McGill competes at the Quidditch World Cup 2011
There were quite a few highlights for my time as a beater on the McGill team. I feel like our beaters really started to come together as a team this weekend. We had a rough start in our first game, and we were eliminated after we made it into the top 16 (the IQA hasn’t released final rankings yet) but I’m proud of my team and our performance at the World Cup.
I think my favourite game was against “America’s Finest Quidditch Club.” As far as I understand it, by their own admission, “America’s Finest” was formed out of the desire of a number of jocks to beat up Harry Potter nerds.
Partly because of their loose grasp of the rules of the game, America’s Finest played a very dirty game. I will not enumerate all the ways I saw them break the rules, but I will tell you that in the end justice was served: we won. We played a clean game and we still beat them.
Je suis le vif d’or
Being a golden snitch at the World Cup was a long-term dream of mine, one that I realised this weekend past at the Quidditch World Cup V in New York City. I had so much fun!
On the first morning, Alex Benepe himself shook my hand and called me “Wings,” on account of the wings on my headband.
Throughout the day, I was interviewed and had my picture taken by different magazines, websites, radio stations, etc. But even more fun than that was when little kids would ask to have their photo taken with me. They were so cute. (“And what house are you in, little boy? … Griffindor? Wow!”)
It was a very busy weekend. On the Saturday alone, I was officially a part of seven different games—three as a snitch and four as a beater. (As a snitch on my way back to my field, I interfered with quite a few other games unofficially!)
A couple weird things to think about: Because of all those photos I took with those kids, I am in quite a number of people’s Facebook albums as the Golden Snitch now, I’m sure, and I will never be tagged, because those people don’t know me. Also, a surprisingly large number of photos were taken of my rear end.
Good news and bad news
Speaking of my hindquarters, my performance as a snitch at the Canada Cup was recently featured on RelieFtv, a TV station in Ottawa. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the footage they have of me is mainly of me being pantsed by the University of Ottawa seeker.
