The moment you have all been waiting for is finally here! After two weeks of voting on a host of strong and interesting bids spanning the entire United States from Maine to Southern California, the IQA is excited to announce the sites of the 2012/2013 Regional Championships.  

Location

While the voting process was initially expected to take just a week, it was extended to allow captains more time to get their votes in and then extended further for runoff votes in certain regions. After runoffs in the Southwest finally concluded with the winning bid eking out a two-vote victory, it was necessary for us to first confirm with each winning bid before announcing the results. But with all of that out of the way, here are the sites of the Regional Championships:

Mid-Atlantic: Roanoke, VA
Midwest: Warren County, OH
Northeast: Boston, MA
South: Augusta, GA
Southwest: Denton, TX
West: Placer Valley, CA

The IQA wants to thank every participating bid for everything you offered in your pitches and our teams and captains for taking the time to vote despite the short deadlines. Our goal was to make sure the choice was completely in your hands, and we hope you agree and that you enjoy your regionals to the fullest. We are confident that the tournaments will be planned and executed excellently at these locations, and we look forward to all the Regional Championships!

Regional Championship Committees

With the locations selected, the Regional Directors will now be creating Regional Championship Committees (RCC). The RCCs will be responsible for all aspects of the tournament, from gameplay to logistics to marketing. In regions with a city-sponsored bid, the RCCs will be working in tangent with the city organizations to plan the tournament. Each region will take on as many volunteers for their RCC as they see fit. For those interested in participating, here is the contact information for the director of each region:

Mid-Atlantic

Regional Director: Logan Anbinder

Email: logan.anbinder@internationalquidditch.org

Additional Information: https://docs.google.com/a/internationalquidditch.org/file/d/0B0ZN_yIc2AFraURHN2NjTTVYN3c/edit

Midwest

Regional Director: Luke Zak

Email: luke.zak@internationalquidditch.org

Northeast

Regional Director: Kristina Moy

Email: k.moy@internationalquidditch.org

Additional Information: https://docs.google.com/a/internationalquidditch.org/file/d/0B3aBxjlznDruSjE4UXQ2YmI3SWs/edit?pli=1

South

Regional Director: Lacie Swan

Email: lacie.swan@internationalquidditch.org

Additional Information: https://docs.google.com/a/internationalquidditch.org/file/d/0B_QxttNovqaqenpWSm5wQTRvYWc/edit

Southwest

Regional Director: Becca Dupont

Email: becca.dupont@internationalquidditch.org

West

Regional Director: Harrison Homel

Email: harrison.homel@internationalquidditch.org

Additional Information: https://docs.google.com/a/internationalquidditch.org/document/d/1df5H0xpPBMKxYoP3Fl58pvfzBzahvNExlNHpqXtrzdE/edit

World Cup Spot Distribution

The Gameplay Department has reached a final decision on the distribution of the 60 Division 1 World Cup spots that will be earned at the Regional Championships. Sixteen of the spots will be distributed by the number of spots in the top 16 of the 2011 World Cup that teams from each region earned earned for their region:  three to the Midwest, three to the Southwest, three to the Northeast, two to the Mid-Atlantic, two to the South, two to the West and one to Eastern Canada. 38 of the spots will be based on official member density in each region, based on a count taken at 11:59 p.m. EST on October 1, 2012.

This system is built both to reward small regions that have performed well in the past while not punishing large regions that will have more teams competing for their bids. There will also be 20 Division 2 World Cup spots; more information about that process will be announced in the coming months.

The final six spots will tentatively be designated for non-Canadian international teams. Eastern Canada will be included in the regions dividing the 54 spots by 2011 World Cup placement and relative regional density. Western Canada will be included in the Western regionals, as per the recent West Megazord announcement.

International Regionals

Although details have not yet been finalized for many of the international regionals that will be held, the IQA is diligently working with local teams and organizations to plan regionals for Australia, Europe, and more.

The Australian regional will be held at the University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW. The tournament director for this regional championship is Matt Hudson (matthudsonau@gmail.com), and the Oceania regional director is Morgyn Benstead (morgyn.benstead@internationalquidditch.org).

The European regional will be held in Lesparre Medoc, France, and will be organized by Ingrid Vezy (ingrid.vezy@hotmail.fr ) and the Anthena Quidditch team.

Plans are currently underway for the Eastern Canada regional location; the tentative location is Kingston, Ontario. More information will be released on that as it is available.

We are currently working on details for the international regionals, so look out for more information on those in the near future.

What’s Next?

Once the RCCs are chosen, their first order of business will be pinning down dates as quickly as possible so that you can all begin to plan for attending. From there, all of the details of planning will continue. The gameplay department will announce the final number of spots for each region on October 7. The regional season will be kicking off with Quidstock on October 12, and the tournaments are expected to be played between October 2012 and March 2013. As more information becomes available, we’ll be sure to let you know.

Note: the official 2012-2013 season began on July 1, 2012. Any official games (played between two official member teams) played on or after this date can and should be submitted to the IQA website to be included in the rankings.

Thank you for your patience in this exciting process. We look forward to all regional championships across the nation and the world during the 2012-2013 season!