QCON March Recap

By Misha Whittingham

March 4 saw the last round of games for the Quidditch Conference of the Northwest (QCON) leading up to the conference’s playoff weekend on March 18-19. The series saw continued parity between the majority of the conference, with no team other earning more than two wins without the aid of a forfeiture. Low numbers for both University of British Columbia Quidditch Club (UBCQC) and Simon Fraser University (SFU) additionally required QCON to allow the use of USQ gender rules, while still maintaining the rest of the Quidditch Canada (QC) rulebook.

Participating in the games that weekend were the University of Victoria (UVIC) Valkyries, Vancouver Vipertooths (VV), UBCQC, University of British Columbia (UBC) Thunderbirds Sports Club, and SFU. In addition, the Emerald City Admirals (ECA) were intended to be in attendance, but were unable to make the trip, causing them to forfeit their two games against UBCQC and VV. UBC also benefitted from forfeits this weekend, as the small rosters of UBCQC and SFU were unwilling to risk injury in what would most likely be a losing effort. As a result, the only games played by the Thunderbirds on Saturday were a 180*-10 thrashing of the Valkyries and a chaotic impromptu game against an amalgam of players from the remaining teams.

David St. Germain scores against UBCQC | Photo Credit: Erin Muxlow

With the exception of the Thunderbirds’ blowout of UVIC early in the day, the gameplay that actually occured last Saturday was a great example of the continued parity between the majority of teams in the conference. UVIC, UBCQC, and SFU each had a win and a loss each against one another, while UBCQC managed a tough 80*-60 win over the third-ranked Vipertooths. Sadly, this was the only game Vancouver played this weekend, as it was supposed to play the Admirals to finish off its regular season. As such, we will not get to see how Vancouver stacks up against the current SFU and UVIC rosters until the playoffs. Veterans Gillian Manley and Robert Jacobson continued to set the tone from VV’s deep beater corps in the team’s only game, but a surprising lack of effective seeking and a driving game about on par with that of UBCQC’s, prevented the Vipertooths from pulling off the win.

As expected, the Thunderbirds swept through the weekend’s games, albeit in a different fashion than anticipated. Their only non-forfeit QCON game was typical of how the Thunderbirds usually beat UVIC, with the teams trading a goal or two early before UBC inevitably runs away with the lead. UVIC has been unable to come close to beating the Thunderbirds for nearly four years, and that does not appear likely to change soon.

The remaining three games between UVIC, SFU, and UBCQC were considerably closer. SFU’s 180*-120 win over UVIC was especially thrilling. SFU enjoyed enough space to allow drivers Danny Ly and Raunaq Singh to pot five and seven goals, respectively. This came on the back of only three beaters, one of whom, Philomena Chenne, has only recently recovered from a concussion. Conversely, UVIC managed to solve its offensive woes with keeper-turned-beater Brett Dyck, who managed to open lanes for chasers Daniel Mecham, David Warburton, and Taisha Ferguson to convert on the attack. SFU managed to stay consistently 20 to 40 points ahead for the first 17 minutes, capitalizing on its fast transition game to pull ahead by 60 with snitch on pitch. After nearly 12 minutes of seeker play, UVIC managed to drag itself back into range just before SFU’s Jayden Driver made the catch.

Jayden Driver in SFU’s game against UVIC | Photo Credit: Kassidy Smids-Dyk

UVIC continued continued its offensive success against UBCQC, once again recording 12 goals. UBCQC relied heavily on the offensive play of beater Ardy Ferguson, along with goals from Damir Ninković and Joey Krahn. The two teams traded offensive chances for most of the game, both using driving to dictate offensive flow. However, a red card to Krahn mid-game cost UBCQC, as it left it with seven players, and Ninković as its only seeker. Exhaustion took hold of Ninković as seeker play dragged on for seven minutes, allowing Mecham to get the catch for UVIC. With an ever-dwindling roster and another game defined by the handing out of a red card, UBCQC will need to solve its pervasive penalty issues if it wants to make a deep run in the playoffs.

While UBCQC’s win over SFU was out of snitch range, it would be hard to argue that the game was not close. SFU’s depleted beater corps was unable to keep up with the offense of its opponents, allowing chaser play to dominate the majority of the game. Offensive chances were traded between the sides with UBCQC’s keepers managing to get the upper hand in physical play and prevent some scoring chances. As a result, UBCQC built up a lead over the course of game, capitalizing on snitch play to pull ahead by 60 points. While SFU’s chasers are skilled, they were outmatched physically in the driving clinic that was the last eight minutes of the game, putting them out of range. SFU has managed to go far this season with skill at beater backing up the chaser play, but with only three beaters attending on Saturday, the team was unable to maintain that quality.

Takeaways:

1. At this point, forfeits have become commonplace in the conference’s inaugural season. This likely stems from QCON’s use of an exclusively point-based ranking system, requiring all teams have the same number of games recorded. As the season comes to a close, only two teams (ECA and UVIC) have been left without benefitting from a forfeiture. In fact, only UVIC has actually played in all nine of its registered QCON games. With the small size and lack of proximity of many teams in the conference, adjustments to the rankings system will probably have to be made to avoid the same situation playing out next season.
   
   

2. Last weekend’s games gave us little new information to work with. The parity below second place in the conference continued, as did TSC’s dominance of its neighbours. The forfeit by the Admirals allowed UBCQC to leapfrog into sixth in the QCON standings, though the expected non-attendance by WWU and ECA in the playoffs and subsequent reorganization of the playoff structure means this will likely count for little. Beyond UBC likely taking first overall, not much will be predictable about the upcoming playoff weekend, which should make for an exciting end to QCON’s first season.
   
   

Final Standings:

Team	GP	W	SW	SL	L	Points	QPF	QPA	QPD	SC	SC%
UBC	9	7	1	1	0	24	1150	250	900	7	77.78%
RCR	9	5	2	2	0	21	990	460	530	7	77.78%
VV	9	4	3	2	0	20	720	260	460	7	77.78%
WWU	9	3	2	3	1	16	740	590	150	6	66.67%
SFU	9	3	2	2	3	13	740	630	110	4	44.44%
UBCQC	9	2	1	2	5	9	440	810	-370	3	33.33%
UVIC	9	1	1	2	5	7	520	980	-460	2	22.22%
ECA	9	0	3	0	6	6	370	980	-610	2	22.22%

Legend:

GP - Games Played

W - Out of SWIM Range Win - 3 points

SW - Within SWIM Range Win - 2 points

SL - Within SWIM Range Loss - 1 point

L - Out of SWIM Range Loss - 0 points

QPF - Quaffle Points For

QPA - Quaffle Points Against

QPD - Quaffle Point Differential (QPF - QPA)

SC - Snitch Catch

SC% - Snitch Catch Percentage (SC/GP)