Quidditch may not be the most well-known sport out there, but this weekend nine teams from British Columbia, Alberta, and Washington will battle it out for the Rocky Mountain Rumble Cup here in Kelowna.
The tournament will be taking place at the Mission Recreation Centre on the turf field on November 7th from 10 a.m. until 8 p.m.
Jillian Staniec, Tournament Director and player with Alberta Clippers Quidditch team said they picked Kelowna so every team had to travel a bit. “We travel the furthest even though we’re the hosts, but it’s worth it for us to play those teams. The British Columbia teams are really good, and so are the Washington teams. Getting to have more competition than just having the two teams in Alberta play together is great.”
The game of Quidditch became a sport 10 years ago and now there are teams on every continent as well as the International Quidditch Association world cup every year. Staniec said this year there will be a national Canadian Quidditch team that will travel to wherever the cup is held to represent the country.
Kelowna doesn’t have their own team but Staniec hopes with this tournament being held in the city it will motivate a team to get started. “We would love to have a team started, whether it’s UBCO or a Kelowna community team, or even a kid’s team. That’d be great.”
The full contact muggle sport is mostly played the way Harry Potter plays it, minus the flying part. Each team has three chasers, two beaters, and one keeper. The snitch is released at the beginning of the game, which is a tennis ball tucked into the waistband of a person wearing a lot of yellow. Each ball is worth a different amount of points when they are thrown through the three hoops at the end of the field. The snitch can run away on and off the field, but as soon as a team grabs the tennis ball the game is over.
Spectators are welcomed and encouraged at this tournament, and Staniec said if possible between games teams can teach hopeful players a few tips and tricks about the mix-gendered sport.
To learn more about the ever-growing game you can watch this video of the Team Canada Quidditch team at the 2014 Global Games.
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