New Conference and Regional Allignments

Hi,
First I want to say how thrilled I am to have so many views and votes on my poll! I hope that you guys will keep returning to my site because of the reports on tournaments that I normally post before the IQA announces, the interviews with people (if you want to have an interview with me featuring your Quidditch team/region/tournament, please contact me) and also my interesting foresights into the future of Quidditch.
Here is one of those foresights. Back in December, I began to make an allignment and conferences that I believe Quidditch teams will play in eventually based on quality of Quidditch teams, academics, geography, and past Quidditch tournaments. With the addition of the ICBA, Quidditch becomes a lot more interesting. Teams like Kansas, Missouri, and Marquette, who are in the Midwest, are now going to regularly play teams from the South Region in the Collegiate Cup. (Texas, LSU, Texas A&M) Since I am not sure what direction Quidditch will go in, I basically subbed the ICBA in for the IQA's South Region because most of the ICBA's teams right now are from the South. Also, there is the problem of Middlebury. Middlebury fits in perfectly with the Massachusetts Quidditch Conference (Emerson, Boston, Harvard, Tufts, and UMASS) They have the same academic culture, the Mass Quidditch Teams aren't so shabby, and all of those teams played at the Middlebury Classic. But, Middlebury has no varsity team until about a month before the World Cup when their intramural champion is chosen. But, I believe they will eventually have to change. The IQA is now requiring teams to play at least 5 games and I bet they'll increase that in coming years. If Middlebury still doesn't join the MQC, the situation will be similar to Notre Dame and the Big 10.
Without further ado, here are the conferences.

Southeast
FQC (8)
Florida
Miami
Ringling
South Florida
FAU
Florida State
Rollinsa
Florida Gulf Coast

South
Red River North Conference (7)
Texas Tech
Oklahoma State
Southwestern Oklahoma State
Kansas
Missouri
Wichita State
Marquette

Red River South Conference (8)
Texas A&M
Texas Lutheran
Sam Houston State
Texas Christian
Baylor
Texas
Texas State
Rice

Gulf Coast Conference (4)
LSU
Southern Alabama
New Orleans
Southern Miss

Midwest
B1G Quidditch Conference (8)
Minnesota
Illinois State
Pittsburgh
Ohio State
Penn State
Purdue
Michigan
Michigan State


Tri-Valley Conference (8)
Eastern Michigan
Miami
Ball State
Grand Valley State
Jetpack Ninja Dinosaurs
Bowling Green State
Carnegie Mellon
Denison

Northeast
Massachusetts Quidditch Conference (10)
Vassar
Yale
Vermont
Green Mountain
Middlebury
Harvard
Tufts
Emerson
Boston
UMASS

UNYQC (7)
Rochester
Ives Pond
SUNY Geneseo
SUNY Cortland
SUNY Fredonia
Syracuse
Edinboro
RIT

New York 4 (4)
NYU
NY Badassilisks
Hofstra
Stony Brook

Mid-Atlantic
Keystone Quidditch Conference (10)
Villanova
Chestnut Hill
Delaware Valley Dragons
Franklin and Marshall
Shippensburgh
Kutztown
Pennsylvania
Johns Hopkins
Maryland
Lafayette

Virginia-North Carolina Quidditch Conference (10)
VCU
Virginia
Virginia Tech
Christopher Newport
William & Mary
Richmond
James Madison
Duke
UNC
NC State

Canada
Canadian-Eastern Division (10)
McGill
Queen's
Carleton
McMaster
Ottawa
Toronto
Ryerson
Guelph
St Lawrence

Canada-Western Division (2)
UBC
Victoria

West
Rockies Division (6)
Arizona State
NAU
Utah Crimson Fliers
BYU
Denver Dementors
Northern Colorado

Pacific Division (10)
UCLA
USC
Cal Berkeley
San Diego State
Silicon Valley Skrewts
San Jose State
Occidental
Moorpark
Claremont
Stanford

