At the fourth annual Quidditch World Cup in New York City on Nov. 13-14, the second-seeded Middlebury team Constant Vigilance took the top prize. This victory marks the fourth year in a row that Middlebury has won the tournament; this year’s World Cup is also the first to be held off campus.
Before this weekend, members of Constant Vigilance had only practiced together for a week.
“We grew as a team on the biggest stage this game provides, under the lights of Manhattan,” said Phil Palmer ’12, one of the Middlebury Quidditch Club’s tri-commissioners. “By the end of the tournament, we connected on Hail Mary passes and coordinated tackling to the extent that no one had ever seen on the Quidditch pitch.”
According to Palmer, after the championship game, a player from rival Emerson College, approached the newly crowned champions to tell them that they had played the most complete game of Quidditch he had ever seen played.
The Middlebury team worked through group play on Saturday, beating Michigan State in a close game in which Ryan Scura ’11, Constant Vigilance’s seeker, caught the snitch to win the game. In the two games that followed, against Franklin & Marshall and Johns Hopkins, the team upped its level of play, securing wider margins of victory. Middlebury was one of 24 teams to advance to Sunday’s single-elimination, March Madness-style bracket. The team won out, advancing to the finals, where they faced Quidditch newcomers, the Tufts Tufflepuffs.
The game started relatively evenly, with the Tufflepuffs successfully defending against Constant Vigilance’s offense. The stalemate was doomed to end, however. The Tufflepuffs eventually succumbed to Middlebury’s overpowering offense, scoring only 20 points to Constant Vigilance’s 100 before the Tufts seeker caught the snitch, which automatically ended the game. The 30 points awarded the to the team that catches the snitch were not enough to salvage the Tufflepuffs’ performance, however, and the game ended in a 100-50 score favoring Middlebury.
At the game’s conclusion, the champions received a flimsy trophy that promptly broke. Next, they blasted the song “Midd Kid Rap” on the loudspeakers. Phil Gordon ’11, one of the rappers on the track and a member of Constant Vigilance, took the microphone and rapped his verse.
“The World Cup was an experience unlike any other,” said Palmer. “It was surreal playing in front of what seemed like hundreds of cameras and thousands of people for the finals.”
The tournament drew thousands of rowdy fans to DeWitt Clinton Park in Manhattan. About 50 Middlebury students attended the World Cup to support their team.
The Middlebury students were “yelling their heads off for us, leading cheers, and singing songs you normally only hear at hockey games,” said Andy Hyatt ’11, another tri-commissioner. Hyatt referred to these fans’ support as “absolutely amazing.
Members of improvisational comedy troupes Otter Nonsense and Middlebrow also participated in the tournament, giving commentary during the games.
“I have to give a lot of credit to Otter Nonsense and Middlebrow for their commentary,” said Palmer. “They were hilarious as always.”
The World Cup drew much attention from news media. The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, MSNBC and NPR, among others, covered the event.
Quidditch wins cup title in NYC
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