The Daily Snitch: Pool 11

by Andy Marmer | April 10, 2013

Editor's note: An earlier version of this story included an image that featured the logo for Iowa State Quidditch, not Illinois State. The IQA editorial team regrets the error. 

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this column are those of the author only and do not reflect the opinions of the IQA.

Today's Daily Snitch will look at Pool 11. Any questions about how teams will fare, email editorial@internationalquidditch.org.

Photo by Deanna Edmunds

Teams

No. 4 University of Maryland (College Park, MD)

No. 27 Lost Boys (Lomita, CA)

No. 31 University of Arkansas (Fayetteville, AR)

No. 60 Macaulay Honors College (New York, NY)

No. 91 Illinois State University (Normal, IL)

How They Got Here

No. 4 University of Maryland reached the World Cup with a runner-up performance at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Championship. UMD went 6-0 with a +840 point differential to earn the second seed in bracket play. From there, Maryland took down QC Carolinas (Winston Salem, NC) 180*-0 in the quarterfinals and QC Pitt (Pittsburgh, PA) 150*-80 in the semifinals, setting up a dramatic final against Villanova University (Villanova, PA). In a hard-fought matchup, Villanova took the regional title, 60*-50.

No. 27 Lost Boys also were runners up at their regional championship, finishing in second at Western Cup IV to reach the World Cup. A 4-0 record with a +630 point differential garnered the third seed for Lost Boys. The team from Lomita eked out a narrow 60*-50 victory over Arizona State University (Tempe, AZ) to qualify for the World Cup, and followed that with an even narrower 100^-60* win over their heated rivals, the Silicon Valley Skrewts (Mountain View, CA). The Lost Boys' dramatic run was ended by University of California Los Angeles (Los Angeles, CA) 130*-60 in the finals.

No. 31 University of Arkansas surprised many with their play at the Southwest Regional Championship, which ultimately earned them a spot at the World Cup. A 2-1 record in pool play yielded the sixth seed, and a 200*40 shellacking of Oklahoma State University (Stillwater, OK) sealed the World Cup spot. A 90*-30 loss to Texas State University (San Marcos, TX) ended Arkansas' run in the quarterfinals.

No. 57 Macaulay Honors College (New York, NY) qualified for the World Cup through their performance at the Northeast Regional Championship. A 2-2 record gave Macaulay the eleventh seed. In the Round of 16, they cemented their World Cup berth with an 80*-30 upset of Rochester Institute of Technology (Rochester, NY). In the quarterfinals, Macaulay proved no match for Boston University (Boston, MA), falling 160-40*.

No. 91 Illinois State University similarly reached the World Cup through an upset, qualifying at the Midwestern Regional Championship. After a 1-2 record, Illinois State held the 15th seed; however, a 100*-90 victory over Central Michigan University (Mount Pleasant, MI), put Illinois State in the World Cup. In the quarterfinals, Illinois State's run was cut short, 120-50* by Marquette University (Milwaukee, WI).

Outlook

This is Maryland's pool to lose, and I don't see that happening. UMD has lost just once this year: in the finals of the regional tournament to Villanova. Outside of that defeat, they own two victories over Hofstra (Hempstead, NY), a win over Tufts (Medford, MA), two over Ohio State (Columbus, OH), and wins over just about everyone in the Mid-Atlantic, other than Villanova. In addition, Maryland has caught more snitches than any other team, led by chaser/seeker hybrid Harry Greenhouse. UMD is a strong team, and should do decently in the tournament, I don't anticipate any struggles in this pool for them. They have already faced pool-mate Macaulay this year, winning 100*-0 in February.

While I don't think they can beat Maryland, Lost Boys should easily place second in this group. No team has seen a more rapid rise than the community team from Southern California. Just a year old, Lost Boys finished second at Western Cup, seemingly coming out of nowhere to best well-regarded teams such as the Skrewts, Arizona State, and University of Southern California (Los Angeles, CA). It's still worth remembering that Lost Boys' victories over the Skrewts and Arizona State were by very narrow margins, overtime, and a snitch catch, respectively. While I don't think Lost Boys has what it takes to beat Maryland, I'm still eagerly awaiting the matchup. This is one of my favorite things about World Cup, you get to see teams face off that would never play each other. Although Maryland has competed against many of the players on Lost Boys when they were students on the East Coast, you would never see these two teams face off anywhere other than the World Cup.

Arkansas, Macaulay, and Illinois State will likely be in a three-way battle for the third spot. None of these teams have had very sucecssful years. Arkansas is 3-4 this year against World Cup qualifying teams with a victory a 110*-50 over Roadrunner Quidditch (San Antonio, TX), and two wins over Oklahoma State. Outside of that match, Arkansas fell twice to University of Kansas (Lawrence, KS), and once to both University of Texas (Austin, TX) and Texas State.

Macaulay has played more matches against World Cup bound foes, but has not had any more success, posting a record of 2-11 against those teams. The only two victories were over University of Rochester (Rochester, NY) and Rochester Institute of Technology (Rochester, NY).

Illinois State has also struggled in their matches against World Cup foes, posting a record of 1-9 in ten such contests. I can't possibly foresee Illinois State doing enough to advance. Their losses have not always been against particularly strong World Cup teams, and their showing at the Midwest Regional Championship was actually rather poor, other than one shocking victory.

I think that Arkansas will probably end up going over Macaulay. I'd rather take the team that I don't know about than the one that has shown me they struggle against good teams. Arkansas cannot be reasonably expected to beat Texas, and there's nothing wrong with that. They managed  to keep Texas State and Kansas within snitch range, both of whom are strong teams. Macaulay is experienced, but those experiences haven't tended to be good ones.

Prediction

Maryland 4-0 (Eliminated in Elite Eight)

Lost Boys 3-1 (Eliminated in Sweet 16)

Arkansas 2-2 (Eliminated in Round of 36)

Macaulay 1-3 (Eliminated in Group)

Illinois State 0-4 (Eliminated in Group)

Best Games

UMD def. Lost Boys 130-90*

Arkansas def. Macaulay 100*-30

Update: A previous version of this story incorrectly listed Arkansas' record as being 1-4 against World Cup teams, they are in fact 3-4. The IQA appologizes for this error.