Quidditch, which was once only accessible in the fictional wizarding world, is now taking universities across Canada by storm.
The adaptation of a popular wizarding sport in the Harry Potter novels, which has been popular in the United States for a few years, will be showcased at Carleton Oct. 29 in the first official Canadian tournament.
We think that this is an important step towards continuing to build a Canadian Quidditch culture,said Andrea Hill, the founder and captain of Carleton’s Quidditch team, who is also tournament’s co-chair.
The Canadian Cup, which is an International Quidditch Association (IQA) sanctioned event, has eight teams registered, including Canada’s top-ranked team from McGill University. Teams will play at Ravens’ Road Field from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
“Carleton, on a Canadian stage, is quite a strong team. Right now, we’re the second-ranked Canadian team after McGill University,” Hill said. “McGill did beat us at the World Cup last year when we played together in New York City, so they’re the team to beat on our radar.”
If Carleton does end up playing McGill’s team, it will be in the elimination games. The two teams will not meet in pool play because of the tournament’s format, Hill said.
Despite the pool formations, however, Hill seemed to be very confident in Carleton’s chances.
“We have played against University of Ottawa before and won. We’ve played against St. Lawrence University before and won,” she said. “All the other teams are going to be new to us and we’re quite excited to see that.”
The Canadian Cup will replace a previously announced tournament that was supposed to be held in Montreal, Hill said. Due to liability insurance issues, McGill was unable to host the tournament.
“It looked like the entire tournament was going to be scrapped, and we weren’t going to have a Canadian tournament that year, at which point I stepped in and said Carleton would do it,” Hill said.
It’s been an uphill battle for the organizing committee, but despite what Hill called a “very tight timeline,” a large groundswell of support and work has ensured that Canada will be hosting its first-ever tournament.
“We had very little notice but got a lot of people mobilized very quickly,” Hill said. “We’ve been getting the ball rolling ever since, and we’re very excited that it’s almost here.”
Carleton’s team, ranked 59th in the IQA, hopes a strong finish in the tournament will help them land a higher seeding for the Quidditch World Cup November 12-13 in New York City.
“The tournament is going to be the first time that our competitive team that’s representing us at the World Cup is going to be playing together,” Hill said. “We have a few new freshmen on the team, so this is going to be a great opportunity to try and play with some veterans who have been playing for the last two years.”
