Benepe announces Spring Cup in State of the League

The IQA will go through 1 year and 1/3 to choose the destination, prepare and qualify teams for the 2013 Quidditch World Cup in April.
Here are some dates.
January: WC six bids submitted
April: WC site chosen
August: a Quidditch expo match will take place at the London Olympics
September: first full season begins
Regionals all year
April 2013: World Cup Six!!

Conferences were not mentioned in the State of the League, but I believe they are a vital part in improving Quidditch.
Stats such as placing for all three divisions at WC5 were announced. 11,000 paid spectators was the estimate for the weekend by island security. Ambulances were only needed once every 17 games, a stat very impressive for a major contact sport.
Hardships at WC5 like the delay in Day 2 and lack of food and referees were explained.

Everybody reading the article must have felt a tinge of excitement, or perhaps they felt if they were put under the Imperious Curse. All Quidditch fans were truly excited by the commitment of the IQA to making Quidditch the best sport it can be.

Quidditch Conferences

Quidditch Conferences have been a hot topic on the IQA Forum since the end of the WC and I though I'd give my ideas. The Florida Quidditch Conference has paved the way for a regular season and therefore, a huge development for the sport. I based my conferences on many factors including geography, size of school, Quidditch history and rankings. Also, some conferences are just all the teams that attended a specific tournament.
Please give me your thoughts.

Southeast

FQC
Florida
Miami
Ringling
South Florida
Southwest Quidditch Conference
Texas A&M
Silver Phoenixes
LSU
Sam Houston State
Texas Christian
Texas Tech
Texas

Midwest

Great Plains
Kansas
Missouri
Minnesota
Marquette
Illinois State
Loyola

B1G
Pittsburgh
Ohio State
Penn State
Purdue
Michigan
Michigan St

Tri-Valley Conference
Eastern Michigan
Miami
Ball State
Grand Valley State
Jetpack Ninja Dinosaurs
Bowling Green State


Northeast

Middlebury Classic Conference
Middlebury
UMASS
Green Mountain
Emerson
Vermont
Boston
Tufts
Vassar
Yale
Harvard

Upstate NY
Rochester
Ives Pond
SUNY Geneseo
SUNY Cortland
SUNY Fredonia
Syracuse
Ithaca
RIT


Big East
New York Division
NYU
NY Badassilisks
Hofstra
Stony Brook
Toms River Hydras

Philadelphia Division
Villanova
Chestnut Hill
Delaware Valley Dragons
Franklin and Marshall
Lafayette

Baltimore Division
Johns Hopkins
Maryland
Virginia Tech
Richmond
VCU
Duke

International

Canadian Quidditch League
East
McGill
Queen's
Carleton
McMaster
Ottawa
Toronto
Ryerson
Guelph
St Lawrence
Possible Guest Members
Victoria
UBC

West

Great West
Rockies Division
Arizona State
NAU
Denver Dementors
BYU
Northern Colorado
Utah
Pacific Division
UCLA
USC
Cal Berkely
San Diego State
Silicon Valley Skrewts
San Jose State
Occidental
Moorpark

National Teams a cool possibility at World Cup 6

There have been several important events that have shaped Quidditch involving international teams. When McGill first participated in the Intercollegiate Quidditch World Cup, the IQAs leaders, now having an international team, and a good one, decided to change the name to International Quidditch Associataion. Excitement sparked in the Quidditch World when Vaasa came for the first trans-Atlantic Matchups last spring. Several top notch teams played the Finns and the Finns had such a good time that they joined us again this fall for QWC5. Yesterday, the QUAFL Cup was held in Australia. 5 teams that are members of the AQA battled it out with great creativity, competition, and community. Although, the AQA is separate from the IQA. This shows how the sport and it's ideas are being spread across the globe without the IQA.
So it would be fantastic if next year, the World Cup could feature a World Championship.(this could be added in the finals which did not sell out this year)

United States of America (this team could be american all stars or American Quidditch alumni)
Vs.
United Quidditch Nations Against Those Damn Americans Who Mock Us (how else can you put Australia, Finland, and Canad in a category? Nations with fantastic Health Care? This is a fitting title because the announcers always see the international teams as easy targets and I could definitely see Finland getting angry one time at QWC5)

Maybe one day, we will have that historic rematch between Ireland and Bulgaria.