Ives Pond wins SUNY Geneseo Knight Cup

Ives Pond won the SUNY Geneseo Knight Cup on Saturday beating Geneseo 50*-20. Many snitches were in snitch yellow and the identity of the real snitch was kept a secret for a while. Low scoring games throughout the tournament may have been a sign of good defense. Ives Pond entered single elimination as a 3 seed but shutout Cortland, beat Rochester United (I'm assuming that they are a combination of Univ. Rochester Thestrals and RIT) and won the championship. The other semi finalist was SUNY Fredonia. Here are the final rankings,
1 – Ive’s Pond (5-1)
2 – Geneseo (4-1)
3 – Rochester United (3-1)
4 – Fredonia (3-2)
5 – Edinboro (1-3)
6 – Cortland (0-4)
7 – Syracuse* (1-2)
8 – Nazareth* (0-3)
(*) = early departure

Here are the updated Upstate New York Quidditch Conference Standings
Rochester 3-0
Ives Pond 6-2
Geneseo 4-2
Fredonia 3-2
Edinboro 1-3
Cortland 0-4
Syracuse 1-4
RIT 1-1
Nazareth 0-3

Interview with David Gutierrez, a founder of the ICBA

Why did you form the ICBA?

To keep it simple, a group of us that had been playing the sport for awhile wanted to take the sport into a different direction than it was currently going in. We felt like we could raise the standards and the general level of respect for the sport via different methods than the IQA. Our intent wasn't to compete with the IQA when we formed, it was mostly to supplement the IQA in areas we thought were lacking focus/attention.  


Does the ICBA accept any teams that want to join?
 
Mostly Yes. Membership is free and the only condition that teams have to meet is they have to submit two representatives to the ICBA Congress (one male and one female) who at minimum must vote and their team must do everything feasible to attend their Conference's "Conference Tournament". 

Where will the Collegiate Cup take place?
 
Right now, looking at our current membership the Cup will most likely take place anywhere between Dallas and St. Louis. College Station, Texas is a last resort for it.

Who is the president/ founding members of the ICBA?
 David Gutierrez, Kori Lopreore, Doug Whiston, Sarah Kneiling are the founders of the ICBA. The Board oversees what is currently an approximately 32 man Congress.

Will teams in the ICBA be prohibited from participating in the IQA World Cup?
 
No! We encourage teams to go to the World Cup and to pay IQA membership dues when it is feasible/appropriate for them to do so. The World Cup is a fantastic experience that we will not prohibit anyone from going to. The only reason why we have a membership is for seeding purposes for the Collegiate Cup and to easier organize conferences with. Our membership is by no means exclusive, it is not there to be competitive with the IQA.    

Will the ICBA games and tournaments count in the IQA standings?
They should. The game is still played the same way. There maybe different variations here and there but the games should still count. I'd like to cite the Western Cup where it was legal to follow through with tackles on spinning targets and for beaters to leave the boundaries of the field (which are different than standard IQA rules) but those games still counted. So there is no reason our games should not count as well unless there is a major change in the rules (like if the IQA goes with a 4:3 ratio change and we stay with the 5:2).   
 
Do you believe that Quidditch should be a spectator sport?
 
I believe Quidditch should be a spectator sport when the sport is perfected. I do not believe the time for quidditch to become a spectator sport is now. With a rulebook that changes annually, tournaments that are organized in random, teams financially falling off the map, and an overall lack of standard/consistent competition; quidditch is not ready to be a spectator sport.

Will the ICBA pay its workers?
 
Currently no. We are all volunteers passionate about the sport. If the organization becomes profitable in the years to come, and we can afford to pay salaries without raising costs on teams, then it would be something to talk about. Everyone that is on the Board of Directors and our other volunteers all have career goals and ways of making a living outside of the ICBA.

On another note: if we ever can afford to, we have definitely talked about paying licensed refs/snitches. However that is still something we are financially far away from and need to further discuss.  

Does the ICBA want to make money?
 
The ICBA wants to acquire donations and sponsorships to help better fund tournaments and support the sport in general. Since we don't pay salaries or anything, we don't want to make money for ourselves as individuals.

My ultimate goal for Quidditch is to have Quidditch on TV. Will the ICBA try and market Quidditch to media?
That is the dream! The sport still has a long way to go until we can get it there. It is currently being streamed all over the place on the internet and with the Pitch and Snitch Center things are looking like quidditch can head in the direction of being on television. Before the ICBA can take steps to accomplish that though, we have to perfect our product. We have to be able to host quality tournaments with good competition that will encourage people to be interested enough in quidditch to want to watch it. The Collegiate Cup will most likely be the aspect of the sport we try to market onto the media but for now it seems we are a couple of years away from that as well. Our only goal at the moment is to form an official quidditch season that starts and stops, starting with Conference tournaments and ending with the Collegiate Cup. As teams develop and the game becomes more competitive hopefully quidditch as a sport will become something appealing for the media to get invested in. 
 
