quidditch, the high-flying magical game in the wizarding world.

I was always an avid sports fan, rooting for my hometown Philadelphia teams and delighting in a wide range of more obscure sports every four years during the Olympics. But quidditch? I dusted off my hard copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, only intending to re-read the quidditch chapter. I ended up racing through the first book and I jumped into the second. And the third. And so on.

Equipped with my newfound love of Harry Potter and my insatiable curiosity about real-life quidditch, I persuaded my parents to take me to the Quidditch World Cup in New York City. The wizarding world was only two hours away on the New Jersey Turnpike. On a crisp November morning, my dad and I boarded a BoltBus. It wasn’t quite the Hogwarts Express, but it delivered me to a small park along the Hudson River bursting at the seams with energy.

The sights and sounds of the Quidditch World Cup reverberated from a small corner of Hell's Kitchen in an exuberant and chaotic celebration of a young sport. Forty-six teams and hundreds of players sported homemade jerseys, painted with names like Potter and Dumbledore across the back and numbers like pi and infinity. Commentators blended improv comedy with play-by-play. Snitches, neutral players dressed from head to toe in bright yellow, evaded capture by climbing chain-link fences and darting into Manhattan street traffic. I settled into a plastic folding chair beside one of the four oval pitches, watching match after match and deciphering the labyrinthine rules of the game.

At that point, I was only a twelve-year-old spectator, but I sensed an infectious passion around this new, progressive, co-ed sport with roots in the wizarding world and children’s literature. I looked out at an intricate game with multiple balls and positions coming together in a masterpiece of teamwork and strategy. Beyond anything else, I wanted to share quidditch with others. I wanted quidditch to be accepted and celebrated as a spectator sport, not some forgotten, short-lived fad of the so-called Harry Potter generation.

In the six years since that day, I have thrown myself into a world of quaffles, bludgers, snitches and broomsticks. I have written a blog called The QuidKid with more than 110,000 views, organized three full-fledged college quidditch tournaments in my hometown and directed media relations for the semi-pro Major League Quidditch. At subsequent Quidditch World Cups, I have coordinated an editorial team of twenty or more twenty-somethings to write pages and pages of website content. I am not a quidditch player, nor a quidditch coach. I market the sport. I defend, preach and champion quidditch.

Throughout all the years, I have felt incredible support and encouragement from the quidditch community. Hundreds of college-aged individuals have looked at me, some kid from the Philadelphia suburbs, as a smart and eloquent writer, a capable and dynamic leader and a thoughtful and funny person. I have learned to engage with something bigger than my own bubble of a school or town. And every day, I have pressed on with my sometimes quixotic mission to bring a whimsical, fringe sport to football fans and bookworms alike.

So, how does the golden snitch work? Why do they hold broomsticks between their legs? Who are the best teams and players in the country? And do the players really fly? I would be thrilled to talk to you about quidditch and maybe, if I can really convey the liveliness and spirit of the sport, I will see you at the next big game.

The 9:00 P.M. Phone Call and More at the 2016 MLQ Championship

The 9:00 PM Phone Call
I was sitting in a booth with my uncle at Angelo's Pizza, looking out the window into a hot and humid world of strip malls. The 2016 MLQ Championship had finished just an hour or two before and the Boston Night Riders had triumphed over the Austin Outlaws to win their second consecutive title. It was a fantastic weekend of games and storylines, highlighted by the semifinals run of the hometown League City Legends and made possible by an exceptional group of people.

Up to that point, my contributions to the overall success of the weekend were relatively small. Sure, I got a blue polo and manned the merchandise and ticket booths. But, compared to my baseline normal for quidditch tournaments—running around frantically coordinating writers or typing out my own articles or directing the Keystone Cup—I had a pretty calm weekend for better or worse. I got to watch games with my uncle and sell snacks like I was a stadium vendor and live tweet the finals. Nevertheless, I generally like being very busy because it gives me some sense of purpose and I was trying to sort out my thoughts on the weekend on Sunday night.

Photo by Matt Dwyer

Then, as I finished my third slice of Angelo's specialty pizza, my phone started to buzz in my pocket. It was an unknown number from Boston, Massachusetts. My mind started to race. Before I left for to the restaurant, I sent out a press release to the Boston Globe, sharing that the Boston Night Riders won the MLQ Championship. It was one of maybe two hundred press releases I submitted to major news organizations over the course of the summer as the Media Outreach Coordinator for MLQ. Of course, 95 percent of the time, I never hear back from the media outlet and life goes on. I had been courting the Boston Globes, the Washington Posts and the New York Times of the world for most of the summer without success. But could it be?

It was loud in the restaurant but I heard it clear as day. I was speaking to a reporter from the Boston Globe. I rushed outside into the parking lot so I could hear. I answered a couple of questions about the rules of the game, the mission of the league and the history of quidditch in Boston. I promised to find more sources for the reporter to talk to. And that was that. I was terrified that I had accidentally slipped and given some embarrassing quote that would make the rest of the quidditch community collectively groan the next morning. For the rest of the night, I obsessively googled "Boston Globe quidditch" every twenty minutes, waiting for the article to pop up online.

Early Monday morning, I was at the William P. Hobby Airport, sitting down for a breakfast taco near my gate when my Google search produced what I was looking for. I read it through twice and I smiled like an idiot for the next few minutes. Mission accomplished. With a great event team, an undefeated champion and a lot of luck, Major League Quidditch made it into the Boston Globe.

The Radford Plate? The Homel Shield?
At the MLQ Championship, the battle for the Benepe Cup was a gripping contest involving the league's top teams. Boston, Austin, Indianapolis, League City and Los Angeles were all somewhat in the race for the league title at some point during the weekend. The games between these teams provided the most suspense of the weekend and played a direct role in determining the outcome of the tournament. The best-of-three finals series, especially, treated the crowd to an intense back-and-forth between superbly talented teams.