Australian Quidditch Cup (QUAFL Cup)

Now we will go on an adventure from Randall's Island (the Northern Hemisphere Championship) all the way down to the Outback. The QUAFL Cup, the Southern Hemisphere's Championship, took place Saturday evening. (wait, I am writing this Saturday morning!) Hosts University of New South Wales best Western Sydney in the final.
Group play was fun but also rough as normal.
1. New South Wales 3-1
2. Western Sydney 3-1
3. Australian Nat'l 2-2
4. Newcastle 2-2
5. Wollongong 0-4
ANU was listed ahead of Newcastle because of point differential, but in the World Cup Mewcastle would have been #3 because they beat ANU 110 to 90.
So, in the semifinal ANU played Western Sydney. Western Sydney's defense, which had only allowed 40 points per game since the opening game (which they lost to UNWS 110-80*) stopped ANU's high powered offense which had averaged 112.5 points a game. Western Sydney won 70*-30 proving once again that a great defense beats a great offense.
In the "Wooden Spoon Playoff" (Australian for "no one cares") Newcastle crushed Wollongong 100*-0 raising arguments about whether Newcastle should have replaced ANU in the championship semifinal.

In the "Grand Final" (Australian for "people care") New South Wales came out victorious beating Western Sydney by a score of 90-60. There was very good snitchery and Western Sydney eventually had to commit a suicide snatch. Then all the teams pulled out the Fusters (Australian for Beer) and Congratulated UNSW's Snapes on a Plane for winning the first ever QUAFL Cup. Hopefully next year the World Cup can be joined by these talented kangaroos (American for Australians).

Sorry to any Australians reading this. Since it is Quidditch I have to add some humor in the article and I didn't fly 10,000 miles from Philadelphia to Sydney and experience any of the funny events with snitches or anything else. Also like Canadians, Aussies are an easy target, mate.

New Quidditch Rankings

I have managed to get World Cup adjusted rankings done! My six categories that I based this on were Placing in World Cup 5, Winning Percentage in Fall 2011, Points For (with a seeker floor), Points Against (with a seeker floor), Placing in other tournaments including World Cup 4, and All Time Winning Percentage. As you might be able to see, the rankings have some flaws. Texas A&M is ranked below Texas even though the Aggies beat the Longhorns. I am hoping to try and add a human survey poll to eliminate these problems. Perhaps a coaches poll, like the college basketball and college football ones, would be good.



