by Andrea Hill | October 23rd, 2011
A handful of Australian teams are training hard in preparation for the nation’s first-ever quidditch tournament happening next month.
The Quidditch Universities of Australia Federation League Cup — or QUAFL Cup, as it is known — will see five teams from across New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory competing in Sydney on Sat. Nov. 26.
It’s an exciting prospect for Australian teams, said Morgyn Benstead member of the Australian National University team and one of the tournament organizers.
“When we started at the beginning of this year we never thought we’d get to play on this level,” Benstead said. “Now we’re starting to plan to go to the 2013 World Cup.”
Despite teams’ enthusiasm, tournament organization has been a bit of a struggle the past few months, in part because most Australian teams are so new to the sport.
“Given that none of us have ever played intervarsity quidditch, we all have our own little modifications to the rules, and it’s been hard even identifying those, let alone standardising them,” Benstead said.
Benstead said it was also difficult to attract a large number of teams to the tournament. Australia only has eight active teams and two of these are in Queensland, which is a bit of a trek away from Sydney.
Organizers hoped they could persuade teams to make the journey to Australia’s capital city the weekend of Nov. 26 because a Sydney museum is running a Harry Potter exhibit at that time, but even this added incentive could not get the cash-strapped Queensland teams on the road.
With little more than a month until the tournament kicks off, tournament organizers are now turning their attention to promotion. Advertising the event has been delayed for several weeks because teams were having difficulty securing a venue. A field at University of New South Wales has only recently been confirmed.
Justin Chau, main tournament organizer and captain of the University of New South Wales team, said teams are also now looking for tournament sponsors and appealing to schools for funding.
For more information about the QUAFL Cup, visit the Facebook event page.
Aaron Michael Bergeron
October 23, 2011
12:16 pm
Everything has to start somewhere! I remember when our team (Umass) was one of 14 teams at the College Quidditch World Cup a few years ago! I wish you the best of luck you guys!
Justin Chau
October 23, 2011
11:33 pm
We Australians would politely like to inform the IQA that Sydney is not the capital city of Australia (although it is the biggest, and basically should be
).
Aaron Depetro
October 24, 2011
1:50 am
Ahhhh Justin, lets not get into the Melbourne vs. Sydney Rivalry! hahahaha
ACT – the state of compromise!
Morgyn Benstead
October 24, 2011
6:03 am
Could we have this added to the “upcoming events” list on the right-hand side of the news page?
Shannon Adams
October 24, 2011
4:13 pm
this has got to be the coolest logo ever! congrats on your league and hope to see you play in the USA soon. good luck!
Nicole Denney
October 24, 2011
11:53 pm
Someone start a club at Newcastle! So I can join when I study abroad there
Morgyn
Captain, Australian National University; International Regional Director
October 28, 2011
4:55 pm
Nicole – the University of Newcastle is one of the teams competing.
Kitty McGarry
November 7, 2011
10:55 pm
Silly IQA, Sydney’s not the capital. Get it right.
Victoria
November 16, 2011
4:31 pm
The poor ACT – even with ‘capital’ in its name, it can’t ever get recognised for what it is.