EQC 2017 Group G Preview

With European Quidditch Cup (EQC) 2017 rapidly approaching, the Quidditch Post takes a look at each of the teams competing in this year’s tournament.

Group G

Titans Paris

By Hugues Ribayrol and Fraser Posford

As the two-time defending champions of Europe, the Titans Paris enter as the favorites to capture their third championship. The Parisians started the season by winning their first Barcelona Moustaches title, denying the Mighty and Amazing Quercs a historic threepeat in the process. They then went on to win their second consecutive French Cup, which serves as France’s EQC qualifier, with relative ease, beating local rivals Paris Frog 200*-100 in the final.

EQC 2017 Group F Preview

With European Quidditch Cup (EQC) 2017 rapidly approaching, the Quidditch Post takes a look at each of the teams competing in this year’s tournament.

Group F

Werewolves of London

By Hannah Dignum

As the recent third-place finishers at British Quidditch Cup, the Werewolves of London find themselves with a group they can comfortably top. However, a surprisingly lacklustre passing game and lack of true cohesion between their better players was exposed against Velociraptors QC in Rugeley, and there will be plenty of European teams equally capable of exploiting it. It is possible that under the watchful eye of Simon Bidwell, the Werewolves will have ironed out these creases and should therefore demonstrate a greater ability to come together as a team rather than a group of talented individuals.

EQC 2017 Group D Preview

With European Quidditch Cup (EQC) 2017 rapidly approaching, the Quidditch Post takes a look at each of the teams competing in this year’s tournament.

Group D

Velociraptors Quidditch Club

By Fraser Posford

Fresh from their domination of British Quidditch Cup (BQC), the Velociraptors turn their eyes toward European glory. Earlier this month, Tom Heynes’ team convincingly won all of their matches on their way to their first BQC title, including a 180*-40 rout of rivals Werewolves of London in the semifinal, before an even bigger 260*-60 victory over the Bristol Brizzlebears in the final.

German Winter Games Review

By Lena Mandahus 

The German Winter Games (Deutsche Quidditch-Winterspiele [DQWS]), Germany’s qualifier for the European Quidditch Cup (EQC), took place in Munich on January 14-15. Eighteen teams from all over Germany competed in the tournament for a chance to play with the other top European teams at EQC in Mechelen, Belgium, on March 25-26.

International Weekend Wrap-Up - January 7-8 and 14-15

Contributions by Lena Mandahus, Alicia Mills, Cameron VomBaur, Chula Bruggeling, and Yeray Espinosa Cuevas. There is a lot going on in the world of quidditch on any particular weekend, and most of us only see the stories immediately relevant to our regions. However, it can be very interesting to look outside of our own bubble every once in a while and take a look at the rest of the global community. To that end, each week the Quidditch Post collects information about tournaments and events that happened during the weekend around the world. After a bit of a break for most quidditch regions, we are now returning to our regular schedule of International Weekend Wrap-Ups. This installment will cover two weeks of events instead of one, due to the lower frequency of events this time of year. We cover the Czech Republic’s First Prague Quidditch Derby, the German Winter Games, the Andalusian League in Spain, the Tegan and Sara Invitational in USQ West, and Canada’s Fantastic Beats and Where to Find Them.

German Winter Games Preview

By Ida Meyenberg and Christian Zimpelmann

Editor’s Note: Ida Meyenberg is a player for Three River Dragons Passau and the Logistics Manager for the German Winter Games, and Christian Zimpelmann is a player for Rheinos Bonn.

On January 14-15, 18 teams will compete in Munich for the three German spots at the European Quidditch Cup (EQC). The German Winter Games (Deutsche Quidditch-Winterspiele, DQWS) are going to be the second biggest tournament in Germany so far, almost catching up with the World Cup last year. As the competition for the free EQC spots is three times bigger than last year, we can expect exciting and narrow matches. The experience of the participating teams differs substantially, ranging from three months to more than three years. In this article, we want to shortly introduce and illuminate the potential of the competing teams.