Do you want to compete with the IQA?
 
No, not at all. We merely supplement it with an organized Fall season.

Will your rules be different than the IQA's?

Our rules will be different to some degree mainly because the rules are largely left up to the approval of our membership where as the rules in the IQA are left up to a smaller group of individuals. So if there is a rule passed that our membership does not agree with, then it will be different (this is similar to what was done at the Western Cup and what is done in the Florida Conference from what I understand). Our rules are largely the same as the IQA's. We will have a different rulebook to distribute to our members should it be needed but it will not necesarrily be a different set of rules. I think people have over hyped this and think we at the ICBA are playing an entirely different game and that is simply not true. Quidditch with the ICBA is barely different than quidditch elsewhere.  

Miami wins the Swamp Cup

IQA #1 ranked Miami beat USF in the Swamp Cup final, coming from a 30-40 deficit to win 80-40. Miami scored two goals to put them ahead ten when they caught the snitch.
Many exciting games happen throughout Sunday including two hard games for World Cup runners up, Florida. They were clobbered 210-130 by USF and lost to Ringling in double overtime in the consolation match. Ringling had previously never won a game against one of its FQC foes.
Other scores
FAU 60* FGCU 30
Rollins 40 Florida State 110*


Here are all the scores. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/lv?key=0AgQhOxNfaQcydHJPeVJLbHQ4eW0wSzNVMFItMW9aMVE

Swamp Cup 2: An interview with Hannah Pohlmann

On Thursday night I was able to talk with Hannah Pohlmann via Skype about the Swamp Cup and the state of Quidditch in Florida. She told me that planning for the Swamp Cup is less stressful this year even though 8 teams will be attending. (Florida, South Florida, Miami, Ringling, Rollins, Florida Atlantic, Florida Gulf Coast and Florida State) Perhaps the biggest news in Florida is that USF's best player has transferred to Miami and will be competing with Miami against his former team. Miami has already been the favorite after going 4-0 at the first FQC Meet in 2012. I expect them to win as long as the addition of the USF player doesn't disrupt team chemistry. Joining USF, Miami, and UF, is FAU. Florida Atlantic is already a "trial" member of the FQC and they have been doing very well lately. They traveled all the way to Mardi GRAS Cup in Louisiana. Hannah said about FAU, "they display the spirit of Quidditch in every way. Not just on the field but off too."
Another "trial member" of the FQC, is Rollins College, who according to Hannah had a rocky semester. Also hoping to improve on last year is FQC members Ringling College. Both teams have been working hard hoping for a good showing at Swamp Cup.
Florida Gulf Coast is an interesting team. The captain of FGCU was the former captain at Cape Coral High School. Cape Coral attended last year's Swamp Cup, but this will be the first tournament FGCU will play at. Last, Florida State. FSU formed in the last 6 months so it is not expected that they will do great.
I also asked Hannah about the future of the FQC. The FQC is being very cautious about allowing new members in. Hannah said that they "don't want to stretch ourselves too far and too fast." However, both Rollins and FAU are "on their way" to becoming memmbers. Being one of the founders of the FQC, I asked her what she would tell budding conferences. She said, "You have to find a group of people who are passionate about every aspect of the game. That includes the game itself, rules, reffing, Harry Potter, etc. and you have to sit down and hammer out a set of rules." The FQC more or less uses IQA rules, but "you still have to discuss stuff like Seeker Floor." I asked what is the FQC doing in the next 3 months. She said, "We have to worry about staying ahead of everybody else, and continue to build our strong infrastructure.". Also, she told me that the FQC is having a meet in Miami on the weekend of April 6th and 7th. They are very excited for that meet because a team from Mexico is coming!
I am very appreciative that I was able to interview Hannah, and if any of my readers want to have an interview with me please comment.

Upstate NY Standings

Here are the standings according to the team records from the IQA

Rochester 3-0
Ives Pond 1-1
RIT 1-1
SUNY Geneseo 0-1
Syracuse 0-2

Looking forward to the SUNY Geneseo Knight Cup

The Quidditch Quarterly is out!

