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Quidditch World Cup 2010 – A roundup

On any other evening, the DeWitt Clinton Park in Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan might have been your normal walk-the-dog, pitch-the-ball park, with a spattering of tourists loitering around, cursing their bad luck on not getting their passes to that day’s taping of the Jon Stewart show next door. But, today wasn’t that usual evening. Curious bystanders and neighborhood jogging regulars would have been puzzled by the huge and enthusiastic gathering of hundreds of athletic teens and twentysomes, the charged up atmosphere and the large number of crazies with war paints and weird robes. A small and indistinct banner spelt out the name of probably the most unlikely event you would ever see, even at the crazy-capital of the world: an event that is supposedly not for our kind, not even supposed to be witnessed or comprehended, let alone be played, by the ‘mere humans’ otherwise referred to as muggles – the Quidditch World Cup.

I have always appreciated the passion and professionalism of collegiate sports in this country, though I have never had the patience to learn and follow any of the major series or seasons (I accept I have some unexplained bias against some of the games, but I digress). After seeing how folks here can convert even a simple pastime like Frisbee into a rigorous rule-driven sport, I would have never been surprised to hear of new games being invented in the collegiate sports arena here. But, I did do a double take when I read somewhere that some colleges have been playing a version of Quidditch for a few years now. Given the obvious fact that us muggles can’t fly, and that flying brooms, bludgers and snitches are just the figments of imagination of a creative woman, I simply couldn’t see how it could be done. But then, the smart people at Middlebury College, Vermont had apparently found a way to do it.

The first time you read about how muggle Quidditch is played, you snigger. It is not natural to play a ballgame with a broom tucked inbetween your legs. And the first time you actually see something like that, it is downright hilarious. No marks for extrapolating the imagery into the usual d*** jokes

And we cannot have a tiny flying ball for a snitch, which makes it necessary to have a nimble-legged muggle to run around with the snitch. And since the game is over if the snitch is captured, we need to have an innovative way to hide the snitch on the human, so that it is difficult to capture. Having the snitch in a sock tucked behind at the waist isn’t the most elegant way of achieving this, but it gets the job done. Again, no marks for any snatch-the-snitch jokes

Thus, by addressing magical requirements one after the other by purely muggle methods (Arthur Weasley would have approved), the creators had invented a practical version of the game. Collegiate sports passion and the irresistable franchise of the wizard kid ensured that the word went around. Soon enough, sufficient number of universities, colleges and high schools signed up to have a country-wide event. The intercollegiate Quidditch association soon became the International Quidditch Association with other countries starting to follow the rule book. Thus, the Quidditch World Cup was born, and its 2010 edition made more news by coming to the Big Apple. The current version of ‘Quidditch World Cup’ is still very much a ‘US and Canada’ affair, much like the funnily named ‘World Series‘. But this game seems to be poised for growth, with more and more colleges signing up and the next World cup scheduled to be at Scotland.

So much for the story of the game.

The actual event turned out to be great fun to watch. Silly-looking premises notwithstanding, the game itself was played with good intensity and seriousness. In fact, sometimes the intensity was so high, it even lead to injuries. The college kids were uber-enthusiastic and there were some pretty strong support in the audience for many colleges. The 50 registered teams were an eclectic mix containing teams from Ivy League universities like Harvard and Yale, some local colleges and some other usual suspects in collegiate sports.

The setting was faithful to JKRowling’s visualization, with all the hoops, seekers, chasers, beaters, keepers, brooms and a volleyball serving as the Quaffle. Of course, nobody wants a skull-breaking bludger ruining the party and so it had been replaced by a dodgeball, which meant that the bludger had to play a different role. In this case, it played the role of breaking quaffle-possession when the bludger hit a chaser. The atmosphere was further enlivened by some spirited commentary, Lee Jordan style, with some hyperboles thrown in, a la Loony Lovegood.

The intense moments were mostly dealing with Quaffle possession and attempts at goal, and comic relief usually came from the snitch runner, taunting the seekers, running around and climbing fences and trees. Since the snitch runner appeared and disappeared just like the snitch does in the wizard version, gameplay upped itself whenever he was around. The championship game provided more chaos by introducing a whole bunch of snitch runners in uniforms with only one having the snitch. In all, these innovations made for great gameplay and thrills.

Long story short, the founders of the game, Middlebury College were also the most disciplined and skillful and rightfully emerged winners of the tournament, hoisting high the Quidditch World Cup trophy. The runners-up Tufts, calling themselves Tufflepuffs, lost the match, but got the snitch and Viktor Krum flashed in every mind (which I am pretty sure was purposefully arranged for, but hey, nice try! ). Vassar College team charmed the audience with some elegant plays and general enthusiasm and sportsmanship. Rainy Johnson, the snitch runner for the finals was easily the most entertaining person of the day, as he taunted and dodged and dived and generally made the seekers look very silly.

So, what does this world cup mean to the future of Muggle Quidditch as a serious game? It is too early to say. There might also be some practical difficulties due to the demanding nature of refereeing these matches, since there are too many things happening at the same time on the field (snitch, quaffle, bludger). But the enthusiasm for the game is palpable and will probably spread more. Critics are quick to point out that Quidditch is essentially premised on magic and to define a non-magic Quidditch is oxymoronic and an exercise in futility. Indeed they might be right in their point of view.

But do consider this moment in the 3rd place match: Vassar College was losing heavily against Pittsburg and suddenly there was period of play when the Vassar folks decided to enjoy their game. There was much dancing with the Quaffle and the chaser who possessed it had a moment of of clarity: he was almost at the other side of the field when he had one good look at his hoop at a distance and then went for his shot. The ball sailed above the heads of all the Pitts players and hurried in to the hoop perfectly. It was a perfect sports movie moment – the kind of shot which is earmarked for glory, irrespective of the outcome of the match. A shot which might have brought into a lot of minds a familiar name in another sport – Earvin Johnson, Jr. But no one ever calls him by that obscure first name. He has been immortalized by another name, and that somehow fittingly is, ‘Magic’.