You know the word. You've heard it before. Quidditch is the high-flying game from the Harry Potter series.
Well, no longer is it just an imaginary game from the books. It's a real-life contact sport. How great is that? All over the world, people compete for their chance to go to the Quidditch World Cup in April.
Teams are made up of high schools, universities, and adult communities. No, they may not actually fly, but they do use the brooms. In fact, it's a penalty if you don't.
Here are the Rules of Quidditch, taken from the US Quidditch website:
Rules
Quidditch is a co-ed contact sport with a unique mix of elements from rugby, dodgeball, and tag. A quidditch team is made up of seven athletes who play with brooms between their legs at all times. While the game can appear chaotic to the casual observer, once familiar with the basic rules, quidditch is an exciting sport to watch and even more exciting to play.
Three chasers score goals worth 10 points each with a volleyball called the quaffle. They advance the ball down the field by running with it, passing it to teammates, or kicking it. Each team has a keeper who defends the goal hoops. Two beaters use dodgeballs called bludgers to disrupt the flow of the game by “knocking out” other players. Any player hit by a bludger is out of play until they touch their own goals. Each team also has a seeker who tries to catch the snitch. The snitch is a ball attached to the waistband of the snitch runner, a neutral athlete in a yellow uniform who uses any means to avoid capture. The snitch is worth 30 points and its capture ends the game. If the score is tied after the snitch catch, the game proceeds into overtime.
During play, players are forbidden from taking certain actions, or fouls. Players who commit fouls face different consequences depending on the severity of the offense. A back to hoops foul indicates that a player must stop and return to their hoops, as though knocked out. A yellow card indicates that a player must spend one minute in the penalty box. A red card indicates that a player is barred from the rest of the game.
THE “FOUR MAXIMUM” GENDER RULE
A quidditch game requires each team to have a maximum of four players who identify with the same gender, excluding the seeker. The gender that a player identifies with is considered to be that player’s gender, which may or may not be the same as that person’s sex. We call this the “four maximum” rule. USQ accepts those who don’t identify within the binary gender system, and acknowledge that not all of our players identify as male or female. We welcome people of all identities and genders into our league.
For more information on USQ’s philosophy on gender equality, please see Title 9 ¾.
This looks like so much fun and apparently it gets a huge turnout from the pictures I've seen on the US Quidditch website. What a great way to use your imagination and bring it to life.
Would you go to a Quidditch tournament? I certainly would.
The history of real life Quidditch: Here
Read the Rita Skeeter article on this year's Quidditch World Cup written by J.K. Rowling: Here
More of J.K. Rowling's Potter short stories: Here
Lots of <3,
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