Our hopes and dreams for the Socceroos may have been crushed at the 2018 Russia World Cup but over in Italy, 29 Muggle teams are participating in the fourth Quidditch World Cup and Australia‘s the defending champs. And by Australia I mean the fierce ~ Dropbears ~.
In the slight chance you’re unfamiliar with the sport from J.K Rowling’s Harry Potter series, Quidditch is the one involving two opposing teams who compete against each other on broomsticks. Like many other sports, the team with the highest score wins.
In Florence, Australia just completely smashed the host nation’s team, Nationale Italiana Quidditch, in an exhibition match. Dropbears scored an impressive 140 points to Italy’s 40. Seeker, Simon Spann caught the golden snitch scoring his team a massive 30 points.
In other words, good signs – very good signs.
If you’re wondering how the golden snitch works – seekers chase after and try to remove the golden snitch from the snitch runner to score 30 points and end the period. The snitch is attached to the runner’s waistband, who by the way, has the extremely difficult job of spending the entire match sprinting across the field in order to avoid the two opposing seekers. Talk about a bloody workout.
And just like in the books, the teams are made up of a chaser, keeper, beater, quaffle and bludger players, and the seeker. It’s the real deal minus the flying bits unless you count a super quick zoom across the field.
Run by the International Quidditch Association (IQA), the Quidditch World Cup takes place every two years with its inaugural event held in the United Kingdom. The United States won the first Cup in 2012 as well as the second in Canada in 2014. Then, the Dropbears defeated the reigning champs in Germany in 2016 and will defend the honour at this year’s world cup.
The 2018 IQA World Cup kicked off yesterday and will wrap up July 2.
Unfortunately, our national Quidditch team (run and played by volunteers) doesn’t attract a lot of money so the team’s selling some merch in order to raise funds. If you’re keen to contribute to our mighty team or just want to read more about the sport then click, HERE.
Also if you want to read more about the rules, then hit up the IQA Rulebook.
P.S I stalked too hard and found the official 2018 Quidditch World Cup Opening Ceremony.
