Club Quidditch Hosts Winter Fantasy Tournament

Lansing, Mich. – Flurries adding to the piles of deep snow did not stop quidditch players from playing all day Saturday.

The Spartan Spitfires, Michigan State’s co-ed quidditch team hosted a tournament at the Holt Soccer Complex Saturday. Ohio State, Bowling Green, Ball State, Central Michigan, Southern Illinois, Toledo and Miami of Ohio were some of the colleges represented at the tournament.

A snake-style fantasy draft took place in December to place the 180 competitors registered for the tournament onto 10 different teams. Although there was pool play as well as knock-out rounds, the tournament was more of a chance to get together and play rather than be competitive.

Andrew Copeland, a quidditch veteran from Southern Illinois, was eager to get back on the field after the semester break.

“It’s great because I haven’t been able to see a lot of these people since the regional tournament back in November,” Copeland said, adding that he was no stranger to large out-of-state tournaments, but had never played in conditions with this much snow before.

All of the participants appeared to be enjoying themselves in nearly a foot of snow surrounding the four fields and several inches on the playing fields themselves. An area was shoveled and tents were set up near the bathrooms where hot beverages and food was served.

Jim Richert, who plays quidditch in the MSU intramural league and on the competitive travel team, said he enjoys getting together with other teams and being a part of such a large quidditch community. Many of those who traveled from out of state will be staying in East Lansing with MSU students. An after-party dance was held at the Kellogg Center following the 31 game tournament.

“It’s definitely a nice change of pace from competitive tournaments, although there’s the same sense of camaraderie amongst everybody in the IQA.”, the history education sophomore said as he stood on the sidelines.

Competition is still in the future for the Spartan Spitfires, however. The team travels to Toledo, Ohio for the first ever Big Ten vs. MAC Challenge in March and to Myrtle Beach, S.C. in April for the Quidditch World Cup.


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Photos: Bradley Allen/Impact Sports