But what about the rest of the league? On the one hand, there was no shortage of fantastic games between the next tier of teams. San Francisco and Kansas City dueled in two close, compelling matches. New Orleans bested Washington and Salt Lake City and advanced late into Saturday, giving Indianapolis a real scare. Even Detroit held New York within striking distance for a while. Behind Boston and Austin, there was quite a lot of parity. For the most part, each team was a competitive and polished representative of its metropolitan area.

Photo by Matt Dwyer

Unfortunately, the rain delay left something to be desired. Because of the weather, no consolation games were played among the middle-of-the-road teams. And some players seemed happy about that. That was most troubling for me. Teams spent lots of money and time to get to League City and for whatever reason, some players didn't want to play almost assuredly well-matched consolation games? Maybe I just don't get it, but I wanted to propose a new structure for consolation matches borrowed from the World Rugby Sevens Series.

To start, Rugby Sevens is kind of like quidditch. Games are physical and short, broken down into two halves of seven minutes. Tournaments are contested over a two-day weekend and teams play multiple games each day. There is a preliminary round on Saturday and an elimination round on Sunday. There is also a gap between the best teams and the rest of the field in Rugby Sevens. The small island nation of Fiji is the two-time defending World Rugby Sevens Series champions. More recently, Fiji thrashed Great Britain by a score of 43-7 in the gold medal match at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Before Fiji, New Zealand dominated all competition, winning 12 out of the first 15 World Rugby Sevens Series.

That's why Rugby Sevens tournaments award more than one trophy. Meet the Cup, Plate, Bowl and Shield. The Cup is the first prize, presented to the champion of the tournament. After a preliminary round, the top four teams at a Rugby Sevens tournament compete for the Cup. The next four teams duke it out for the Plate. The four teams after that play for the Bowl. And the last four teams battle for the Shield. I created mock-up of this with seeding from Saturday at the MLQ Championship here.

Photo by Matt Dwyer

It's a smart and workable model for Major League Quidditch. It gives the next best quidditch cities more opportunities to play close games against teams with equal ability. If the Benepe Cup is seemingly out of reach, the Radford Plate or the Homel Shield gives coaches something to motivate their players with. Additional trophies provide more teams with something to shoot for and celebrate. More teams will be taking the silverware back to their hometown quidditch community, generating new energy and bringing more publicity around the sport.

Minor League Quidditch
Before players and volunteers boarded planes and descended on League City, Texas for the 2016 MLQ Championship, my longtime friend and former colleague in quidditch media Andy Marmer published Where MLQ Went Wrong in 2016 on the Quidditch Post. Marmer argued that the expansion of Major League Quidditch to the southern and western United States for the 2016 season was ultimately unsuccessful. Marmer wrote that the geographic stretch of the league had overextended players and volunteers and suggested that the league should have expanded to smaller northeastern and midwestern cities like Philadelphia, Raleigh, Richmond, Chicago, Minneapolis and St. Louis.

Make no mistake, there were bumps in the road along the 2016 season and every MLQ staffer would love to have more volunteers, but MLQ's southern and western expansion was exactly the right step forward. Any other move would have been disastrous for the league.

Photo by Matt Dwyer

Among the original eight teams, Boston has widened the gap, leaving only the Indianapolis Intensity anywhere near realistic striking distance. Without the addition of Austin, the spectators and players in League City would have missed out on a best-of-three finals series for the ages. In truth, most of Marmer's expansion cities are a clear cut below MLQ standards. On paper, sure, Chicago and Philadelphia are big cities, but they were passed over in the beginning for a reason. The quidditch scene in Chicago and Philadelphia is just much smaller than the typical MLQ city. I would say that very few of Marmer's expansion candidates could support a full 21-player roster. Maybe Minneapolis? Toronto? The rest of Marmer's expansion cities would probably produce a shell of a roster and give the league headaches all season. The number of out-of-snitch-range games would go up and the margin of victory in blowouts would soar into the hundreds.

Without any doubt in my mind, the additions of the South and West Divisions have raised the overall level of play in MLQ. Each expansion city brought enthusiasm, teamwork and talent to Hometown Heroes Park. And besides maybe the Phoenix Sol, every expansion city at the MLQ Championship clearly justified itself as a smart and worthy addition to the league. During the offseason, MLQ picked the eight next best cities for quidditch in North America and each of those cities by and large delivered. 57 percent of games at the MLQ Championship were within snitch range. There are very few other cities (maybe Miami, Minneapolis or Philadelphia) that could have stayed within snitch range of a middle-of-the-road MLQ expansion team like the Kansas City Stampede or even a lower-tier MLQ expansion team like the Phoenix Sol.

Photo by Matt Dwyer

In short, MLQ stayed true to its mission by expanding to Texas, California and more. Aiming to be the highest level of quidditch in North America, MLQ picked the best cities possible with the most experienced, talented and committed players. MLQ wants to be respected and consumed by the wider quidditch community and selecting the best cities available was the only way to further that goal.

Marmer's expansion cities are minor league quidditch cities in my opinion. And who knows? Maybe in three to five years, once MLQ has addressed some problems and grown comfortable with sixteen teams, a second division with Philadelphia, Richmond, Raleigh and the rest of them could be possible. Someday, I would love to compete as a player in a European soccer-style promotion and relegation system between two sixteen-team flights. But that's way off into the future. For now, let's celebrate the 2016 MLQ regular season and the 2016 MLQ Championship.

Jack McGovern is a Media Outreach Coordinator for Major League Quidditch. The views and opinions expressed on The QuidKid do not represent the views and opinions of Major League Quidditch.