1. Middlebury College 98

2. Lousiana State University 94

3. Boston University 90

4. Pittsburgh QC 88

5. Emerson College 86

6. University of Texas-Austin 85

7. McGill University 78

7. Miami University 78

9. University of Florida 77

10. Texas A&M 75

11. Kansas University 70

11. University of South Florida 70

11. Michigan State University 70

14. Villanova University 64

15. University of California Berkeley 55

15. University of Michigan 55

17. University of Southern California 48

18. Penn State University 45

19. Marquette University 41

20. Arizona State University 38

21. University of Minnesota 35

22. Ives Pond QC 31

23. University of Maryland 29

24. Vassar College 27

24. Carleton University 27

Florida Quidditch

Over the past two weeks I have grown to known people involved in the FQC. I have been especially close with Events Director and University of Florida Beater Hannah Pohlmann. So, after meeting them in person and watching their games, I was very pleased that Florida had made it all the way to the finals. Here is the 2011 Quidditch World Cup Runner Up story.
Florida flew into New York late Friday night hoping that the World Cup would be a successful one for themselves and the other FQC teams. (Miami, South Florida, and Ringling) Florida's first job was to be cheerleaders. They watched a dirty USF vs. McGill game, rooting for their common opponents, USF. USF won the game in OT. After a false snitch snatch by USF, angry about the call, the USF seeker charged the snitch like a bull and snatched the win.
With renewed confidence Florida took the pitch against Ottawa. Cheers of "Canada" and "U.S.A." reverberated around the stands before the game. From "Brooms Up!" there was competitive Bludger play, with Beaters wrestling on the ground for the Bludgers. Even though the game started evenly, the Florida offense found it's groove behind speedy chaser Dre Clements. The game's snitch had come prepared with a large, pink, blanket. The snitch would wave it in the air like a matador, then wrap the charging seekers up like mummies. The game went on forever until the Florida seeker finally snatched.
Florida gained more confidence seeing USF and Miami's blowout of America's Finest and Ithaca, respectively. When the referee signaled for "Brooms Down. Eyes Closed" in Florida's second game against Geneseo, one of the announcers hoped out of his booth, onto a segway, and onto the field. He took the quaffle and snailed down the field to the Florida hoops, where he scored a goal. Florida would go on to win the game. The Gators' biggest test of Saturday was playing Arizona State. Still, Florida triumphed over ASU, showing that they can compete with the big boys.
On Sunday, UF played a rather "interesting" game against Delaware Valley Dragons who were already eliminated. Since they had no chance to make it to the next round, according to what a Florida player overheard, they were going to see if they could get a red card. Well, they did. At one point, a smaller woman from Del Val jumped on top of a Florida player, bringing him to the ground. When asked if she would do it again she replied, "Yes, and with greater force". Before that, Florida keeper Crews had raced off on several breakaways and dunked it into the hoop. At one point, he faked to throw it directly at the Del Val keepers face, and then slammed it home. The announcers called him "The Bernie Madoff of Quidditch" At the end of the dirty game, Florida's talent showed in the "a lot to a little" score.
Florida headed into single elimination as the #2 seed. They beat Ohio State in round 1, while USF moved on too, but Miami lost in a heartbreaker to Minnesota. (Ringling didn't make it)In round 2. Florida played McGill in front of a gorgeous sunset and a lot of Canadians. ("O, Canada" was sung before the game)In this game, Florida worked hard to preserve a 30 point lead in case the snitch was snatched by McGill. But, Florida got the snatch and advanced by a score of 90-30.
Florida then knocked off highly ranked Pittsburgh , who had some very big players including a keeper that was at least 6' 10", by a score of 80-60. (1st come from behind snatch)Sadly, shortly after their win, Florida found that they were the only FQC team left. USF had lost to Texas A&M 90-30.
Under the lights in Icahn stadium, Florida defeated Minnesota by a score of 70-50 (2nd come from behind snatch)
In the final, which I heard was very rough, (a red card, a yellow card and an injured Middlebury player), Middlebury jumped out to a 30-0 only to eventually be overtaken 80-70 by the Gators. In a turn of events, Middlebury came from behind to win the fifth quidditch world cup on a snatch. 100-80
The Gators should be extremely proud of themselves for surprising the quidditch world, coming out of nowhere and giving Middlebury a run for their money.
Thank you to the 2nd best team in quidditch for letting me be a part of their historic run to the finals.

MIDDLEBURY WINS 5th WORLD CUP

Middlebury beat Florida 100-80 late Sunday night at Icahn Stadium.
Here is a quick summary of the game.
Middlebury jumps out to a 30-0 lead.
UF scores, Middlebury scores, and UF scores again to pull within 20. 40-20
The snitch is sighted.
While the seekers pursue the snitch, the score is run up 70-60
Florida scores 2 quick goals to take the lead. 80-70
Middlebury catches the snitch to win World Cup V 100-80
Congratulations to the Five time Champs and Florida, who was previously ranked 29 by the IQA.