International Weekend Wrap-Up - December 17-18

Contributions by Marco Anglano, Lena Mandahus, and Lucas Szykula

There is a lot going on in the world of quidditch on any particular weekend, and most of us only see the stories immediately relevant to our regions. However, it can be very interesting to look outside of our own bubble every once in a while and take a look at the rest of the global community. To that end, each week the Quidditch Post collects information about tournaments and events that happened during the weekend around the world.

This week we are covering some international friendlies with teams from Austria and Germany, Girone Rosso, part of the Lega Quidditch (Quidditch League) in Italy, and the international Copa del Sur in Argentina.

International Weekend Wrap-Up - December 3-4 and 10-11

Contributions by Chula Bruggeling, Yeray Espinosa Cuevas, Christopher Dewing, Sean Fry, Can Kaytaz, Sudiksha Kumar, Carrie Soukup, and Katelyn Stubberfield

There is a lot going on in the world of quidditch on any particular weekend, and most of us only see the stories immediately relevant to our regions. However, it can be very interesting to look outside of our own bubble every once in a while and take a look at the rest of the global community. To that end, each week the Quidditch Post collects information about tournaments and events that happened during the weekend around the world.

This week we have a special edition of IWWU, covering not one but two weekends worth of events. This special edition covers the Australian National Championship, updates on the national leagues in Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, and Turkey, and the US's Threaux Me Something Mister Quidditch Expeaux, Lone Star Invitational, and Silicon Valley Showdown.

International Weekend Wrap-Up - November 5-6

Contributions by Chula Bruggeling, Serena Cheong, Neha Korrapati, Carrie Soukup, and Austin Wallace

This week we are publishing our fourth International Weekend Wrap-Up, providing you with information about tournaments and events around the world. This week we are covering events from Belgium, Canada, Germany, and the US.

Danube Cup Recap: The Wiener Does Take It All

General information by Emina Botic Analysis by Martin Hofbauer

The first international quidditch tournament in Austria, the Danube Cup: The Wiener takes it all, took place on the weekend of Oct. 8 and 9 in Vienna.  Eight teams competed in the tournament: the host teams (Danube Direwolves and Vienna Vanguards), four teams from Germany, one team from Slovenia, and one from Slovakia.

Quidditch Academy in Darmstadt, Germany | Quidditch Akademie in Darmstadt, Deutschland

Quidditch Academy in Darmstadt, Germany By Lena Mandahus

Für die deutsche Version siehe unten.

On Oct. 1 and 2, 2016, Deutscher Quidditchbund (DQB) hosted its first Quidditch Academy in Darmstadt, Germany. The academy focused on topics such as leading trainings, guiding a team, and player safety. This is a new initiative aimed mostly at young and emerging teams to provide basic knowledge about structuring trainings and managing a team.

World Cup 2016: Spotlight on Germany | Deutschland im Blickpunkt

By Chula Bruggeling, Jack Lennard, and Andy Marmer 

Für die deutsche Version siehe unten (von Cynthia Müller)

History

Quidditch started in Germany toward the end of 2012 at a high school, where the Taunus Thestrals gained the honour of becoming Germany’s first team. However, this growth ground to a halt until March 2014, a time referred to by those involved as ‘the spring of German quidditch.’ This period saw four new teams founded, all by people who had come back from playing abroad. Since then, quidditch in Germany has seen steady growth. There are now 12 registered teams with Deutscher Quidditchbund (DQB), and an estimated eight teams were founded over the last season, all of which DQB hopes to incorporate into their membership. The community has over 300 members now, and rather than just being limited to the southern and western parts of the country, it has expanded to cover most of the nation.

Spotlight on Creating the Winning Bid for World Cup 2016

By Chula Bruggeling

Recently, there has been a lot of talk on the importance of good tournament bids for the overall success of a tournament. Deutscher Quidditchbund (DQB), Germany’s NGB,  has obviously done a good job with their successful bid for World Cup 2016, so the Quidditch Post sat down to interview two of the NGB’s board members about the process of making their World Cup bid, as well as finding out how to make a (great) tournament bid in general. 

