First Norwegian Quidditch Championship

by IQA Staff | May 7, 2013

Editor's Note: The following article was written by Kai Haugen Shaw, coach/captain of the NTNUI Rumpeldunk. He also snitched the championship match.

While the rest of the quidditch world was focusing on World Cup VI in sunny Florida, a smaller tournament took place in the icy north of Europe.

Photo by Mari Øien.

The first annual Norwegian Quidditch Championship was held April 13th and 14th in the capital city of Oslo. Six teams participated: five from high schools in Oslo and one from a university in Trondheim. Oslo Cathedral School's quidditch initiative is largely based around its Harry Potter club, clearly illustrated with the names of the teams they sent: Slytherin, Hufflepuff and Gryffinclaw. Lambertseter VGS sent two teams, Lambertseter 1 and Lambertseter 2. Quidditch at this school also began with a Harry Potter club. The only university team in attendance was NTNUI Rumpeldunk (Norwegian University of Science and Technology Athletics Quidditch).

The tournament began with round robin group play on Saturday and the beginning of Sunday with the top four teams qualifying for the semifinals, and then a gold-medal or bronze-medal game.

As a small tournament consisting almost exclusively of players who had never been in a quidditch tournament (one player competed for the University of California Berkeley (Berkeley, CA) at Western Cups II and III and World Cup V) before and some teams that had seldom practiced with the official IQA rules, there were some initial struggles. The first day included numerous violations of the rules, uncertain referees, little cohesion, and varying degrees of strategy. As a result, play was stopped numerous times to explain the rules to players and referees. One game even resulted in a draw, as nobody involved in that particular match knew that ties require overtime. However, some of the referees knew the rules well, and players were open to critique and interested in learning the rules properly.

Photo by Mari Øien.

Teams showed strong learning curves, which created interesting results, with some teams playing their final game in a completely different manner than their first. Spirits were high both days despite the weather being only a few degrees above freezing. The artificial grass field was clear of snow, but the snitch boundaries contained snow, ice, and a few puddles between grass and asphalt.

The tournament did not use official bludgers, as the standard American dodgeball is not particularly common in Norway. Instead, softer, smaller Norwegian dodgeballs were used.  While the hoops worked well most of the time, a game between Gryffinclaw and NTNUI was stopped several times in order to fix the hoops with duct tape.

Getting enough snitch runners was also a problem, and the tournament had to rely on using players from other teams that were not playing. There was initially one unaffiliated snitch, but he became ill after the first game on Saturday. Great snitch moments still occurred though, including one snitch climbing up on the roof of a nearby building and a playground chase resulting in the snitch escaping on a slide.

Photo by Mari Øien.

The final results of the round robin are shown below:

The teams that qualified for the semifinals were NTNUI, Hufflepuff, Lambertseter 2, and Slytherin. The Slytherin team was unable to play on Sunday, so Lambertseter 1 was allowed to take their spot in the semis.

The first semifinal between Lambertseter 2 and Hufflepuff was close for a while - Lambertseter 2 jumped out to an early lead, and although they could not pull away from their opponents,, Lambertseter 2 still won with a snitch grab.

The second semifinal between Lambertseter 1 and NTNUI opened up with a few early goals by Lambertseter 1 as the NTNUI defense struggled at the outset. Lambertseter 1 kept bludger control for the entirety of the game. After the fast goals at the start, both teams established good defense and the game stalemated with Lambertseter 1 leading 40-20. The game ended with a relatively early snitch grab by Lambertseter 1 to win 70*-20.

In the bronze match between NTNUI and Hufflepuff, NTNUI managed to get an early lead and kept the game out of snitch range for a 150*-70 win.

The final was between Lambertseter 1 and Lambertseter 2.  Lambertseter 1 led early on, and had bludger control almost the entire game. This resulted in Lambertseter 1 maintaining control of the game, and while Lambertseter 2 managed to stay within snitch range for a while, they eventually fell out.

Highlights included, the Lambertseter 2 keeper tricking one of the Lambertseter 1 beaters into throwing at him within his own keeper zone, followed by a full-pitch dash as the Lambertseter 1 defense opened up. After complaints by Lambertseter 1, the goal was annulled, which is strange as the play - while it might not have been nice - is completely accepted according to the rules.

Photo by Mari Øien. As for seeking, the Lambertseter 2 seeker found the snitch almost immediately after the 7-minute seeker floor ended (originally 8 minutes, but changed after confusion by one of the referees). However, she had to return to the hoops after she dismounted her broom in an attempt to follow the snitch over a two-meter fence. The snitch was then discovered by the Lambertseter 1 seeker, who pursued until the Lambertseter 2 seeker reappeared. What followed was a chase of about 5 minutes through a terrain consisting of snow, ice, mud, and puddles that ended as with the snitch pressed up against a fence in some bushes. After a short struggle, the snitch escaped.  Climbing over the fence, the snitch returned to the pitch without any further trouble. There again both seekers wrestled the snitch runner, trying to get the snitch, as they reached the side of the pitch with the spectators between separating seekers from the action, with no beaters aiding their seekers. A little while later, the snitch wrestled the broom away from the Lambertseter 2 seeker and ran towards the beaters. However, the Lambertseter 1 seeker caught the snitch en route, resulting in Lambertseter 1 winning the game 160* - 80.

One of the things that made Lambertseter 1 the winner of the tournament was their excellent beaters, and once they figured out how to utilize them efficiently in defense and offense, they became a completely different team. These beaters, as well as a few others, were handball players, taking very accurate, hard shots, who also were familiar with the rough physical play that tackling in quidditch requires. As some of the high school students who participated in the tournament will attend different universities in autumn, we might see a few more Norwegian quidditch teams appear in the near future.

Photo by Mari Øien. For their contribution in arranging the tournament, I would like to give special thanks to the following people who I was lucky enough to host the tournament with: Eirik Hernes Berre (leader of the Oslo Cathedral School's Harry Potter Club), Elisabeth Ingeberg Jørstad (leader of NTNUI Rumpeldunk), Kristin Kravdal (leader of the Lambertseter Harry Potter Club), and Amund Kulsrud Storruste (leader of quidditch at the Lambertseter Harry Potter Club).