The Quidditch Quarterly, the new name of the Monthly Seer came out on March 16. You can find it on Issuu.com and you can read my article! Thanks to Alicia and everyone else who worked so hard to create such a masterpiece!

Upstate New York Conference

While the Upstate New York Conference is not official, the following teams have played at the Ives Pond Classic, will play at the Rochester ShamROC Cup and the SUNY Geneseo Knight Cup in the next two weeks, and there is also the SUNY Fredonia Tournament on April 14th. I would like to make an unofficial standings of this conference, but I do not have results from the Ives Pond Classic. If you have the records of teams at the Ives Pond Classic, please leave them in the comments.
Here are the teams.
Syracuse
Ives Pond
Rochester
RIT
SUNY Geneseo
Edinboro
SUNY Cortland
SUNY Geneseo

Western Cup Results

Pool Play
Pool 1 Pool 2 Pool 3 Pool 4
1. SJSU 1. USC 1. UCLA 1. Utah
2. Skrewts 2. Qwertyians 2. Cal 2. ASU
3. N/A 3. Power Grangers 3. Lost Boys 3. Wizards of Westwood
4. San Diego 4.Golden Snitches 4. NAU 4. Stanford
5. Claremont 5. Moorpark 5. Kickasskaban 5. Harpies

Bracket
USC
Qwertyians. USC

San Jose St. SJSU. USC 60*
Silicon Valley Skrewts

Utah Crimson Fliers. Utah. UCLA 50
Arizona St

UCLA. UCLA
Cal


Sorry for the spacing errors, I can't figure how to change that!

Utah Crimson Fliers and other problems at the Western Cup

The Utah Crimson Fliers came in 3rd place at the Western Cup, losing in the semi-finals to UCLA. They defeated defending champions Arizona St twice, in group play and in round one of single elimination. These victories might be because of several "mercenary" players joining the Utah Crimson Fliers from LSU, Kansas, and Texas A&M including star LSU power chaser Brad Armentor. Utah is allowed to do this because they are not associated with the University of Utah, they are a community team. I am all for community teams but I do not think players should be able to play for multiple teams. Because of these "mercenaries," ASU, the defending champions, were denied a chance at the title. The Sun Devils lost only twice, both times to Utah. That was also due to poor organization in the tournament. From Pools of 5, the top 2 advanced into an 8 team single elimination bracket. The teams from the same pool played each other in the first round of single elimination. Four teams, ASU, Cal, the Skrewts, and the Qwertyians were denied a shot at the title because they lost twice to the same team. (Once in group play, once in single elimination) It is a shame that those 4 teams could not have had the oppurtunity to play another team.
If players are willing to come all the way from Kansas, Louisana, and Texas, they should help with the organization.

The Pitch

The Pitch is a fantastic show hosted by Texas Quidditch team members, Kody Marshall, Sarah Holub, and Jacob Adlis. Marshall is a chaser and Adlis is a beater. I am not sure what position Holub plays. The show starts out with funky music and the line, "do you like to talk about Quidditch? Because we do!" They interview members of teams across the country including LSU, Texas A&M, Oklahoma State, and the Silicon Valley Skrewts. The focus is rooted in the Southern region, but the hosts have tried to outreach to other regions such as the West and the Midwest.
The show includes a Tips From the Pitch segment in which the hosts demonstrate certain Quidditch techniques such as the weave, bludgering, and tackling. Also, the show is great with introducing names of stand out players to the audience and giving behind the scenes stories.
The Pitch is a fantastic show unprecedented in the sport of Quidditch. With a little more speed, shorter segments, and edited highlights of games with commentary, this show could be the SportsCenter of Quidditch.

