Real athletes ride brooms

This past weekend, Ryerson’s Quidditch team drove down to New York for the fifth annual Quidditch World Cup. Ryerson’s team captain Suraj Singh fills you in on how the team did

Getting roughed up is a part of the game, but for the first time, one of our chasers got taken to the ground hard enough for the refs to stop play. Glasses broken and blood dripping down her face from a ripped out eyebrow piercing, we finally came to a certain realistation as she limped off of the field. We were playing a “real sport.”

This past weekend, Over 2,000 broom-riding athletes descended on New York City. Organized by the International Quidditch Association (IQA), the fifth annual Quidditch World Cup took place in Manhattan and attracted just under 100 teams from all over North America and Europe. It was my second time leading Ryerson’s team against the IQA‘s best, and while we may not have won, we put up a good fight.

Last year, we didn’t put a single quaffle through the hoops, getting only 30 points in three matches thanks to a snitch catch. We finished second to last overall, topping only an all-girls high school team.

This year, the competition was stiff but we pushed back and refused to be labelled as a walkover. While we left without a win, the improvement from last year was huge. We managed to hold our own against the team that finished second overall in the division and playing one of our most physical matches against a community team made of grown athletes, not nerdy university students. Just looking at the point differential, our team showed visible improvement. Even in quidditch, there’s a big difference between losing 180-0 and losing 70-50. It might not seem like much but little victories like this mean a lot to a growing team. We learned a lot from each game, discovering what worked for us and playing to each others strengths. The chemistry between the team was stronger than it’s ever been. We were a team this year, not just players wearing the same home-made jersey.