Posted in: Harry Potter, Movies, Sports, Warner Bros | Tagged: harry potter, International Quidditch Association, IQA, Major League Quiddich, MLQ, Quadball, quidditch, US Quidditch, USQ

Quidditch Ditches "Harry Potter" Association, Becomes Quadball

Published Wed, 20 Jul 2022 12:18:14 -0500

by Tom Chang

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Quidditch, the sport adopted from the Harry Potter franchise, will change its name to "Quadball" following a series of circumstances including financial obstacles from Warner Bros, the studio producing the film series, and dissociation from franchise author J.K. Rowling for her "anti-trans positions." US Quidditch and Major League Quidditch, the youth and professional wings of the sport, have been in discussions since December 2021 about the possible name change.

Quidditch players during a match at IQA World Cup 2018. Quidditch is a fictional sport devised by author J. K. Rowling for her fantasy fiction series Harry Potter, photo by Federico Magonio / Shutterstock.com.

"This is a bold move, and for me personally there is definitely some nostalgia to the original name," Alex Benepe, who helped found the real-life sport in 2005, said in a statement. "But from a long-term development perspective I feel confident this is a smart decision for the future that will allow the sport to grow without limits." While Warner Bros was initially supportive with Benepe praising the studio for being "remarkably permissive" in a 2017 interview with The Quidditch Post, WB still prohibited the use of the word "Quidditch" in their merchandise, which undercut their business opportunities.

"We've tried to be clear that it's both reasons," Jack McGovern, a spokesman for U.S. Quidditch and Major League Quidditch, said in an interview. "We did not intend to give a value judgment about which reason was more important than the other." The sport retains the core of what's depicted in the Harry Potter films as player travel around in brooms, balls are hurled through hoops to score, evading Bludgers, and catch the Golden Snitch. The real game has the Bludger as a rubber dodgeball than a flying ball of iron and the Snitch is a tennis ball attached to a person a la flag football. The theatrical elements like the "flying" on the brooms and the Golden Snitch are kept to just ground level on the field of play. For more, you can check it out at the New York Times.

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