summer 2012

Who is he?PHOTO: JAKE HINESBut since the World Cup, everything haschanged. Players have shot from anonymityto stardom, and now quidditch fanscan choose their favorite teams based onthe players. Since certain regional Facebookgroups have exploded with popularity,quidditch players nationwide now talkto each other nonstop about each other,and when the occasional quidditch-basedconversation happens, players start to gainreputations as stars.The biggest change, however, has beenthe addition of one major figure in quidditch…Someone who seems to dedicateall of his time to the study of the game, andpreaches that knowledge to us via Tumblrbehind an unnecessary shroud of anonymity.I am speaking, of course, of the one andonly Golden Snitchy. Snitchy is far andaway the most influential person in quidditchright now, even more than Benepe,Alicia, or fellow anonyblogger Quinksy.In case you are unfamiliar with Snitchy’sblog, thegoldensnitchy.tumblr.com, hehas several features, most notably Son ofa Pitch, The Freshman, Drill of the Day,the Quidditch Yearbook. In Son of a Pitchand The Freshman, he highlights playersand their skills. Drill of the Day givesteams and players suggestions for practicingtechniques. And the Yearbook is a particularlycreative endeavor in which he postsubmissions from all over the world aboutpeoples’ favorite moments of the year. Ittakes his blog in a new direction, capturingthe real emotion and culture behindquidditch. While he usually focuses onthe competitive side, the Yearbook showsthat there’s too many wonderful aspects ofquidditch to even count, and competitionis just one of them.But competition is the one that Snitchyhighlights the most. Son of a Pitch ishis main feature, and that is the one thatmakes his blog, for that is where he createsquidditch stars for the entire quidditchworld. Quidditch stardom spreads throughword of mouth, and though not responsiblefor all of it, Snitchy begins many of thediscussions about great players.SON OF A PITCH!I’M UP AGAINST _____So I’m going to return the favor on behalfof the quidditch community. The GoldenSnitchy finally gets a feature. Keep onbreaking new ground and making our culturebetter!Anonymity isn’t easy, when quidditch issuch a social world. Snitchy has somehowmanaged to superheroically maintain hissecret identity. Whenever we’re at a tournament,he’s out there watching over us all,ready to soak in quidditch knowledge andspread it to the rest of the league.Snitchy isn’t right about everything, buthis quidditch knowledge is unparalleled.He seems to pay more attention than anybodyelse, so we are lucky to have such adedicated source bringing us all this information.If he’s not at a major tournament,he’s live blogging the information hereceives via live streams. And it’s not likehe just watches games, either; he has mentionedthat he volunteers. We can assume,based on his persona, that he snitches. Doeshe sneakily watch other games when hehides off the pitch?His expertise isn’t just limited to players,either. He likes to make predictions andreflections of tournaments, and has veryastute analyses that sound like they comestraight out of an ESPN column. He accuratelypredicted the result of every matchin pool play of the Champions Series, eventhough some of those teams had neverplayed before. He knows quidditch playersand gameplay well enough to make thosepredictions confidently and correctly. That’sall without mentioning his groundbreakingcreativity. He’s created an entire originalmedia outlet, and his presentations take theentertainment aspect to another level. Justlook at the Snitchy Games to see what he’scapable of.But who is this man? That’s all the infohe’s given us, after all. He has a particularknowledge of Northeastern and Westernplayers. But then again, he knows alot about the Southwest… and the Mid-Atlantic… he basically covers everywhere.Some clues point to the Northeast, but whoknows if those clues are just there to misleadus. I may be wrong (and I’m assuminghe’ll correct me via Tumblr if I am), but Ibelieve he is remaining anonymous so thathis readers won’t think he’s biased towardany particular team or group. I can understandthat, although I think it would makehis opinions more legitimate knowing thesource. But I hope he remains anonymous.It’s just so much fun to keep guessing.WEAKNESSES: Stuff that annoys him.He spreads a little more hate than peopledeserve, being harshly critical of schoolslike Middlebury. With such an influentialvoice in the league, Snitchy needs to becareful that he doesn’t use that power tocause other people to be too judgmental ofeach other. nQuidditch Quarterly • Summer 2012 43