By: April Luesby
The Algonquin quidditch team attended a tournament hosted by Ottawa University on Jan. 19.
Three other schools attended the snowy, cold event, including a visiting school from New York, the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), as well as Ottawa University and Carleton University.
The quidditch team was started in September of last year, and is already ranked 89th internationally out of 161 teams.
“We essentially started with nothing,” quidditch captain Casey Innis said. “Just a couple of people on a field, and stuff we brought from our dorms. But we’ve done pretty well for ourselves for right out of the gate.”
The International Quidditch Association (IQA) ranks the teams based on the season of September to May.
“There’s no magic,” quidditch captain Casey Innis said. “The brooms don’t fly and the balls don’t move on their own. So we make do with what we have.”
The players carry around balls that are normally propelled by magic, and a volunteer attaches a tennis ball stuffed in a sock into his or her waistband to run around and try to escape from seekers.
“It’s a dodge ball game going on in the middle of what is essentially a rugby game.” Innis said.
In their first tournament, Algonquin defeated Ottawa University. Now they’ve set their sights on Carleton.
“They’ve got the best foundation,” Innis said. “They’re really good about getting the word out and are stringent about who they let on the competitive team.”
Eight players attended the tournament, forcing the team to borrow players from other participating schools when their own players were tired.
Since there must be at least two of both genders on the field at all times, the team was forced to make their games unofficial, meaning the results of their games would not affect their ranking.
In their first game against RIT, Algonquin was able to play with only their own players, and they won 60-50.
Unfortunately, with help from the other teams, they were unable to win their next two games against Ottawa and Carleton University.
The team’s next chance to beat Carleton will be either a tournament the team will host themselves, or a possible tournament at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, that has not yet been confirmed.
“They’re sort of our target,” Innis said, “I’d like to see us defeat them.”