So this past weekend I, being part of the U of M Quidditch Team, traveled up to MSU to compete in a Quidditch Tournament, yea Quidditch, just like in Harry Potter, Before I get into how the tournament went and my thoughts on it let me give you a brief history of Quidditch.
It all started at Middlebury College back in 2005 when 3 Students decided to make an adaptation of the Wizard Sport from Harry Potter. While this was the beginning of the sport it was in 2008 when the Middlebury Quidditch team decided to visit 6 different college campuses to play quidditch that the sport really began to catch fire. Since its humble beginnings in a small College in Vermont the sport has exploded into an international phenomenon culminating in the 5th World Cup in New York City. In this Tournament college teams from over 25 states and 3 countries (USA, Canada, and Finland) competed.
Now onto this past weekend at the Spartan Quidditch Bonanza. Overall it was a very fun experience, not only was it fun playing a new and dynamic sport but it also offered me some time to hang out with some friends that I've made while playing quidditch. Our team ended up placing 3rd in the tournament losing to Ball State in the semi-finals after going 3-0 in pool play (EMU, Purdue, and JND (a Community Team)).
To me what has been really interesting about this sport is the way that it has progressed. Some college students come up with an idea to take a sport from a book and make it into reality and just a few years it has exploded into an international sport. To me this raises an interesting question, how do we as a culture define a sport? What makes a sport different from just a game you make up with friends and play in your pastime? I hope that you all will take a look at this sport if not to watch an interesting game then to just have a laugh and encourage you all to come see a game next year.
Michael Scheible
Links:
Rules
Michigan Quidditch Facebook Page
Video of the Finals from World Cup 5
Monday, April 2, 2012
Collegiate Quidditch... Phenomenon or Just Plain Crazy?
This is a very interesting point and post. I'm not even sure how one would go about playing Quidditch, but clearly it's a defined game with rules. I'm not sure that you can define it as a sport just yet. There probably needs to be more of a known game. I didn't know about this until I read this post. I'd definitely though like to see the game played and learn how it's played. It's definitely interesting to see how a made up game from a book can be transformed into something that people actually play on a regular basis. Obviously the game is making strides in the college world, as you named big time schools like MSU and Purdue participating. I'll definitely check out a youtube video of this, maybe just one day it will be considered a sport.
ReplyDeleteMichael,
ReplyDeleteI never knew that Michigan had a Quidditch team! I think that this sounds really cool, and I would love to see how this game is played because I can only picture it in Harry Potter. I think that it's really interesting how this has progressed from a fictional sport in a book to an intercollegiate sport. When you ask how we as a culture define a sport, I think that sport can be defined as any type of competition, whether it be individual or team. It's really cool that Middlebury was able to bring this sport to real life... It makes me think that anything is possible. Do you play this sport because you are you a fan of Harry Potter? Or because you were you interested in the sport itself?
I think that this sport can also be compared to the discussion we had on imaginary games that children play. Children use their imagination and make-believe play, and the fictional story of Harry Potter is a perfect example of this. In this case of Quidditch, students are able to bring this game to life, similar to how children believe in their imaginary games and act as if they are real life.