It was a beautiful fall day to watch the first major Quidditch tournament of the year for the Carleton Ravens Quidditch team Oct. 5.
The game is adapted from the wizard sport found in the Harry Potter books, and while there aren’t any standard rules for this sport yet, many teams seem to see eye-to-eye when it comes to game play.
Quaffles are volleyballs and are used by Chasers to score goals through the goalposts, Carleton A-team second-year Beater Jen McAlister explained.
She said in their games, each goal is worth 10 points. Bludgers are usually dodgeballs used by Beaters to throw at Chasers to prevent them from scoring. If you are hit with one, you must run back and touch your team’s goalpost before getting back on your broom.
Golden Snitches are Quidditch players dressed all in yellow. Seekers must pull a yellow tag off the snitch, resulting in 30 points for their team and the end of the game.
In the Trial By Fire tournament, 10 teams competed from both Canada and the United States.
Pool A consisted of University of Montreal, Carleton’s A-team, and Queen’s University.
Pool B consisted of Ottawa Maple Rush from the University of Ottawa, McGill University, and Carleton’s B-team, Conspiracy.
Pool C consisted of the Gee-Gees also from the University of Ottawa, NYDC Capitalists, a team comprised of players from New York City and Washington D.C., Southern Ontario, made up of players from various schools in southern Ontario, and Canada’s Finest, McGill University’s B-team.
Though Carleton’s B-team struggled, the Carleton A-team made it into the quarter-finals with ease. Carleton’s A-team won their first two games against Montreal and Queen’s.
“For many of the players, it’s their first time in a tournament, so it’ll be interesting to watch them play against Montreal, because it’s their first tournament too,” McAlister said of the Conspiracy team.
The Conspiracy team lost the consolation game against Montreal, and finished in 10th place.
“Last year, there wasn’t a B-team, so this tournament is good practice for Conspiracy,” she said.
The Carleton A-team’s quarter-final game was against Queen’s. Carleton won, with a score of 110, plus a 30-point Snitch-grab by the Seeker, with a score of zero for Queen’s.
In the semi-finals, the Carleton A-team competed against McGill, where it was apparent that both teams were evenly matched.
The game was very close, with emotions running high, injuries occurring for both teams, and a broken goal hoop by Carleton, expressing the strong competition. Seekers from both teams struggled to grab the Snitch throughout the game.
McGill came from behind and claimed the victory with a long-awaited Snitch-grab, making the score 80 to Carleton’s 70 points.
With no further games for Carleton A, the team was disappointed but stayed positive.
“It was a good game and we had a good day,” McAlister said.
