Tourney Travails: Playing in Tournaments
Tournaments are the heart and soul of quidditch. B...
Adaptation and Lineups
In a tournament, teams have time to adjust their strategies and to view the other teams in person. This differs from individual games because in those cases, teams often do not have time to make huge strategic changes. In order for teams to play effectively in tournaments, they need to be able to adapt their play.
Some teams do not use their best players during the initial stages of a tournament if they are not playing against the best teams. This is useful because it ensures that a team's best players will not be injured before the most difficult matches. However, it also can hurt a team's seeding and even allow for a loss that would not happen otherwise. If a team is thinking of benching their better players, they should be sure their opponents will be easy to beat. Another problem with saving players for later use is that it can be degrading to the opposing teams.
Duration
One-day tournaments and two-day tournaments are different in the way they test teams. Two-day tournaments are always taken more seriously by attending teams because they usually represent a hefty financial commitment and are always a big time commitment. When playing in two-day tournaments, recovery becomes a huge factor in how well teams play. Recovery between games is always important, but the rest between days becomes a huge priority in a two-day tournament. If teams do not take proper precautions, their players will be much less effective the second day. Proper ways to recover from a long day of tournament play include drinking lots of water, setting a team curfew, and stretching before the teams leave the pitch on the first day.
If players want to be at the top of their game on the second day of a tournament, it is important to fuel their bodies the night before. They should try to make up for all the nutrients and water lost during the first day by drinking a lot of water and sports drinks full of electrolytes and vitamins, not sugar. Also important is to have a healthy dinner after the first day. The food eaten the night before a match will really determine a player's ability the next day.
Coasting Through Victory (and Defeat)
During a tournament, teams have to be able to ride the ups and downs of wins and losses. When a team wins their first match in a tournament, it presents the unique challenge of maintaining intensity while still celebrating their first success. Often, teams that have not had much tournament experience will do well in their first game only to fall apart in subsequent games because they failed to bring the mentality they went into the first game with into the following games. On the other hand, teams that lose matches still need to be able to move past their losses and stay focused in following games. Tournaments are as much about sustaining team morale as they are about skill.
One way that teams keep morale high throughout tournaments is through a pregame drill. These drills are integral to many teams' successes, because they allow teams to get into the proper mindset for winning matches. If teams always warm up the same way, it helps them to think of each match as a routine occurrence.
Making a Playoff Push
Between pool and bracket play, big changes can occur in team's play style. However, one trick to advancing in bracket play is simply to continue doing what had previously been working and avoiding changing too much. Many teams will attempt to play harder than they had previously, and this is usually shown through an increased physicality. Teams will often attempt unnecessary or dangerous tackles, and try to bulldoze to the hoops in situations where a pass is frequently better. Basically, teams need to try to play smarter, not harder to succeed in bracket play. The most successful teams will be able to maintain their style of play from the first match in a tournament to the last match of a tournament.
Team chemistry is one factor that can either make or break teams at tournaments. When a team is playing well, its bond is solid. Even good teams can be crippled by bad vibes. This is particularly noticeable in fantasy tournaments and on mercenary teams. Sometimes, these teams look as if they will be able to win on paper, but are not able to deliver because of a lack of team chemistry. Quidditch is a very teamwork-oriented sport, and bad chemistry can ruin a team's chances of success.
Preparing During Practice
Tournaments are not practice, and no team is going to treat one as such. During tournaments, players are going to perform differently than they would in practice. Inexperienced players tend to drop passes and make other small mistakes more often. Sometimes, players who know how to tackle well will become more physical than they are in practice. This is usually because they are less worried about hurting other teams than they would be about hurting their own teammates.
When scrimmaging within one's own team, teams should try to imitate the way they would play in tournaments. Some teams like to allow the scrimmage to continue even after the snitch is caught so time is not wasted, but given the importance of the snitch to gameplay, teams ought to practice while paying as much attention to the snitch as they would in a tournament. It is important to stress practice with the snitch on the pitch.
Another thing teams can do to minimize the differences between tournament play and practice is to get referees from nearby teams to officiate a scrimmage. This is particularly helpful because referees each interpret the rules of quidditch differently, and teams that can play under any official are sure to do better than a team that ends up receiving lots of fouls.
As the competitive scene grows ever larger, top teams will continue to be judged by their ability to succeed in tournaments, far more than in individual matches. By adjusting play styles and planning accordingly, teams can increase their chances of achieving a deep tournament run, or even a first-place finish.
