Football and Quidditch?

Tue Aug 18, 2015 12:51 pm

Just wanted to put this out there for anyone interested.
Macomb has been selected to host this year's Midwest Regional Quidditch Tournament (yes, that's a real sport...think rugby with brooms). The Midwest region covers Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, and the Dakotas.
Here's more info about it: http://tspr.org/post/quidditch-coming-macomb

Anyway, I wanted to mention that the tournament is coming to Macomb the same weekend as our last home football game. The tournament is November 21-22 at Veterans Park (head east on University drive past the country club) and on November 21 at Hanson Field, the Leathernecks host SDSU for their last regular season home game of the year.

Since it's the first weekend of Thanksgiving break, most of the students will be away, but if some of the die-hard fans here who are around for the football game are interested, it'd be great to have some extra support at the tournament too. Macomb is trying to make this be a regular thing (getting this tournament every year), so it'd be awesome to get as much support/attendance as possible.

sealhall74 · Tue Aug 18, 2015 3:54 pm

Does WIU/Macomb already have a quidditch team/club or plan on fielding one in the future?

Tue Aug 18, 2015 4:04 pm

sealhall74 wrote:Does WIU/Macomb already have a quiddich team/club or plan on fielding one in the future?

We do not currently have a quidditch team/club. I haven't heard anything about forming one, but hosting a tournament might prompt the discussion about starting one. The teams in the midwest region that qualified for the US Quidditch World Cup last year were (some college-based, some independent):
Ball State Cardinals
Blue Mountain Quidditch Club
Bowling Green State University
Central Michigan Quidditch
Crimson Warhawks
Falcon Warriors Quidditch Club
Illinois State University Firebirds
Indiana University Midnight Snipes Quidditch
Kansas Quidditch
Miami University
Michigan Quidditch Team
Michigan State University Spartan Quidditch
Minnesota Quidditch
Ohio State Quidditch
Ohio University Flying Bobcats
Purdue Intercollegiate Quidditch Association
TC Frost
University of Missouri

It also looks like Southern IL has a quidditch club, but not quite on the level of some of the ones listed above.

I think it'd be pretty cool to have one if they can get enough interest. I mean, if you look on the list of sports clubs on campus, we've got a cricket club, hula hoop club, and something called "Elite Beauty"...which....I have no idea what that is. Quidditch is apparently a very fast-growing, inclusive sport on college campuses, and I don't see why there couldn't be one here.

Western_101 · Tue Aug 18, 2015 5:47 pm

I don't even know what to think about this.

sealhall74 · Tue Aug 18, 2015 6:12 pm

If we offer Harry Potter-themed course or two on the curriculum, we won't have any trouble getting enough guys, gals, ... for a Quidditch team.

Tue Aug 18, 2015 6:37 pm

RedNeck wrote:I don't even know what to think about this.

Well....here's what I think about this...

Gray noted that league representatives provided them with the potential economic impact of the tournament. Their predictions:

100-200 hotel room nights for athletes and officials
500 spectators
$350,000 in tourism revenue

Tue Nov 17, 2015 1:25 pm

So, the Midwest Regional Quidditch Championship is this weekend. Matches will be going on all day Saturday and into Sunday. They're using three fields for competition, so up to three matches can be ongoing at one time. Matches start at 8 AM, last about 30 minutes (as near as I can tell), with the next round starting every 40 minutes and a couple of breaks at 10 AM and 1:20 PM. It looks like Day 1 is essentially 3 pools of 4-5 teams that play a round-robin schedule for seeding in a 12-team dual-elimination (I think) playoff bracket. The top 2 teams in the main bracket and the top 2 in the consolation bracket earn bids to Nationals. You can check out more info here: https://www.usquidditch.org/events/special/Midwest-RC

Teams participating (most are affiliated with universities) are:
Arkansas State RedWolf Quidditch
Crimson Warhawks (from University of Kansas)
Illinois State University Firebirds
Iowa State Quidditch
Kansas Quidditch (KU's official club quidditch team)
Loyola University Chicago
Marquette University Quidditch
Minnesota Nice Quidditch Club (community club)
Minnesota Quidditch
Mizzou Quidditch
Northwestern Kneazles
Southern Illinois University Quidditch
TC FROST (community team)
University of Northern Colorado
Webster University Quidditch
Wichita State University

wiu712 · Tue Nov 17, 2015 5:56 pm

What would be the ideal weather conditions for Quidditch ???

The forecast for Saturday is calling for a high of 33 with partly cloudy skies. It will be breezy with NW winds at 15-25 mph.

Tue Nov 17, 2015 6:01 pm

wiu712 wrote:What would be the ideal weather conditions for Quidditch ???

The forecast for Saturday is calling for a high of 33 with partly cloudy skies. It will be breezy with NW winds at 15-25 mph.

I have no idea. For the players, probably whatever the weather would be for a nice day if you're running around. 30s are ok if it's sunny and you've got a jacket on. Might be kinda chilly for the spectators though, especially if it's windy. I'll be layering up quite a bit for the football game...I know that much.