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MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE CIRCLES THE FIELD BEFORE A MATCH AT THE 2008 WORLD CUP.of the League Address], quidditch wasreferred to as a sport. Speaking for myself(and for a great part of the Middleburyteam), we frankly do not see quidditch thisway. Quidditch is a game.”Hyatt goes on to discuss the out-ofcontrolintensity of some of the games, thespirit-killing and fun-suffocating effects ofinstitutionalization, and the regression ofquidditch to become “more like any othersport.” Everything Hyatt says is outlinedclearly and fairly, but the comments setoff some uproar around the league. Manyquidditch players cannot even tolerate suchan anti-competitive perspective, especiallycoming from an important figure like Hyatt,the captain who led his team to theWorld Championship. Brad Armentor ofLSU voiced one of the strongest reactionsto Hyatt’s reaction (just wait, there are evenmore reactions to come). Says Armentor,“Whimsicality is obviously something thatwe all love about quidditch. I honestly respectanyone who plays the game becauseof it…Quidditch has already begun evolvinginto a more physical and athletic sportthan in years past. Because of that, I thinkthat the ‘come on man, we’re playing a gamewith a broom between our legs’ argumenthas become obsolete.” Hyatt’s classificationof quidditch as a game rather than a sportis what bothers Armentor the most. “Howcan we even hope to become a legitimatesport when the champion of quidditch seesit as just some game?”Armentor and Gutierrez both discuss cateringto people outside of quidditch andthe Harry Potter subculture. They wantto bring sports fans into our communityand our sport into a wider community. Ofcourse, the more the merrier, and ideallywe would like to bring in all kinds of fans.But it’s up to us, the quidditch community,to shape the perception of quidditch,and that perception will in turn determinewhat kind of fans we bring in. To grosslygeneralize, quidditch is half Harry Potter,half sport. Nonetheless, the majority ofour quidditch fanbase comes from HarryPotter, which has proved to be the far easiertranslation of fandom so far. Here’s thequestion that seems to be at the heart ofthe whimsicality-competition dichotomy:do we shape the perception of quidditch asmore of a sport to try to bring in new fans,players and volunteers, or do we stick to ourloyal base and keep the Harry Potter spiritas strong as ever?The reaction to Hyatt’s reaction waslargely public. Hyatt was able to watch theharsh criticism he was receiving unfold online,in a way that was neither behind hisback nor to his face, but also sort of both ofthose at the same time. Hyatt’s reaction tothe reaction to his initial reaction:“I was definitely a bit shocked at the vitriolI received...I still stand 100% by whatI said in that post. I just wish it could haveled to a constructive conversation as opposedto a shouting match…If I wantedto play a real sport in a competitive atmosphere,I’d go play soccer or baseball or basketball.I’m not denying that those sportscan be fun, but at the highest level, fun isnot the main object, winning is…With theproposed changes mandating a minimumnumber of qualifying games and year-longplay, we’re going to be hard-pressed to keep38 Quidditch Quarterly • Summer <strong>2012</strong>
“There’s one big problem with the Internet,though. It makes it easy to be a douche.”quidditch laid back and accessible to everyone…Forme, quidditch has more to dowith my 11-year-old self waiting for an owlto deliver my Hogwarts acceptance letterthan anything else.”That is a perspective that Armentor andothers who want to win will never agreewith. And Hyatt will never agree with thehard training and physical gameplay thatArmentor and those of his mindset want togo through to win.By no means do Hyatt and Armentorspeak respectively for all those who aremore whimsical or more competitive, buttheir conflict did capture the nuances withinthe whimsicality-competition dichotomy.Hyatt thinks that quidditch should beas separate and different as possible fromother sports, while Armentor thinks itshould be modeled after sports like handballand ultimate. Hyatt imagines himselfflying on his broomstick, while Armentorthinks of quidditch on the ground beforethe air. Hyatt says his least favorite part ofquidditch is the World Cup, while Armentorlives for it. Their differences lead to anunfortunate conclusion: it would seem thatnot everybody in quidditch can be happywith quidditch’s next step.THE INTERNETIt’s through the Internet that this whimsicalityvs. competition issue has boiled over.Quidditch’s headquarters are truly on theweb: on Facebook, Tumblr, and the IQAforums, where players and fans interactwith each other from all over the world, orfrom across the room with their own team.They figure out who the best players are,debate about the vague intricacies of gameplay,or mostly trail off into any number oftangents. Gutierrez says this is rare to findin the sports world: “In the two to threeyears I participated in club soccer, never didI come across a club soccer team’s Facebookgroup, a conference Facebook group, or anysort of social networking craze.” While amainstream sport has major media outletstelling you what players and teams to rootfor, we have to do so ourselves through theInternet, since the news doesn’t cover evenclose to the full scope of quidditch.There’s one big problem with the Internet,though. It makes it easy to be a douche.Quidditch news spreading through the Internetworks sort of like telephone: reallyimportant facts are often lost from post topost. Information becomes a mess of judgments,opinions and biases masqueradingas facts.