Mid-Atlantic to Host First of Two Fantasy Tournaments
Update: The paragraph on Drew Beliveau has been updated.
The Mid-Atlantic Region Presents: End of Season Fantasy Tournament! will be the first of two fantasy tournaments within the Mid-Atlantic region this summer. It will take place on Saturday, June 29, at Stoever's Dam Park in Lebanon, PA. Games are scheduled to begin at 9:00AM and end at 6:00PM.
Photo by Deanna Edmunds
This summer, the Mid-Atlantic Regional Director, Alex Krall, is embracing the region's stitched-together history by putting on a fantasy tournament in both the northern part and the southern part of the region. The first of these takes place in Lebanon, PA, a centralized Pennsylvania location that is convenient for regional players living in DE, MD, NJ, PA, and northern VA and WV, as well as for closer friends from the Northeast and Midwest regions. The tournament will celebrate the end of a great 2012-2013 season as the rankings and memberships are reset only 2 days later on July 1. It will be a celebration of a season which not only saw the first successful play-in World Cup in WC VI, but also a huge growth in the seriousness of quidditch as a sport with the introduction of certified referees, certified snitch runners, analytical journalism, and the announcement of a deal for liability insurance put together for the next season. It was also the inaugural season of the Mid-Atlantic region, and we therefore also saw the first annual Mid-Atlantic Regional Championship (MARC I, won by Villanova University (Villanova, PA)) and Mid-Atlantic Regional All-Star Game which took place there.
Tournament Organizers
Mid-Atlantic Region: Host
Alex Krall: MA Regional Director, Tournament Director
Sarah McGowan: Tournament Director
Participation
Even on a compacted timeline--the tournament was introduced hardly a month before its scheduled date--the event is still pulling in a good crowd of players. With sign-up deadlines that closed June 20, there are 79 registered players. These players hail from 27 recognized teams from the Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, Northeast, and South regions, though not all are current IQA members. Among them are new faces, players looking for experience, wizened vets, and a couple of big names. Among those rare quidditch stars is General Manager Michael “Yada” Parada, recently of Pennsylvania State University (University Park, PA), who was selected as a chaser for Team USA last summer. Anyone selected to his team gets an immediate boost from a sure large-bid selection that will cost nothing in the auction draft.
Tournament and Draft Format
The tournament will feature five teams selected through an auction-style draft. Each of the five General Managers will have 200 galleons to work with and will select a player to begin the bidding. The teams should end up with about 15-16 players each. Gameplay will consist of a round robin of the five teams, with the top four teams advancing to a single-elimination bracket.
General Managers
Alex “Xavier” “The Professor” Amodol – Philadelphia Honey Badgers
Amodol hasn't been around quidditch for too long, but in joining the Honey Badgers this past season he's sure to have gotten a good look at many of the Mid-Atlantic players as well as some Northeast ones through participation in MARC I and the large tournaments hosted by the University of Maryland (College Park, MD), the Turtle Cup and the Shell-Shocking Spectacular. The Philadelphia team can be a bit secluded outside of these big tournaments, so I wonder if he'll be able to find the connections to dig up some low-bid gems in the auction. He also has some experience as a snitch, which could lead him to find a solid seeker to close out games.
Drew Beliveau – Recently of University of New Haven Nightmares (previously Nargles) Beliveau has a pretty big presence in the quidditch community – with extensive travel to many of the sport's big tournaments, and having a hand in the creation of the Big Apple Quidditch Conference and the Southern New England Quidditch Conference, Beliveau should be familiar enough with many of these players to know which target and which to let go by. Recently graduated from the University of New Haven after playing three years with them, he is transitioning to play full-time with the Honey Badgers, which used to be an off-season practice team for him. One thing that should be interesting to watch is that he is the only true beater out of all five GMs, giving him a possible advantage of familiarity with beaters in the player pool – something that could lead to his gathering a dominant beater corps.Carrie Franchino – Villanova University
Franchino just finished her first year playing chaser for reigning Mid-Atlantic regional champions Villanova University. The Villanova team is heavily involved in events throughout the region and a bit in the Northeast region as well, which has surely given her plenty of time to know most of the players in this auction pool. Villanova thrived within the region this past season on surrounding big guns with good support; it will be interesting to see if Carrie follows this familiar strategy.
Michael “Yada” Parada – Recently retired Captain of Penn State University, Team USA
Parada is by far the most experienced player of these GMs, and I have to wonder if his superior play and big name will grant him the knowledge and connections to compile a stalwart fantasy team. A captain of Penn State University's quidditch team until his recent graduation, rumor has him as a member of the newly-forming NYDC Capitalists team. That rumor might be confirmed by the fact that he is the creator of the NYDC fan page... Going into the auction, it will be interesting to see if Parada spends heavily to make sure that he enlists the services of Amanda Dallas, a stellar beater who happens to be his girlfriend. I expect him mostly to let the big-bid players fly, and to know which low-bid players will be undervalued enough to make a great team.
Billy Rothert – Recently of University of Richmond
Rothert played beater this past season for the University of Richmond (Richmond, VA) and is moving on to play for the Richmond Community team after his recent graduation. Rothert is not solely a beater, though. He has trained as a keeper and snitch as well, so it is likely that his gameplan will shift the focus from solely beater-play to overall defense and snitch play. His experience as a snitch--he ran the championship match of the Shell-Shocking Spectacular--may lead him to secure a solid seeker. Being a defensive-minded beater and keeper, I expect him to pair a good closing seeker with a formidable defense and rely on clutch catches to win low-scoring, tight games. While he has only been playing for a year, he might have an experiential advantage over the other newer-to-the-game GMs because he's been hanging around the sport for almost 4 years: he is a fan of the UR Acromantulas team and is a good friend of former captain Nick Candido.
You can follow the auction draft through links in the Facebook event here.