USC beats cross town foes UCLA

After all was said and done and the smog cleared, (the tournament was in LA) the USC Trojans came out victorious in the Western Cup. After going 4-0 in an easy Pool, with a +650 point differential, USC played the Qwertyians in round one of single elimination. The Qwertyians are the spicy team from Tijuana, Mexico, ever growing proof that Quidditch might be able to have a Victor Krum vs. Ireland type World Cup someday. USC took care of the Mexicans while UCLA defeated Cal in rematch to what was described on the IQA as the day's best game. The NAU Narwals failed to make the winners bracket having lost to UCLA, Cal, and the Lost Boys in Pool play. ASU played Utah, a team with traveling players such as Brad Armentor, the star Power Chaser from LSU. And the surprise of the tournament, San Jose State, 4-0, +220 in Pool Play, played the Silicon Valley Skrewts. SJSU did play in a rather weak Pool, though and Utah did not have enough "mercenaries" apparently because USC and UCLA met in the final.
UCLA is known for fantastic beating which can cause opposing chasers to go insane and USC has lost to UCLA more often than not, so UCLA went in as the favorites. A true Quidditch fan will remember the YouTube show "SnitchCenter" which aired in the fall 4 times. The hosts were beaters from UCLA and USC.
UCLA jumped out to a 50-30 lead, good defense and beating kept the score low, but UCLA was not able to get that precious 30 point lead, and USC caught the snitch. The final score was 60-50 USC.

UCLA Streaming the Western Cup Live

UCLA is Streaming the Western Cup online at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/western-cup-iii

Check it out!
It appeared that UCLA won its first game 180-40 over the Prisoners of Kick Azkaban.

Western Cup Preview and Predictions

The 3rd annual Western Cup will be taking place this weekend (March 10-11) in Southern California. 19 teams will be playing for the championship making it the largest Quidditch tournament west of the Mississippi ever. There is a deep field and several teams could win. Let's go through the contenders
The favorites, Arizona State. ASU went into the World Cup with a number 3 ranking, but lost in the early elimination rounds of single elimination. In rematches against Northern Arizona and Cal, ASU will hope to avenge their fall losses to both of these teams. However, ASU might have the most dominant player in the game, Keeper "Whomping" Willie Jackson. It is said that at the first Western Cup, the hoops were not far enough apart so "Whomping" Willie could block all three at the same time. Hopefully for the other teams, the hoops will be placed farther apart.

The dark horse, Northern Arizona Narwals. NAU has only played in two tournaments, an Arizonan tournament that they hosted in October 2011, and the 2012 Utah Snow Cup. They beat Arizona State twice, taking 2/3 with an overall score of 170 to 70. In the Utah Snow Cup, NAU beat Utah in the final game but Utah was awarded the trophy on point differential. Utah was running the tournament.

Utah Crimson Fliers. The experienced, two time Snow Cup Champions are marching into the Western Cup. They were one of 6 Western teams to make the trek to New York for the 5th World Cup and they played well until matching up against powerhouse Texas A&M, losing 130-0. Luckily for Utah, there are no powerhouses at the Western Cups, so if they can keep playing their game, maybe the Western Cup will be Utah's.

UCLA. The Bruins did the best of any Western team at the World Cup, going all the way the elite eight, losing 80-10 to eventual champions, Middlebury. Who knows, if UCLA hadn't had to play Middlebury, they could've ended up under the lights at Ichan Stadium.

USC. The Trojans will look to avenge that heart breaking loss to rivals UCLA in the World Cup and in the 2011 Western Cup Semifinals. Maybe this is the time USC can finally beat their crosstown tormentors.

California Berkely. Cal has the highest scoring offense in this Western Cup, scoring 88.3 points a game at the World Cup. A victory against ASU in the World Cup, could help boost the confidence of the Bears.

My prediction, is that the only one of the fore mentioned teams, that did not attend World Cup 5, will show they are a top notch Quidditch team. The NAU Narwals are a fast, clever team that used a cool, flying V play at the Snow Cup. If the other, older teams keep underestimating the Narwals, NAU will continue to be the best team in the West.

Keystone Quidditch Conference

I was so happy to hear that a Quidditch Conference was forming in my backyard! The KQC consists of Shippensburgh, longtime Quidditch teams Franklin and Marshall and Villanova and new team Penn. Play will begin in the fall with teams playing biweekly and I expect Villanova to do the best. They are the only team in the FQC ranked in my rankings. The KQC is open to expanding in Pennsylvania as well as Delaware and Maryland. Possible Future members include,
Delaware Valley Dragons. A Spunky team front the Philadelphia suburbs
Kutztown. A rival and frequent opponent of Shippensburgh
Swarthmore. An old Quidditch team who plays other sports in the same conference as F&M
Johns Hopkins. Another experienced Quidditch team who plays other sports in the same conference as F&M
Maryland. Successful hosts of the Turtle Cup and World Cup veterans
Chestnut Hill. 3 time World Cup vets that expand the KQC's presence in Philadelphia