MIDDLEBURY VS. FLORIDA

Middlebury came from behind to beat Texas A&M 80-70. They scored a "long shot" to allow the Middlebury seeker to go for the snitch making the score 50-70. Approximately two minutes later, the snitch was snatched and the finals match was set.

Like last year's David vs. Goliath matchup of Tufts and Middlebury this is another david vs. Goliath. Last year however, Middlebury seemed untouchable, going undefeated. This year they have been lucky with snatches and they lost to Michigan in pool play.
Expect a fantastic final.

QUIDDITCH WORLD CUP FINALS

Breaking News: Florida advances to the final crusing past Ohio State, McGill, Pittsburgh, and Minnesota in the semifinal. In all games, florida's seeker has been fantastic, catching the snitch in crucial moments. It appears Florida is this years Tufts.

Middlebury and Texas A&M are playing now in the other semifinal u der the lights in Icahn Stadium.
More from Sunday will be posted by the end of the week. Stay tuned for finals updates.

Day 1: Quidditch World Cup

Sadly, I am not a whole organization (like the IQA), but I can still bring scores and news from all the games that I attended.
Randalls Island Pros: It is gorgeous and there is enough space for all the snitches and spectators. Icahn Stadium is world class. It is amazing to see what the future of quidditch might look like while you sit in this stadium. Cons: It is windier and therefore colder. Last year, the WC had the feel that it was in the heart of NY. You could walk to many food places and the park was surrounded by skyscrapers. Also, there were only two food vendors on Saturday that had lines that backed up ~2 hours.

The opening cermonies were fantastic! Alex Benepe told a story in which some jerks made fun of him for playing quidditch. The moral of the story was basically that quidditch is awesome and dont let anybody harass you about it.

Middlebury looked shaky against Yale, they were only leading by 20 points when they caught the snitch. Clearly, this is NOT the same Middlebury as we are used to seeing.
USF110 McGill 90. The Canadians were not playing Mr. Nice Guy in this game. Several USF players were hurt in regulation, which ended after a USF snatch that sent the game into OT (70-70) In OT, it appeared that USF had caught the snitch, but that was disallowed. Seconds after play resumed, the angry USF seeker charged the snitch like a bull and legally caught the snitch. The other USF players along with many other FQC players and directors stormed the field happily.
Texas A&M 140 Ithaca 0 Showing off their talent and lack of mercy, A&M destroyed Ithaca.
PennState 90 OhioState 40 When the snitch entered the field between these football rivals, the score was low. By the time the snitch had been caught (by PennState), the score had been run up. The announcers commonly reminded the audience to watch out for ghosts that were preventing the Seekers from playing well.
Tufts 30 Silicon Valley 50 After Tufts scored a fantastic goal to go ahead 30-20, the Silicon Valley Seeker sprinted onto the field with the snitchsock in hand. The stunned Tufflepuffs sulked away, worrying about whether there is any chance they will be able to match their 2nd place finish last year.
Florida 160 Ottawa 30 The game was much closer than the score indicated. Competitive Bludger play featured many wars between beaters over the dodgeballs. The highlight of the game was the snitch, who was almost "unsnatchable" He carried a large pink blanket and he used it like a matador. Attracting the seekers and then wrapping them like mummies, the game went on until the referee (who was heavily critisized by audience members) told the Snitch to get rid of the blanket. Florida got the snitch to finally end the game. Dre Clements, a Florida chaser shined with his speed and offensive ability.
BostonUniversity110 ChestnutHill 0 CHC seemed completely un-organized and rarely advanced the ball past midfield. This was very suprising; CHC is one of the oldest quidditch teams. Chestnut Hill would try to make long passes to a chaser behind the goal, but the Boston goalkeeper would leap into the air, block the ball, and lead a fast break up the field. BU added the Snitch snatch to shutout my 10th ranked team, Chestnut Hill.
Pittsburgh 80 BowlingGreen 30 Pitt dominates but BG gets the snitch
ArizonaState 120 Geneseo 70 Beccause of their locations and climates, ASU was dubbed the "lizards" and Geneseo the "ice bears" About halfway through the match, a mysterious man asked the audience "Have you seen the Snitch?" Seconds later, he tore off his black coat and pants reveiling a golden snitch. The snitch waited at the field for minutes, successfully starting the wave while he waited for the seekers to show up. After a long time with no successful snatch, Geneseo finally gave up and snuck up from behind for the snatch.

