Inquiry Blog 2

I have decided to immerse myself in and learn about the quidditch community. While I feel that I got a taste of the quid atlantic through the tournaments I experienced last year, but I think the connections that I have made and the much larger amount of tournaments that I will be attending this upcoming semester have given me a great opportunity to explore the community through a very diverse array of experiences.

QCC vs VCU vs VT @ VT 2/09/13 – I recently competed with my IQA (International Quidditch Association) official community team (QC Carolinas) in a mini tournament against 2 other IQA Teams

Rocky Top Rumble 2/16/13- I will (tentatively-plans may change) be competing with QC Carolinas at a Tournament in Cookeville, TN

A Cup Worth Fighting For 2/23/13- I will be competing with QC Carolinas as well as playing as a Snitch runner for several games. The Snitch runner is a very unique player who represents neither team. The game ends when the snitch is caught, so the snitch plays a very important but separate role in the game.

Shell Shocking Spectacular 3/3/13- I will be competing with a mercenary team (an unofficial, usually temporary team composed of players who either have no teams or whose teams are not represented at a tournament. This experience is very different from that of competing with one’s own team because it’s more fun centered as there is no pressure to qualify for a bid or affect rankings

Carolina Quidditch Conference Championships 3/23/13- I will be competing with UNCC’s Charlotte Quidditch for a shot at the conference championship. This will be Charlotte Quidditch’s first big tournament, for which I am very anxious and excited for. I will also be playing as a snitch and playing an all star game with QC Carolinas.

Mid Atlantic Snitch Academy 3/24/13- I will be attending a snitch academy to bolster my snitch skills and try to earn official snitch certification

World Cup VI 4/13-14/13- I will be competing with QC Carolinas at the IQA’s world championship tournament against teams from over 5 countries.

I feel that these experiences will immerse me in the sport in a very wide array of ways. I’m very very excited for them.

Some quidditch writing sources:

The IQA main website (full of IQA official news and rankings)

The IQA handbook (the detailed rules and regulations of the sport)

The Official World Cup Website (filled with information and news regarding the IQA world cup)

Quidditch Quarterly (The IQA’s official magazine)

The Eighth Man (quidditch’s most predominant unofficial news source)

From The Keeper Zone and The Dashing Seeker (2 of my favorite independent quidditch bloggers whose posts center around a player’s view of the game) I’ve considered starting one up myself. I might do that as part of this project. I’m not sure.

I think my own entrance into the quidditch community is an insurrection in and of itself. Most people, when they enter the world of quidditch, they do so by joining a team in their own schools or communities and become a part of quidditch through that team. While I have been aware of and intrigued by the existence of quidditch since late 2009, I did not have the opportunity to join a team or play the game in any way until Meg Stevens and I found eachother online and she informed me that she was starting up a quidditch team at UNCC and that I was welcome to join.

Charlotte Quidditch started with very humble beginnings.. Back in September in our very, very early days, our captain, Meg encouraged a few of our team’s players to join a mercenary team organized by a former ASU player named Nathan Love for Virginia Tech’s Sirius Blacksburg Brawl as a means of better acquainting ourselves to the game that we had only been playing for a few weeks. While the other Charlotte players marked the SBB down as a positive one time experience, I found myself completely enthralled by the world of quidditch, and I wanted more. Charlotte Quidditch was still young, and still growing. We practiced once a week and weren’t ready to join the Carolina Quidditch Conference or the IQA, which meant no tournaments or competitions.

Being the rapidly obsessive person that I always have been, I asked Nathan about other tournaments in the region-how I could play more quidditch, see more quidditch, anything. He informed me that he was bringing a mercenary team to University of Maryland for their tournament the next month but that the roster was full but I was welcome to come anyway. I was probably crazy to accept, but I did. I took an 8 hour bus ride to go watch quidditch. (my best friend from high school, Indigo also attended umd, so I figured I would kill two birds with one stone by visiting that weekend).

I’d intended to watch the tournament and root for UMD with Indigo (I’d met many of their players at the SBB and had developed quite the fondness for their team) but plans changed and Indigo informed me she had too much homework to join me. I arrived at the tournament, alone, an hour late and in skinny jeans, and went to go say hi to Nathan’s mercenary team.

“Can you play?” they asked me before even bothering with a greeting

Befuddled, I informed them that I did play.

“We’re short and we need beaters.”

I’m a beater.

Before I even knew what was going on, I was playing on the Bad Wolf mercenary team at the turtle cup. I had a purpose to be there. I threw some bludgers. I took a few tackles. I met some of the most amazing people. I got a closer look at snitching and realized I wanted to be one. I think the turtle cup marks the day I officially fell in love with quidditch. Nathan and I got back on that bus to North Carolina, tired and sore-having played a great game. Nathan mentioned that he was putting together a team for Mid Atlantic regionals for a chance at the World Cup. I told him I wanted in. I told him I’d do whatever it took. If there was quidditch to be played, I wanted to play it.

QC Carolinas was the little team that was never supposed to be. We were a thrown together rag tag group composed of quidditch alumni and players from small, non IQA official teams. We had our jerseys screen printed the week of. Most of us met for the first time the night before day one of the tournament. As far as everyone else was concerned, we weren’t even supposed to win a game. Yet somehow, despite having no plays, despite being completely unfamiliar with eachother’s playing styles, and despite our lack of communication, we pulled through. Not only did we win games, we placed 8th in the tournament and won ourselves a World Cup bid.

QCC and I currently play together on a regular basis in preparation for the world cup. I’ve continued merc-ing, (my team from the turtle cup is reuniting for the shell shocking spectacular in spring) continued playing with Charlotte Quidditch throughout it’s growth these past few months, and started seeking out opportunities to snitch tournaments. Nathan, my gateway to quidditch, is now my beloved captain almost everywhere I go and an extremely close friend of mine. I’ve gained friends through Quidditch from as far north as Ottowa and as far south as Argentina. While I’ve only been playing quidditch for just over half a year, I play for two separate teams (one could argue that I even play for four-Charlotte Quidditch, QC Carolinas, Bad Wolf, and Team Snitch) As a freshman, I’m competing in division I of the highest level competition in quidditch at the World Cup this year. It’s been an incredible adventure that I never would have started had I stuck only with Charlotte Quidditch. My debut into quidditch has very much been one of trailblazing and rulebreaking-and now that I’ve got momentum, I’m not about to slow down or stop.