The Carleton University Quidditch team may have lost in the final of the 2013 Canadian Cup Quidditch tournament to the University of Ottawa Nov. 9, but the showing at the tournament helped them qualify for the International Quidditch Association (IQA) World Cup.
Two teams from Carleton competed in the event, their first team known as Carleton University Quidditch, and their second team referred to as Conspiracy.
Conspiracy lost all three of their round-robin games.
The Carleton team is one of four teams who qualified for the World Cup.
“I think we played really well as a team. We set out and did what we wanted to accomplish, which was qualifying for the World Cup,” Jenn Magel, a third-year Chaser for Carleton, said.
The Carleton team qualified for the World Cup last season, but Magel said they were unable to attend the event because the timing conflicted with students’ exams.
Fourth-year Carleton Chaser Devin Dutt said qualifying this year is great because the IQA changed the dates to avoid student exam conflicts this year.
“[Missing out on the World Cup] sucked a lot, to be honest,” he said.
Dutt said another factor in why last year’s team was unable to go was a lack of fundraising to afford the trip.
But this year, he said funding has already begun and will help cover some of the team’s costs for travelling to the World Cup, to be held in North Myrtle Beach, S.C. from April 5-6, 2014.
The Canadian Cup saw Carleton dominate their opening games, sweeping their competition in the three round-robin games before defeating the University of Guelph in the quarterfinal to clinch one of the four eastern Canadian region school slots for the World Cup.
“After we won that quarterfinal and knew we were going to the world cup, it was just overwhelming,” Magel said.
Fourth-year Keeper Bill Whyte said the highlight of the tournament was beating McGill University, the previous two-time defending Canadian Cup champions, in the semifinal.
Whyte said Carleton has never beaten McGill during his four years on the team.
“We’ve played them at least once a year and they’ve always beaten us, and usually by a good margin,” he said. “It’s only been in the last two years where we’ve started to even up with them.”
Magel said she is proud of her team for finally being able to overcome the McGill obstacle.
“It’s sort of become a joking tradition that we meet each other in the semifinals of tournaments, like last year in the Canadian Cup and in the Trial by Fire tournament we competed in this October,” she said. “We didn’t manage to pull through in the past, but this time we did, and I think it’s just a testament to how much we wanted it as a team.”
Whyte said he was impressed with his team’s effort in each of their six matches in the one-day tournament, not only in the McGill game.
“As a veteran of the team for four years now, I can honestly say this Canadian Cup was one of our best performances,” he said.
Dutt said the team has already decided to increase their training and practicing in anticipation of their World Cup appearance, bumping up practice from one day a week to three.
Magel said she thinks this increased training regimen will only help the team going forward in the spring.
“I think it’s definitely going to help us for sure,” she said. “Now that we know we’re going to the World Cup and [will] be competing against the best teams in the world, we’ll definitely want to start increasing our conditioning so we can have the best showing possible.”
When it comes to goals for the team’s showing at the 80-team World Cup tournament, Dutt said he believes they should be aiming high and have plenty of motivation to do well.
“Our goal is to come in the top eight,” he said. “But honestly, I’m hoping we go all the way and win the whole thing.”