World Cup Predictions, Pool Play

Since I am a lazy American, I have decided not to continue my pool by pool evaluations. So, I will wrap up the entire first day (and a little bit of Sunday) right now.
Teams that will shine
USF: They will beat 8 ranked McGill because of their physicality unknown to Canadians (except for on the hockey rink)
Middlebury: You might say, "well duuuhh" but many experts believe that Moddlebury will not win this year because of their lack of experienced players. In an easy pool, MiddQuid will be blowing out everybody
Vaasa: despite being in Middlebury's pool, the quidditchers from Finland will beat mediocre, but higher ranked teams like Yale and Michigan.
Pittsburgh and Tufts: Everyone will be watching these two supreme teams battle it out und the lights at 8 on Saturday. This is the best pool play game and a rematch of last year's semifinal.
Miami: Another FQC team that is coming off a 5-0 week in Florida Quidditch Conference play will have a ton of confidence. Look for them to possibly knock off Texas A&M
Marquette: A brand new team that, after the Midwest Cup in October, is the highest scoring team in Quidditch. They will obliterate 3 Arizona State, who is #3, but has been blown out twice by Northern Arizona University.

Florida Quidditch Conference Week 4

In the final FQC week of play, the four teams were joined by Rollins College and Lakeland Quidditch Club. FQC officials invited these teams in hope that they will join the FQC next year. Miami dominated game play though, going 5-0 for the day. USF went 3-1, Florida 2-3, and Ringling 1-2.
This brings the final 2011 FQC Standings (not counting games against Rollins or Lakeland in the last week) to this:
USF 8-1
Miami 8-2
Florida 3-6
Ringling 0-9

Highlights during the day included a dip into the water for Snitch Jacob Miller (Ringling). Rollins' and Lakeland's Seekers were in hot pursuit as they jumped into the warm Florida water too.
Otherwise, USFs dominance was challenged and they were almost unthroned by Miami.

Congratulations to all the people who made the FQC possible and I look forward to watching you next weekend.

Title Change

I decided "IQA Blog" was too boring so I changed the name to 'A Death Eater Plot Against Baseball". It's a little lengthy, but I thought it was funny and it connected to Brooms Up (the movie)


I will be posting game scores hourly at the World Cup, so if you want me to report on your teams games or other teams in your pool's games, I would be happy to. Please just comment below, asking which teams you want me to report on.

BCS Quidditch Rankings (that's right!)

Although I hate the BCS (college footballs ranking system), I thought it would be interesting to apply it's formula to Quidditch. As you might know, the final ranking is comprised of the Coaches Poll, the Harris Poll and various computer rankings. I can't survey all the coaches of all the Quidditch teams (Coaches Poll), or get a "panel of 120 people with great knowledge of the game" (Harris Poll), but I do have a computer!

The College football computer rankings are composed of 6 other polls that focus on statistics like Strength of Schedule, Opponents Strength of Schedule, etc.
For Quidditch the computer rankings were based on five categories: Winning Percentage, Performance in Tournaments other than the World Cup, Placing in the 2010 World Cup, Average Points per Game, and Average Opponents Points per Game.
The teams were then ranked in these five categories, the #1 team in each category receiving 25 points, #2 receiving 24, and so on.
Each team then had five numbers. I dropped the lowest number to prevent really good teams from being penalized. (for example, a team that didn't have enough money to travel to the World Cup last year or a team that is a great defensive team, but doesn't score many points)
Last, I added the four remaining numbers left, and divided the sum by 100.

