I missed the Quidditch World Cup last month, but BU made this recruiting video. I feel like competitive Quidditch is proof that it’s possible this anti-bullying campaign has gone too far. My favorite quote: “The quidditch that we play is considered muggle quidditch, because we’re not wizards.” |buzzfeed|

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Anyone who’s been to college knows that there are about a billion sports in which you could participate, even if you’re an albino asthmatic with a severe peanut allergy.  Yet brave souls all across New England decided that their private schools’ sports offerings had too many minorities and not enough wands. Thus was born competitive Quidditch.  Yes, from Harry Potter.  As I reported previously, the Quidditch World Cup (aka the Olympics of Private School) took place in New York this weekend.  NYMag was there to witness it first hand.

Quidditch — or Muggle Quidditch, as it’s technically called — is a glorified mash-up of dodgeball, basketball, and rugby. Players run down the pitch trying to toss the quaffle (a kickball) through the goal (a hula hoop taped onto a jerry-rigged PVC-pipe stand).

Baska-what?  Ohhhh, you mean muggle basketball. Now I understand.

They’re doing all of this more or less one-handed. The other is always on that phallic piece of wood they’re straddling. (If your broom touches the ground, you’re taken out of the action for fifteen seconds as you simulate the time it would take for a wizard to fall to the ground.)

Within an hour, several people have already been carted off the field with injuries. Two players collided so viciously that one spit out his mouthguard along with a few tablespoons of blood. The woman on the other side of the collision was lying on the ground with her head split open. Volunteer medics rushed over, chanted a Ferula spell, and bandaged her forehead.

You think that’s bad, three quiffles from Sarah Lawrence suffered strained scarves. Meanwhile, Hoyt Velez-Twinklemoss found out natural grass makes him wheeze!

Amid the games, hundreds of fans milled about. Some are wearing shirts that say, “I got 99 problems but a snitch ain’t one.”

You hear that?  I think Jay-Z just blew his brains out.

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Spazzy white guys wearing prescription eye wear, gosh, I never would've expected that.

One of the subplots of the Harry Potter books is a game called quidditch, in which students at the wizardry academy ride flying broomsticks around after ball that flies through the sky of its own accord.  Now, thanks to precious students with too much time on their hands at at expensive Northeastern private schools, it’s not just a side plot in a children’s book, it’s a “sport”.  Well bust out your sunblock and hemophilia medicine, Madison, because the Quidditch World Cup is coming to New York City next week. It’s all the poncey exclusivity of lacrosse with 50% less date rape!

Next weekend, more than 60 different teams from high schools and universities across the country are expected to gather at De Witt Clinton Park in New York City for the fourth annual Quidditch World Cup.
Harvard University, M.I.T, Yale, Penn State, Duke — several prestigious universities are registered for the World Cup and count quidditch among their extracurricular activities.

University of Maryland student Valerie Fischman isn’t satisfied with quidditch’s current status, however. She’s waging a long-shot campaign for recognition from the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
Fischman originally joined the team because she was a huge Harry Potter fan, not because she was particularly interested in playing a sport. Now she’s a chaser on the University of Maryland team and also serves as its co-vice president.

Wait, you’re saying she joined the Quidditch team despite not being very interested in sports?  Excuse me while I retrieve my monocle, for in my surprise it has fallen.

Quidditch players have to thread several other hoops to make theirs an NCAA sport. There must be official quidditch clubs at a minimum of 50 colleges across the country. Then, athletic directors from those colleges must individually petition the NCAA. It’s a process that could take years — if it happens at all.  Fischman admits it’s not an easy task. She’s hoping for help from her university’s athletic department — as well as the International Quidditch Association.  That’s right, there’s an International Quidditch Association. [via (who else) NPR]

[Said Harvard Co-Captain Stacy Rush]: “The teams great. It’s so much fun flying around on your broomsticks. Now, they look like they don’t fly. In practice, we don’t fly around on them because we’re surrounded by Muggles. And we can’t break our statute of secrecy which is our code of law in the wizarding world.” [IvyGate]

I hope this does become an NCAA sport.  First, because it’s still less lame than ultimate frisbee, and second because I’d someday love to hear, “Ooh, that Rooney Sanchez-Davis, she thinks she’s sooo hot, just because she’s dating the captain of the Quidditch team.  She even wears his inhaler around her neck to rub it in everyone’s face.”

“We call outsiders ‘muggles’ because they’re always stealing our lunch money.”

Is it just me, or does Daniel Radcliffe seem like the guy at the party at whom you smile and nod politely while trying to back away as quickly as possible?

“It’s wonderful. I grew up around gay people my entire life, basically, that’s possibly why I’m quite camp, and some people think I’m gay when I meet them, which I think is awesome. It’s always good to keep them guessing [laughs]. I don’t go on any blogs or chats or anything, but my friends are demons for them, and apparently someone said “Daniel Radcliffe is gay. He’s got a gay face!” [Laughs] I really don’t know what a gay face is. But I think it’s wonderful that Dumbledore was outed as gay … Half of me thinks Jo Rowling just did that to see if she could piss off the right wing, but I’m not sure how true that is. I think she had it planned, I think she always knew he was gay.” [MovieFone via Vulture]

Man, talk about a Dumbledork.  It doesn’t help that I imagine everything he says in the tone of “Look, Mothah! Oy made strawbry pudding!”

Fact: Ryan Gosling tried to be friends with Daniel Radcliffe and even he gave up after two weeks.