Sports

'Quidditch' Championship Comes to Rhode Island

Fans of the best-selling Harry Potter franchise will flock to Newport this November for the event.

On September 11, 2012, the International Quidditch Association announced that the 2012 Northeast Regional Tournament would be held November 17-18 at Fort Adams State Park in Newport, RI.

For those unfamiliar with Quidditch, it began as a fictional sport created by British author J. K. Rowling for the Harry Potter book series. Matches are played between two teams of seven players riding flying broomsticks, using four balls and six elevated ring-shaped goals, three on each side of the Quidditch pitch (field).

Since 2005, the sport has been adapted in the real world by the International Quidditch Association, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to "governing the sport of Quidditch and inspiring young people to lead physically active and socially engaged lives." The first ever real-life Quidditch game was played on Oct. 9 of that year at Middlebury College in Vermont.

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Click here for a video from the 2011 Quidditch World Cup held on Randall's Island, New York City in November 2011.

The Association is now comprised of more than 1,000 teams and prospective teams from more than 13 nations. (There's no flying broomsticks quite yet, but with how quickly our technology evolves, you never know what's in store for the future of the sport.)

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According to Event Coordinator Kristina Moy, this year's Northeast Regional Tournament was originally going to be held in Boston, MA, but after much negotiation with various venues in the area with little support, the IQA decided to look elsewhere. After several weeks of deliberation and conversation with applicants and venues, Fort Adams was chosen after its bid was submitted by the University of Rhode Island Quidditch Club.

Details about the event and team registration will be coming soon and can be found at the IQA's official website, http://www.internationalquidditch.org.

 


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