Quidditch (real-life sport)

rdf:langString Quidditch (real-life sport)

rdf:langString Quidditch

rdf:langString Quidditch, also known as quadball, is a sport of two teams of seven players each mounted on a broomstick, and is played on a hockey rink-sized pitch. The sport was created in 2005 at Middlebury College in Vermont, and was inspired by the fictional game Quidditch in the Harry Potter books by author J. K. Rowling. It is sometimes referred to as "muggle quidditch" to distinguish it from the books-based fictional game that involves magical elements such as flying broomsticks and enchanted balls; in the Harry Potter universe, a Muggle is a person without the power to use magic. The sport is played around the world. In contrast with the books, in which the pitch is oval, the "muggle" pitch is rectangular 60 by 36 yards (55 by 33 m) with 3 hoops of varying heights at either end. The ultimate goal is to have more points than the other team by the time the snitch, a tennis ball inside a long sock hanging from the shorts of an impartial official dressed in yellow, is caught. Rules of the sport are governed by the International Quidditch Association (the IQA) and events are sanctioned by either the IQA or that nation's governing body. To score points, chasers or keepers must get the quaffle, a slightly deflated volleyball, into one of three of the opposing hoops, which scores the team 10 points. To impede the quaffle from advancing down the pitch, chasers and keepers can tackle opposing chasers and keepers at the same time as beaters using their bludgers—dodgeballs—to take out opposing players. Once a player is hit by an opposing bludger, that player must dismount their broom, drop any ball being held, and return to touch their hoops before being allowed back into play. The game is ended once the snitch is caught by one of the seekers, awarding that team 30 points. A team consists of a minimum of seven (maximum 21) players, of which six are always on the pitch: three chasers, one keeper, and two beaters. The seeker comes onto the pitch after the 'seeker floor', which is 20 minutes under USQ rules and 17 under IQA. Teams are required to abide by the gender rule, which states that a team may have a maximum of four players who identify as the same gender on the field at one time, making quidditch one of the few sports that not only offers a co-ed environment but an open community to those who identify as nonbinary. After the seeker floor, the snitch runner moves onto the pitch and tries to evade the two seekers. In games that use the IQA rulebook, a snitch catch adds 30 points. Catches that result in the catching team leading in points end the game immediately with the catching team winning. In the event a team catches the snitch but this results in them still trailing in points (or being in a tie for points), the game goes into an overtime period where a target score of the non-catching team's score plus 30 points is set. The first team to reach the target score wins the game, however either team may concede at any time during this overtime period. Matches or games often run about 30 to 40 minutes but tend to be subject to varying lengths of time due to the unpredictable nature of the snitch catch. In MLQ and USQ, catching the snitch results in 35 points which help teams reach a set score, 60 (MLQ) or 70 (USQ) points above the leading team before the seeker floor. The first team to reach this set score wins the game.