Nina Heise is the DQB’s President, while Juliane Schillinger is its PR Director. Both were heavily involved with the Frankfurt bid for World Cup and have had ample experience with tournament location decisions in the past two years, including German Cup 2016.

German Cup 2016 Recap

By Lisa Tietze and Nina Heise

Editors Note: Lisa Tietze is a member of Unisport-Zentrum Darmstadt Quidditch. Nina Heise is a member of the Bowticores.

In a closely-fought final ending in a score of 90*-60, newcomer Rheinos Bonn won first place against Unisport-Zentrum Darmstadt Quidditch on a snitch catch from Christian Zimpelmann in the very first minute. German Cup, which was held on 23-24 Jan., 2016, worked as a qualifier for the European Quidditch Cup 2016 (EQC), as Germany received two spots, both Bonn and Darmstadt qualified to go to Gallipoli, Italy this April. Ruhr Phoenix Bochum ranked third, Three River Dragons fourth, and the Bowticores and Tübinger Thestrale placed fifth and sixth respectively. These results show that new teams of all skill levels have found their place in the midst of veteran German teams.

German Cup Preview | Deutsche Meisterschaftsvorschau

By Lisa Tietze and Nina Heisse | Translation by Lena Mandahus

Für die deutsche Übersetzung siehe unten

Germany starts 2016 with their national championship, the Deutsche Meisterschaft (DM). Six official teams will participate and travel to Darmstadt, where the DM will be held. For the German national governing body, Deutscher Quidditch Bund (DQB), it will be exciting to host their first ever national championship. This tournament will also serve as a qualifier for the European Quidditch Cup (EQC), as it did in the previous year. Last year’s participants consisted of the Blackforest Bowtruckles, Frankfurt Mainticores, Three River Dragons Passau, and Unisportzentrum Darmstadt Quidditch. All of these teams will participate this year again. Additionally, there are three newly-found teams this year: the Rheinos Bonn, Ruhr Phoenix Bochum, and Tübingen Thestrals.

European Games 2015: Triumphs and Controversies

By Abby Whiteley

Introduction

On 25–26 July 2015, the inaugural European Games were held in Sarteano, Italy. Teams representing 12 European nations came together in the first tournament of its kind to play for the title of European champions. After a nail-biting final against the United Kingdom, France took the championship 80*-40, which followed its victory at the 2015 European Quidditch Cup (EQC) and established its position as the strongest quidditch nation in Europe. This tournament brought with it fantastic matches and exciting indications for the development of quidditch in Europe, as well as  a couple of controversies along the way. Here we will look at the performances of each national team and break down some of the conversations brought on by the tournament.

France Captures European Games Over UK

by Andy Marmer (French translation by Sherrie Talgeri and Morgane Leclerc)

A new chapter was added to one of quidditch’s most intense rivalries as the United Kingdom and France met again in a major tournament and, in following recent trends, the latter once again emerged on top, overcoming its rival 90*-50 in the finals of the first ever IQA European Games.

EQC Division 1 Team Reviews

On the 18 and 19 April, the 2015 European Quidditch Cup (EQC) was held in Oxford, UK. With 32 teams from 11 regions, it was the biggest quidditch tournament held outside North America to date. Now that the dust has settled, our writers review how each team performed, starting with the 16 teams who made it into Division 1.

Onward to Oxford: Quidditch Darmstadt

As part of our efforts to preview all 32 teams competing in the European Quidditch Cup (EQC), the Quidditch Post is chatting with representatives from each team. Today we spoke with Jonas Zinn, captain of Quidditch Darmstadt.

Onward to Oxford: Black Forest Bowtruckles

As part of our efforts to preview all 32 teams competing in the European Quidditch Cup (EQC), the Quidditch Post is chatting with representatives from each team. Today we spoke with Adrian Schleeh, captain of the Black Forest Bowtruckles.