The result wasn’t what they were hoping for, but if you think the Carleton Quidditch team’s performance at the World Cup in New York City put a damper on their weekend, you don’t know Quidditch.
The World Cup featured 46 teams and 757 athletes/Harry Potter enthusiasts from all across Canada and the United States, according to the International Quidditch Association. Every team played three games on the opening day and the top teams from each group advanced to the playoffs.
Carleton went 1-2 in the round robin Nov. 13 and failed to advance to the round of 24 in what was their first ever World Cup. They lost their opening game to Boston University, a team that finished third in last year’s World Cup, by a score of 60-30. The team bounced back in their second game and took down Ohio State University with a convincing 50-10 victory.
Their final game was against Canadian rivals McGill University. Unfortunately for Carleton, a few defensive miscues opened the floodgates early on and then McGill was able to catch the snitch and secure a 120-10 victory.
“It’s too bad but at the same time we played really well,” said Sherry Aske, who plays beater. “We held our own really well against Boston, and it would have been nice to beat McGill because we have played them before, but I’m really happy with the way we played.”
Andrew Nguyen, another beater for the Carleton team, said he thinks the team played very well considering their opponents.
“Our group was pretty much a group of death,” Nguyen said. “We were paired up with McGill, who were easily top 16 contenders in last year’s World Cup, and then Boston, who’s third best in the world.”
“We held our ground pretty well and learned a lot of different things.”
For the fourth consecutive year, Middlebury College— the team that invented the human version of the sport — were crowned international champions.
Even though Carleton didn’t manage to advance, the team was still thrilled to have even played in the World Cup. They stuck around on Sunday to watch all the playoff games, and even cheered on McGill, the team that knocked them out of the tournament, with chants of “CA – NA – DA.”
According to Aske, that’s the general spirit of Quidditch. It’s more about camaraderie than competitiveness.
“Quidditch is just so awesome and so reminiscent of a book series that is so fun that at the end of the day, even if you lose, you’re like, ‘Well, I just played Quidditch, so I’m awesome.' ”