By Lucy Ruscitto | Staff Writer
The Baylor Quidditch Association hosted their “House Games” tournament Sunday on the Minglewood Fields. House Gryffindor won the bracket against Slytherin with a score of 40-30.
This organization hosts this event in order to promote unity among their members and to give them a break from the competition approaching in the nationals season — the battle for the US Quidditch Cup.
The US Quidditch Cup is the ultimate game for colleges with quidditch teams to compete and show off their continuous effort put in throughout the year, according to US Quidditch. This year, Nationals are held in Charleston, W. Va.
San Antonio senior organization president Savannah Senger said the group follows Quidditch rules and sorting outlined in the Harry Potter books.
Senger said teams for Quidditch tournament were determined by a “sorting hat” style of selection meant to mirror the series. Players were sorted in one of the four houses: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw or Slytherin.
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, senior David Foo said he believes the sorting hat is a great way for quidditch players to discover their true fit for tournament team selections.
“If you join during the fall semester, we have a whole ceremony with the sorting hat, and everyone gets sorted into their houses,” Foo said. “If you join spring semester, we’ll put you into the house that you would most fit into.”
Foo said each house acquires points in each tournament, and at the end of April the largest tournament between the Houses will be held to determine which team has earned the “House Trophy.”
Baylor’s Quidditch team has laid out their tournament regulations based on national standards set by US Quidditch.
“There are two teams of seven. On each team there is one keeper, two beaters, three chasers and one seeker that comes on pitch at 18 minutes,” Senger said. “There are scoring strategies and people tackling. It gets more and more competitive as it gets closer to regionals,” Senger said.
Both Senger and Foo said they consider the game of Quidditch to be a sport.
“When you think about what a sport is, it’s typically something you train yourself in to accomplish goals together as a team to compete. I think that mindset very much goes with Quidditch,” Foo said. “We’re working hard together, and we’re training to compete at a national level.”
