Now I'm feelin' so fly like it's Quidditch.

This past weekend was, once again, my favorite of the year. Why, you may ask? Because it's the weekend of the QUIDDITCH WORLD CUP in NEW YORK CITY. It was my second year attending this event, and it was just as fantastic as the first.

The Michigan State University Spartan Spitfires traveled via bus with the University of Michigan Quidditch team to Randall's Island, New York to participate in the fifth annual Quidditch World Cup. This year, over 100 high school, collegiate, and community teams signed up. There were even teams out of country, from Canada and Finland! With about 25 people on each roster and local friends, family, and fans, there were well over 3000 people on the island that weekend! This is the most participation the IQA (International Quidditch Association) has seen in it's early age, and the numbers just keep on growing. A representative of Central Michigan University actually recently contacted me about starting a team in Mount Pleasant, so you can see just how popular this sport is becoming. :]

Back to the weekend though, our team was having a blast. We went 3-1 in pool play on Saturday, the first day of games, beating Villanova, Virginia Tech, and Stoneybrook, while losing to the University of Minnesota. There were a few unfortunate mishaps though. One of our best beaters collided head-on with a player on the Villanova team and suffered a grade 3 concussion during the third game, so he missed out on the final games of the weekend. The doctors said that our player sustained the worst injury since about 9 or 10 players had been rushed to the ER throughout the day. He's been doing much better since though, thank goodness. I can't wait to see him back on the Quidditch pitch!


Sunday began the single-game elimination rounds. MSU was seeded 12th overall after the first day's games , which is AWESOME considering it's out of 100 teams! We eat Marquette by a snitch catch then lost our next game to UCLA. Even though we lost, I think that game was my favorite. It was the hardest and most challenging game of the weekend, but I was proud of my team and how well we played despite the loss. Like I said, this is my favorite weekend of the year, because it's a wonderful way to bond with my teammates and become closer as a family. I love them all so much!

After our final game, we headed over to the stadium to watch the final games on the weekend, where the defending champions, Middlebury College, won the cup AGAIN for the fifth straight year in a row. Congratulations to them, but I'm hoping their reign will end sooner rather than later. ;] The only team to beat Middlebury in their entire quidditch career was this year when the University of Michigan quidditch team defeated them on a snitch catch in pool play. I'm so proud of Michigan, considering they're such a new team and this was their first year at the World Cup! I know, I know, you're thinking," WHY IS SHE CHEERING FOR MICHIGAN?!" It's because it's BTQ, or Big Ten Quidditch. Six of the twelve Big Ten universities have quidditch teams, whether as student organizations, or club sports, so we have kind of banded together to support each other when facing teams in the eastern, wester, and southern leagues. The University of Minnesota actually made it all the way to semi-finals, so proud of them, too!

Besides quidditch, our team did get to do a little sight-seeing! Friday night, a couple of us took the train into the city, and had dinner and went shopping in Times Square, and a few people got to go to Ground Zero and the Statue of Liberty over the next couple of days as well. It is such a beautiful city, full of life and hustle and bustle. :] I can't wait to go back next year! QUIDDITCH WORLD CUP VI 2013!!!

PS. This last picture is of Alex Benepe, the current commissioner and one of the founders of Muggle Quidditch, and I at the tournament. He is just SO COOL. :D