Kansas is a good example. They had a 24 in Points For and Tournies, a 23 in Win%, an 8 in Points Allowed, and a 0 in World Cup 2010 (this score was dropped). (24+24+23+8)/100=.790

Here are the first ever BCS Quidditch Rankings.
1. Middlebury .970
2. Emerson .880
3. Pittsburgh QC .790
4. Kansas .780
5. Louisiana State .780
6. McGill .760
7. Boston .730
8. Rochester .730
9. Texas A&M .730
10. Chestnut Hill .670
11. Ives Pond QC .660
12. Michigan State .580
13. Villanova .510
14. UCLA .480
15. Miami .440
16. Tufts .390
17. Arizona State .380
18. Ball State .370
19. Marquette .350
20. South Florida .310
21. Penn State .280
22. Illinois State .280
23. Florida .280
24. Toms River Hydras .240
25. Vassar .230

Pool 3

Here is Pool 3,
8 McGill
20 South Florida
34 St Lawrence
50 Americas Finest
69 The Silver Phoenixes

McGill will face much tougher competition in this group that in the Canadian Cup, butI do expect them to move on.
South Florida is coming off a great season in the FQC and I believe they will beat McGill and take first place in the group because of their experience with physical teams in Miami and Florida.
St Lawrence is overrated and as the poster of the pools commented on his own story, "Poor St Lawrence"
Americas Finest is extremely physical and will be mad after being made fun of in Brooms Up! (the world cup 2010 documentary) In the movie they were teased for being "super tough" and then losing by a ton to the "nerds" from Tufts. They will be looking for revenge and I think, despite their lack of games in the last year, they will move on. (hopefully only to be whooped by the "nerds" from Middlebury.)
The Silver Phoenixes are essentially Texas A&Ms B team. That means they are probably pretty good. I expect them to beat a few of these teams , but not advance to the next round.

Pool 2

In my opinion, pool 2 is the easiest. Here are the teams.
7 Rochester
25 Toms River Hydras
38 Southern California
52 Virginia Commonwealth
89 Sam Houston State

Rochester has dominated 4 games against upstate New York teams, but they may find some trouble playing more physical teams from around the United States. However, they will move on, maybe losing once.
Toms River Hydras and Southern Cal will move on to the second round. Southern Cal finished third in the Western Cup and Toms River will look to avenge their Northeast Regional quarterfinal loss to Rochester.

VCU and Sam Houston State are long shots to overthrow the top three, not because the top three is fantastic but because VCU did not do well at the Turtle Cup and SHSU has only played 1 game which they lost).

Quidditch World Cup Pools #1

On late Halloween night, the World Cup Pools were released. In the first part of this 12 part series, I will examine every Division One Pool.

4 Emerson
22 Richmond
29 Penn State
45 Ohio State
113 Victoria

I expect Emerson, Penn State, and Ohio State to advance to single elimination from this pool. Emerson is a team with tons of experience looking to have a great world cup after a disappointing quarterfinal loss to Tufts last year. They will cruise through a relatively easy pool.
Richmond is a team with lots of experience but that experience doesn't translate into wins. Despite being the highest ranked team at the Turtle Cup, they did not make it to the finals.
Penn State is flying high off a 2nd place finish at the Philadelphia Brotherly Love Cup and they will carry that momentum into the QWC.
Ohio State when 3-1 at the Midwest Cup, losing only to Illinois State, but blowing out Missouri, Miami Ohio, and Purdue. They are a high scoring team that will overwhelm Richmond and take their spot in single elimination.
Victoria, a college in Canada does not know what they are getting themselves into. They have never played a game and will have to play Emerson and two very physical teams in Penn and Ohio State.

