Quidditch (real-life sport)
Quidditch, popularly and officially known as quadball since 2022, is a team sport that was created in 2003 at Nimbus 2003, a Harry Potter convention in Orlando, Florida, United States, and was inspired by the fictional game of the same name in the Harry Potter books by the author J. K. Rowling. Two teams of seven players each, astride PVC pipes and opposing each other on a rectangular pitch, compete with the primary objective of passing a ball through the defenders' hoops, while preventing their opponents from passing it through their own hoops. Before being renamed, the real-world sport used to be referred to as "muggle quidditch" to distinguish it from the fictional game of the books, which involves magical elements such as flying broomsticks and enchanted balls—a muggle in the Harry Potter series being a person without magical abilities. The sport is played around the world.
Rules of the sport are governed by the International Quadball Association, and events are sanctioned by either the IQA or that nation's governing body. A team consists of a minimum of seven players, of which six are always on the pitch: three chasers, one keeper, and two beaters. The seventh position, known as a seeker, joins each team after a time period known as the "seeker floor". The pitch is rectangular,, with three hoops at either end. Teams are required to be gender-balanced: each team may have a maximum of three non-seeker players who identify as the same gender on the field at one time, making quidditch one of the few sports that not only offers a gender-integrated environment, but an open community to those who identify as nonbinary.
To score points, chasers or keepers must get the quadball—a slightly deflated volleyball—into any of the three opposing hoops, which scores the team 10 points. To impede their opponents, beaters can use dodgeballs to hit opposing players and temporarily remove them from play. Once hit by an opposing dodgeball, that player must dismount their stick, drop any ball being held, and return to touch their own team's hoops before re-entering the game.
The ultimate goal is to have more points than the other team by the time the flag—a tennis ball inside a cloth tube hanging from the shorts of an impartial official dressed in yellow—is caught. After twenty minutes of play, the flag runner moves onto the pitch and tries to evade the two seekers. When one of the seekers catches the flag, that team is awarded 30 points. If this leads to the catching team having more points overall than their opponents, the game ends immediately with the catching team winning. In the event a team catches the snitch but still trails in points the game goes into an overtime period, with the target being the score achieved by the non-catching team plus 30 points. The first team to reach the target score wins the game; alternatively, either team may concede at any time during the overtime period. Matches or games often run about 30 to 40 minutes including stoppages, but tend to vary in length due to the unpredictable nature of the flag catch.
Rules vary from the IQA standard in domestic competitions, most notably in the US. In games sanctioned by Major League Quadball and US Quadball, catching the flag results in 35 points, which help teams reach a set score, 60 points above the score of the leading team before the seeker floor. The first team to reach this set score wins the game.
History
Quadball was originally called Quidditch, and has its roots in the fictional Harry Potter sport of the same name. Before the name change, to denote the difference, the fictional sport uses the capitalised "Quidditch" whereas the sport played as per the IQA rules used the uncapitalised "quidditch". In April 2017 Oxford Dictionaries recognised "quidditch" as a word.The sport was created in 2003 at Nimbus 2003, a Harry Potter convention in Orlando, Florida, by Christopher Dickson, a convention staff member. It grew into its own distinct sport after ten publications of rulebooks.
In 2007, the first Quidditch World Cup took place, won by Middlebury. Starting in 2008 there was a World Cup in the United States, where collegiate and community teams would compete. Canada often sent several Ontario or Quebec teams, and Australia, Mexico and France each sent a team once. In 2012, the IQA hosted the Summer Games, where five nations sent national teams. Two years later, the IQA hosted the Global Games, where the United States defeated Australia for the gold medal. There is now an IQA World Cup every two years, though the 2020 World Cup was cancelled and the 2022 World Cup was delayed until 2023.
The sport grew at universities in the United States, extending to Canada at McGill University and Carleton University in 2009. In 2010, UCLA became the first major university to create a permanent Quidditch pitch, sponsored by actor Matthew Perry. By 2015, there were teams in Australia, the UK, and France. This was followed by teams in Italy, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil.
In December 2021, US Quidditch and Major League Quidditch proposed changing the name of the sport, to distance themselves Rowling's views on transgender people, that have been criticized as transphobic, and to avoid a potential trademark dispute with Warner Bros. Names suggested include "quidball", "quadball", "quickball", "quicker", "quidstrike" and "quadraball". In July 2022, the new name "quadball" was announced, which references the game's four balls and retains 'Q' as the first letter.
Play
Each match begins with six of the starting players along the starting line within their keeper zone with brooms on the ground and the four balls lined in the centre of the pitch. The head referee then calls "brooms up!", upon which players run to gain possession of the balls. The flag runner goes on the field at 19 minutes, and the seekers are released at 20 minutes.Goals are worth ten points. Once a point is scored, the quadball must be given to the other team's keeper, and almost immediately returns to the offensive. Games can last any length of time longer than 20 minutes, depending on the skill and endurance of the seekers and flag runner.
The game ends after the flag has been caught through what is called a clean catch by the Flag Referee, The Head Referee, and the Flag Runner. The team that caught the flag is awarded 30 points, regardless if they are winning or losing the game. The winner is determined not by the flag catch, but by the number of points earned throughout the entirety of the game. Depending on the score teams will delay the flag catch to better their chances of winning. Teams that are losing tend to defend the flag by placing themselves between the Flag Runner and the opposing seeker.
Positions
The players positions are shown by the colour of the headband they wear on pitch.- Chasers are responsible for passing the quadball and scoring points by throwing the quadball through one of the opponent's goals for 10 points. Chasers may enter into physical contact with opposing chasers or keepers. There are three chasers on the field for each team.
- Keepers function as chasers with extra privileges. The keeper is invulnerable to dodgeballs as well as having indisputable possession of the quadball when within their team's keeper zone, an area around the team's hoops. There is one keeper per team.
- Beaters attempt to hit the opposing team's players with dodgeballs and attempt to block the dodgeballs from hitting their team's players. Beaters may catch a dodgeball to avoid being knocked out. As there are three dodgeballs for the four beaters on the pitch, the fourth, dodgeball-less beater puts pressure on the team in control of both dodgeballs. If a beater is on a team that has no dodgeballs, they may raise a hand above their shoulder with their fist closed and claim "dodgeball immunity" to prevent being knocked out by live dodgeballs as they collect the third dodgeball. A team that has two dodgeballs may not prevent the other team from collecting the third dodgeball. Beaters may enter into physical contact only with other beaters.
- Seekers attempt to catch the flag. They may not forcefully contact the flag runner but are permitted to contact the other seeker. The flag runner is released after 19 minutes, giving the seekers a chance to watch the flag runner before being released 1 minute later, after a total of 20 minutes of game time. There is one seeker on the field for each team.
Equipment
Stick
The stick serves the purpose of being a handicap such as one-handed dribbling in basketball or using only one's feet in association football. The player must stay mounted on their stick continuously unless they have been hit with a dodgeball, in which case the player needs to dismount from their stick and return to their hoops. To be mounted on the broomstick means that the player must hold the stick between their legs and not have it fully on the ground. If a player comes off of their stick for any reason, they have to dismount fully and return to their hoops to tag back in and remount.Players can substitute a variety of objects for stick depending on the level of seriousness. Many teams play on PVC pipes of about 3 feet or 1 meter in length; these are usually made, but can also be purchased from specialist quadball suppliers.