Fly Like Quidditch

thegoldensnitchy:

The Quidditch community is made up of three types of players:

1. HP fans who’ve never participated in a sport before and want to pay homage to their favorite book series whilst getting some exercise
2. HP fans who want the chance to partake in a sport that is less of a time constraint than traditional HS/College sports
3. Athletes who consider Quidditch to be more of a sport than a Harry Potter-inspired activity and would never use the word “Quove” in their lives

The International Quidditch Association does an excellent job appeasing players 1 and 2. Efforts are constantly being made to bring in new players, regardless of their prior athletic experience. Benepe himself often publicly takes the stance that he sees Quidditch as more of a fantasy game than a true sport.

WORLD CUP: SPECTATOR EVENT OR SPORTING EVENT

The past Quidditch World Cup was a huge event decorated with fire dancers, wrock bands, and even members of the HP-cult-favorite Team Starkid. It was, in many ways, the interactive event version of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Families journey to an island filled with magic and kids longed to be one of those players running around on broomstick.

Unfortunately, the entertainment aspect of the IQA allows for less time to be spent on the sporting aspect of Quidditch. Whilst several players loved the wrock bands, fire dancers, etc. there were many (as I said, 1 of 3 players, or around 33% of those participating in the Cup) who would have preferred the IQA’s money be spent on more accessible water and food. Personally, I know that if I hadn’t snuck food and beverages onto the island, I would have been very dehydrated and drained of energy. Also, the noises coming from the entertainment made it hard to communicate during games, and made it difficult to hear referees.

RULES COUNCIL: DEMOCRACY OR PRIVATE GROUP

Due to the fact that Quidditch started out as a fun little event that grew at an incredibly rapid pace, the rulebook has been understandably adjusted several times, and some vague areas still remain. Several players (again, primarily player #3) have made attempts to help the IQA clear up these vague areas and were seemingly ignored. Some decisions the IQA has been making in regards to rules (primarily the seeker floor and the gender rule) do in fact drastically change the sport, and players feel like they had little to no say in the changes. I admit that I personally was one of the louder voices against the seeker floor, and while I embrace it now due to its ability to keep games at a decent length, I did feel like my opinion didn’t matter to the IQA. The International Confederacy of Broomstick Athletes aims to create a government system that more resembles a democracy, where major changes are voted on by its members and extensively discussed before game-changing decisions are made. Whilst the IQA Rule Council is a private group of officials who have the ability to go against public opinion, the ICBA is a Congress where things are a bit more open. My primary issue is that members of both organizations may be confused if there are two different sets of rules or players may just choose to solely stick with the organization whose rules they prefer.

IQA vs. ICBA

The ICBA states that it is their goal to work alongside the IQA, not against it. This isn’t neccessarily true - they want to appeal to all the player #3s of the world, and in doing so, can put some strain on the sport. The player #3s have always existed, but this is the first time they’re joining to very openly and loudly express their frustrations with the IQA. The creation of this new organization is definitely beneficial in that this is the first time this discussion is really getting a lot of attention - as much as people can say they wish the ICBA members and supports lobbied for more help in their goals to improve the IQA, the truth is that we wouldn’t have paid this much attention to a mere petition. The people who founded the ICBA truly do believe they did all they could to make their voices heard and were continually ignored - as much as this was a shock to a large majority of the Quidditch community, to them, it’s been an ongoing process that has taken a lot of careful thought and deliberation.

Do I personally wish the IQA would see all of the concerns of the ICBA and recognize just how many (again, 33%) people support them? Yes, I’m sort of in between players 2 and 3 so I share most of the ICBA’s concerns and ideas. Do I wish that the ICBA and IQA could just stay one unified organization and the people behind the ICBA would just work harder to improve what we already had? Yes. But maybe a competing league will be good for the sport. It might be nice for the Division I teams to have the ICBA’s “Collegiate Cup”, where the primary focus is on the sport, and for the Division II teams to have the IQA’s “World Cup”, the ultimate Harry Potter experience. One of my first posts on here was about wanting a more clear rules system and a more clear distinction between Division I and Division II, so after much thought, I support the ICBA… but I admit that I do fear that it has the potential to do damage to a sport that is already hanging on a thread due to the graduating Harry Potter generation. There are pros and cons to every stance in this debate, and I think it’s important to read up on all the issues and form your own opinions. Some things in Quidditch are best to ignore because they’ll just dissolve on their own… but the future of Quidditch as either entertainment spectacle or legitimate sport is at stake here. So it’s worth the attention it’s starting to muster up.

- Snitchy

Snitchy, I really, really enjoy this post. Arguments and debates are won or dissolved by seeing both sides and dealing with facts and no so much emotion. Snitchy has outlined great arguments for both sides and presented them in a very unbiased manner.

I truly hope that everyone can be civil about this. If I (you know, the kid who posts rants about all things related to quidditch) am being civil about this, I honestly can’t see any reason why anyone else can’t.