Northern Arizona whoops #3 Arizona State

Arizona State's #3 in the world ranking, has long been doubted by Quidditch followers, considering Arizona State has never played in a world cup. The ranking was proven innacurate when Northern Arizona University beat ASU 2/3 times in the Summit Series, a tournament that NAU hosted. (the tournament also featured Mesa Community College, longtime members of the IQA)
Here are the scores,
NAU 110 ASU 10
NAU 10 ASU 40
NAU 50 ASU 20

The rankings should be updated soon. It is expected that Emerson College, which has two wins over Brandeis College this year, will move into third.

Syracuse hosts Ives Pond, SUNY Cortland

This weekend, Syracuse Quidditch, which is struggling to raise enough money to attend the world cup, hosted 11th ranked Ives Pond and SUNY Cortland, which is in their first year.
Ives Pond beat Syracuse and Syracuse beat SUNY Cortland in a series of games.

It would be a shame if Syracuse couldn't attend World Cup V, they are a team that not only has talent, but history. The 'Cuse played in World Cups 3 & 4.

RUMOR- Did #3 Arizona State Lose?

There is a rumor going around the Quidditch world that Arizona St, ranked #3 in the IQA rankings, lost to The Northern Arizona University Narwals during the Summit Showdown yesterday. I am guessing that ASU brought a few teams and one of them lost, therefore the ASU official team is still undefeated.
Remember, the Middlebury Classic featured 8 teams from Middlebury. When the intramural teams competed against other colleges, they had a combined record of 8-6, but those 6 loses do not effect the rankings because those losses were not recorded by the official Middlebury team.

Maybe though, the ASU Sun Devils have been dethroned of their #3 spot in the rankings by a virtually unknown team.

Canadian Quidditch Cup

The inaugural Canadian Quidditch tournament took place today. (the 29th) McGill dominated with a 6-0 record and Winning by an average margin of about 90 points. Carleton came in second, losing by 80 points to McGill in the final, even though they were playing as the home team.
Here are the standings.
1. McGill, previously ranked #21
2. Carleton
3. Ottawa
4. St. Lawrence, why is an American team playing in the Canadian Cup?
5. Queens
6. McMaster, I expected them to do better given their record of 3-1 this year
7. Ryerson, a World Cup team from 2010 that underperformed
8. Toronto, another World Cup team from 2010 that underperformed

Colorado Quidditch Tournament Heads State "Championships"

Here are some state tournaments that have happened over the past few weeks or that will be taking place this weekend.

Colorado/Utah
In a tournament that three Colorado teams competed at, (hosts Northern Colorado, Colorado State, and the Denver Dementors, a community team), the Utah Crimson Fliers, ranked #26 in the IQA rankings, came out victorious.

Massachusetts
UMASS hosted Emerson, Boston University and Westfield State in a tournament that Boston won, beating Emerson in the finals. BU and Emerson were neck and neck, while hosts UMASS used this tournament as preparation for the World Cup.


Virginia
The University of Virginia will host James Madison and Turtle Cup Champions, Virginia Tech on October 30th. Our experts here at the IQA blog, (me), predict a decisive Virginia Tech victory and a close battle for second between JMU and Virginia.

Arizona
Northern Arizona will host Arizona State and Mesa Community College in Arizona's first intercollegiate tournament. On October 29th, I expect ASU will show why they are #3 in the World Rankings

Community Quidditch League

While I was at the Philly BroLove Cup, (which was attended by three community teams, Delaware Valley Dragons, New York Badassilisks, and Jetpack Ninja Dinosaurs from Space) I came up with the idea of having a community team league. The IQA could help to set up teams in every major city in the Northeast (to start) so that when college players graduate, if they live in a major city, they can still play Quidditch.
Right now the community teams I mentioned above are all evenly matched according to what I saw at the BroLove Cup. If the league were created today it might look like this.
New York Badassilisks (New York City)
Delaware Valley Dragons (Philadelphia)
Jetpack Ninja Dinosaurs (Space)
Expansion Possibilities :)
New England Nargles (Boston)
Washington Wizengamot (Washington DC)
Buffalo Blast Ended Skrewts (Buffalo)

