Northeast Coaches Poll

Over the next week, the Quidditch Post will release the results of our Coaches polls. Coaches or captains from every team were invited to vote or designate someone from their team to vote for the top teams in their region (one vote per team). The number of selections voters were asked to make depended on the number of teams in the region.

The Northeast voters were asked to pick their top 10 teams from the fall season. Fifteen voters participated in the poll. Points were allocated in the following manner: Ten points for a first place vote, nine points for a second place vote, eight points for a third place vote, etc. The votes have been tabulated and listed below in order of total votes. The number in parentheses indicates how many first place votes a team received.

NE Coaches Poll Results

1. Tufts University Tufflepuffs – (8) 143
2. New York University Nundu (NYU) –  (7) 142
3. QC Boston: The Massacre (QCB) –  116
4. Emerson College Quidditch – 90
5. The Warriors – 84
6. Boston University Quidditch (BU) –  79
7. RIT Dark Marks (RIT) –  72
8. University of Rochester Thestrals – 45
9. Hofstra University Flying Dutchmen – 31
10. RPI Remembralls – 20

Also receiving votes: Harvard University – 3

Voters Explain Their Decisions

“Tufts proved it is the best at the Northeast Regional by knocking out both NYU and QCB back-to-back and breaking the three-way triangle up top. NYU has only lost once since Oktoberfest, and that was in the Northeast Regional Finals, so no team has a credible claim to the next spot. QCB has beaten every team in the top ten below it except Emerson, whom it hasn’t played but has a significantly better record against common opponents, including having consistently blown out both BU and Hofstra, who have each beaten Emerson. The Warriors proved their biggest weakness is teams with strong two-male beater sets, which are all ranked above them, and have the quaffle game to beat any other team easily. Emerson has the best results of the rest of the teams and has split with Tufts, BU, RIT, and Hofstra which, while showing inconsistency, also proves Emerson is a very tough out in any tournament. BU is clearly on the rise and probably could have beaten four of the quarterfinalists if not for having drawn QCB in the knockout round. RIT and Rochester have both been inconsistent but can keep it close with many of the top teams and dispatch the lower ones relatively easily. Hofstra has shown it can slow play most teams to a snitch-range game, but it hasn’t been strong enough in the seeking game to win most of those games and has started to get blown out more often by higher teams once teams have adapted to its style. Lastly, RPI lost its only game against real competition all year, and while it can beat lower teams, it doesn’t have the skill to beat anyone above it.”

Observations

Despite Tufts defeating NYU in the finals of the Northeast Regional Championship, voters were split as to which team deserved the top spot, though all agreed that they were the top two teams in the region. Voters similarly agreed that QCB was the third best team in the region as the Boston squad captured 12 out of 15 third place votes. In the four and five spot, Emerson and BU seemingly renewed their rivalry. Emerson received 5 fourth and 5 fifth place votes, while BU received 4 fourth place and 4 fifth place votes. The Warriors snuck in between the two squads largely thanks to 2 third place votes. Voters had a tough time ranking the New York-based community team, ranking it as high as third (2 votes) and as low as eighth with an equal number of voters placing it fourth and seventh (4 votes). Emerson and BU similarly received votes in six spots; however, both of those teams had 13 votes concentrated over four spots, making for much less scattered results. A plurality of voters thought that RIT was the sixth best team, as it got 7 sixth place votes; however, it placed seventh due to the splitting of higher votes. Likewise, a majority of voters ranked Rochester eighth (8 votes), Hofstra ninth (8 votes), and RPI tenth (10 votes).