Monday, May 27, 2013

The Future of Quidditch

In this article, I'm going to examine a bunch of events in the hope that readers get to see what the future of our sport is going to look like. I'm going to quote the State of the League Address and also provide my own opinions and ideas. Enjoy!

National Cup
What the State of the League Address says: "The IQA hopes to start off next season with at least five National Leagues, including the United States, although National Cups will not technically begin (at least in name) until 2017, with the advent of the evolved World Cup."

  • prize given to the best official member quidditch team in every country with a national league
  • US's National Cup would be what we now know as the Divison 1 World Cup and would go by that name until 2017. 
  • National Cups would be for teams that qualified at regional tournaments.

My thoughts: World Cup is going to get better every year, regardless of whether it's name changes to the US National Cup.

Quidstock (place-holding name for this event)
What the State of the League Address says: "Additionally, the IQA will be creating a massive annual invitational tournament open to every single official member team, which may grow in size to host hundreds of teams and dozens of fields. The goal of this event will be to retain the spirit of the original, all-inclusive World Cup, as the current World Cup and other championships grow to become more exclusive."

  • inclusive, fun tournament much like World Cup III or IV. 
  • less competitive, open to any official member team in any country 

My thoughts: I hope this event would still be competitive, but would target the teams who don't do extensive training, and just like to play quidditch. This event would please the Middleburys and Vassars so they dont have to hold a "screw you IQA" tournament. In addition, I hope this event would focus on bringing spectators a hilarious, fun, and exciting day. Therefore, announcers would be improv comedians, snitch antics/props are highly encouraged and Kidditch would be available to play. Originally the atmosphere is what I fell in love with about quidditch- not strategy and blogging.

Global Games
What the State of the League Address says: "Last, but not least, as a hold over until World Cup X, the IQA will be hosting the Global Games, a national team-only event, in summer 2014, similar to the Summer Games event in Oxford last year. The IQA is currently in talks with several cities in Canada for hosting, and will also approach the Olympic organizers in Rio.”

  • Olympic Exhibition type event, two years after the Olympics
  • National team only

My thoughts: The Global Games sound awesome. I couldn't have waited another four years for Olympic Quidditch. Also, this gives players who might have been Freshman in 2012 a chance to make a national team during their collegiate career. The Global Games are said to be a "hold over until World Cup X" so in my opinion, they should try a WCX-like event at the Global Games to see how it works. If the National Team Competition took place on Saturday and Sunday, the best club teams from each country should be invited to play exhibition matches on Friday. The clubs might not be able to field a full team, but for instance, Texas could take players from their JV team, Austin Quidditch to complete the team. Seeing Texas or the WCVII champions play other countries' champions would give the IQA an idea about whether we are ready for an event like WCX.


Regionals
What the State of the League Address says: "Regional tournaments will ideally find centralized, highly-populated urban centers to remain in for several years at a time. By finding central cities to host and keep regional tournaments, the audience will build year after year to the point that regionals have tens of thousands of attendees and generate a significant amount of revenue to fund other regional events throughout the year. These “quidditch cities” will serve as regional hubs for the sport, and may one day hopefully stimulate the construction of quidditch fields and possibly even small stadiums."

  • regionals take place in cities to attract audience and revenue
  • quidditch cities build stadiums for quidditch 

My thoughts: The idea of quidditch cites and small stadiums being constructed is the coolest and best idea the IQA has ever come up with. Hopefully, the Mid-Atlantic chooses Philadelphia and the Northeast chooses New York so I can go every year! Thinking about revenue from fans is also really smart. This revenue will be used to "fund other regional events throughout the year." In my opinion, this revenue should go to a new type of event, Interregionals. Each region would partner with two other regions to create a total of six Interregionals throughout the year. Each team that wanted to participate in the World Cup would be required to attend at least one Interrregional Tournament. Each team would receive some funding (from regionals) to travel to the Interregionals. Here is an idea of what the Interregional schedule could look like with ideas for location. ****this is just an idea****

Northeast vs. Mid Atlantic.......New York, NY
Midwest vs. Mid Atlantic.........Pittsburgh, PA
South vs. Southwest..............New Orleans, LA
Southwest vs. West................Los Angeles, CA
West vs. Midwest...................St. Louis, MO
South vs. Northeast...............Miami, FL

Other Events
What the State of the League Address says: "As early as next season, every region will host events like open-enrollment fantasy tournaments, uniquely structured tournaments like the “Bottom of the Bracket” tournament held in Houston"
"The IQA is currently scouting a location for a High School World Cup, and next season each regional championship will have a high school division, in addition to the High School World Cup. The league is also discussing the possibility of an event specifically for community teams."

  • the IQA is looking into doing many cool new types of tournaments 
  • fantasy tournaments run by the region, bottom of the brackets, high school WCs, and community team only events are among the possibility

My thoughts: 
Fantasy Tournaments: Awesome. Thank you Kody Marshall and Augustine Monroe.
Bottom of the Bracket Tournaments: Yep! These tournaments give teams that want to be the best a taste of victory!
High School World Cup: My team (yet to be formed) is winning the first one these things. So excited!
Community Championship: First step to the Professional Quidditch World Series/the Professional Quidditch Super Bowl. One day community teams are going to be professional.

1 comment:

  1. I go to St. Joes Prep. What school are you going to in the fall?

    ReplyDelete