Florida Quidditch Conference Week 2&3

After weeks 2&3 of Florida Quidditch Conference play, it seems like South Florida is the conference's best team, with a dominating record of 6-0, winning by an average margin of about 60 points. Miami is in second with a record of 4-2, Florida in third with a record of 2-3, and Ringling in last with a record of 0-7.
The final week of play takes place October 29th at South Florida with every team except Ringling in contention for the title. By the final week of the season, each team should have played 10 games.

Opinions and a Report of the BroLove Cup

The Philly BroLove Cup which took place on Oct. 15th at Chestnut Hill College. Since the town of Chestnut Hill was holding a Harry Potter weekend festival, hundreds of Harry Potter fanatics dropped by in full wizard costumes. It was also great to see many kids. Kids ten and under had fun chasing/finding the snitch, muggle quidditch's best feature.

One problem was that Chestnut Hill had four teams. I feel like the fans would have preferred to see their hometown team face off against the other colleges rather than themselves.

The elimination games were low scoring. Villanova allowed their opponents only 10 quaffle points but lost and in a very quick and badly snitched game, Maryland allowed 0 quaffle points to the Jetpack Ninja Dinosaurs from Space but lost on a quick snitch snatch.

The final between Penn St and Chestnut Hill was a bad blooded showdown between two of Pennsylvania's best teams. The players were warned by commissioner, Alex Benepe before the game about roughness, but the game still had vicious tackles and hard checks. Also, because of the low scoring matches, a 5 minute Seeker Floor was used for the first time. (the IQA has been debating whether to use this rule in future rulebooks) The Seeker Floor, in which the snitch gets a 5 minute head start, worked very well with a final score having 150 points total.
Although Chestnut Hill was the home team, most of the people watching were rooting for Penn St. The fans didn't like how rough Chestnut Hill was and after a nasty tackle by a Chestnut Hill player, the Penn St bench started cheering "Penn St, Penn St" and a majority of the fans joined in.
Since his team was losing 110 to 10, the Penn St seeker decided to pull a Victor Krum and snatch the snitch. Chestnut Hill won 110 to 40

Other Notes
The Delaware Valley Dragons Community team have fantastic hair
The Jetpack Ninja Dinosaurs from Space might have been going under the name of Jetpack Ninja Dutchmen from Space.
Along with 4 Chestnut Hill teams, 11 other teams competed for the title. 2 high school teams with mostly freshman also played

Brotherly Love Cup

On October 15th I personally attended the Philadelphia Brotherly Love Cup. The elimination bracket looked like this.
Quarterfinals
Stony Brook 70
Vassar 10
Jetpack Ninja Dinosaurs from Space 30
Maryland 20
Villanova 30
Penn St 40
Semifinals
Stony Brook 20
Chestnut Hill 50 (received first round bye)
JND from Space 0
Penn St 40
Finals
Chestnut Hill 110
Penn St 40 (snitch)

Florida Quidditch Conference

Congratulations to the FQC for forming the first quidditch conference! In it's first week of play hosted by Ringling College, USF went 2-0, Miami went 2-1, Florida went 1-2, and hosts Ringling went 0-2. Look forward to the next week of FQC play on September 24.

Welcome

Hi and welcome to my exclusively quidditch blog. I will be writing about everything that has to do with quidditch. I am very excited for the upcoming college quidditch season. This season includes the 5th World Cup, many fall tournaments, and the Florida Quidditch Conference's first year.
I am a 12 year old boy from Philadelphia who is not associated with any particular collegiate quidditch team,but who loves the sport and Harry Potter. I have attended one world cup (4) and plan to attend 2 tournaments this fall. For more quidditch information check out