“Alarmist rants and conspiracy theorieshave no place in quidditch conversations.They are counterproductive and rude. Period.”That’s according to UCLA captainand fan favorite Tom Marks. He goes onto say, “How do we balance the fun of thegame and the competition of the sport? Theanswer, in my opinion, is strive to be thebest at both of them.”Naturally, the Internet served as the battlegroundbetween Hyatt’s whimsy andArmentor’s competition. With sentimentsreflective of each of their opinions, Hyattrespectfully urged for a drawback in intensity,while neglecting the widely held beliefof Armentor’s that we’re in it to win it. Armentordid not hold back in his criticism ofHyatt’s post, calling him hypocritical andpretentious in stronger words.Tom Marks to the rescue: “This is where[Hyatt]’s comment comes from: A fear thatthe competition is going to make peopleforget how awesome pre-game hugs are,and a fear that the hugs will dilute thesport that some people, including myselfand my team, work really hard at...We canhold onto how fun the game is without losingit as a competitive sport, but to do thiswe need to change our attitudes as a community,specifically in how we interact witheach other online.”Actual fights in quidditch, which havebeen breaking out across the Internet moreand more since the lead up to World CupV, are always somewhat of a shock. Peoplecall out other players, teams, and evenregions, negatively generalizing them. Nomatter how different and antithetical eachother’s opinions are, quidditch has no roomfor negativity. When it comes down to it,we all want the same thing: to play quidditch,for quidditch to grow, and for no-QQ asks: Where do youfall on the competitionwhimsyspectrum?“I’m fine with the whimsy as long asit doesn’t interfere with the game. Ifyou want to have ninja games beforebrooms up, that’s your decision as ateam. But I don’t want to not be ableto hear my teammates on the pitchbecause there’s a band playing HarryPotter songs at level 10 volume 20yards away.” —Mitch Cavender, USC“I love Harry Potter as much as/evenmore than the next quidditch player,but...the whimsy is what keeps peopleoutside of the quidditch communityfrom taking us seriously as a sport.”—Jacob Adlis, University of Texas“I think what keeps me around is notso much ‘whimsy’ as friendliness andacceptance. I’ve never played penguinquidditch and I’ve always been againstcapes, but when I’m not playing I huganyone whose name I know and canshout across the event field.” —MattPanico, University of Pittsburgh“Whimsy is what draws you in,competition is what keeps you in thesport. There has to be a balance betweenthe two—whimsy draws the curiouscrowd, but the competitivenesskeeps them in their seats.” —StephenSmith, University of Florida“If it weren’t for the whimsy, I neverwould have appreciated the sport ofit. They are both so ridiculously importantto me. I just hope players willalways be doing silly antics or wearingimaginary numbers or names on theirjerseys.” —Anna Brisbin, NYU“I think intra-school competitionshould be a bit more whimsical, andtournaments can have some fun stuffattached, but inter-school play shouldlargely be competitive and treated asany other sport.” —Kevin Peterson,Austin, Texas“If you actively try to ‘create’ entertainment,without at least making aneffort to improve the sport itself, theextra attempts at fabricated whimsywill only end up distracting from whatshould be the main focus: quidditch.”—Mason Kuzmich, Texas A&MQuidditch Quarterly • Summer <strong>2012</strong> 39
Page 3: CONTENTS16226Recent TournamentsHous
Page 6 and 7: NORTHEASTMAY 26, 2012 • BRIARCLIF
Page 8 and 9: SOUTHPHOTO: ALI FISHMANABOVE: MARCH
Page 10: PHOTO: MATT HELLMAN1ST: UT2ND: A&M3
Page 13 and 14: L: THE NE PRESENTS A SHRUBBERY (PHO
Page 17: SHOPIQA.COMWITH THIS SHIRT,THE ODDS
Page 20: SUPPORT INTERNATIONAL QUIDDITCH.BUY
Page 24 and 25: QUIDDITCH DOWN UNDERBY ERIC ANDRESQ
Page 26 and 27: BUILDINGCOMMUNITYIN FRANCEBY LUKE Z
Page 28 and 29: FLYING TO CHINABY KATIE STACKThis p
Page 30 and 31: 30 Quidditch Quarterly • Summer 2
Page 32 and 33: JE NE PARLE PASL’ANGLAIS, BUT YES
Page 35 and 36: THE CORE CONFLICT:WHIMSICALITYVS.CO
Page 37: matter how you were seeded for the
Page 41 and 42: Quidditch Quarterly • Summer 2012
Page 43 and 44: Who is he?PHOTO: JAKE HINESBut sinc
Page 46: LEFT: MISSY SPONAGLE (PHOTO: JERRY
Page 50 and 51: The QQ interview: QuiykBY ABBIE RIC
Page 52 and 53: PLAYERS’ CORNERGetting into the s
Page 54 and 55: Tackling safe tacklingBY ERIC ANDRE
Page 56 and 57: A SNITCH HOLDS A BLUDGER BEFORE BRO
Page 58 and 59: Like Connor, Gwen is excited about
Page 60: “It always seems impossible until

summer 2012

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