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Sports

We Asked a Quidditch World Cup Winner if the Sport is Kind of Bullshit

Australia just defeated the US to become the world's best Quidditch team. What?

On Monday, Australia's national Quidditch team, which is something we have, apparently, became world champions. The aptly named Dropbears defeated the United States in a close match at the Quidditch World Cup in Frankfurt, Germany. Which is also apparently a thing. Turns out, 21 countries fielded teams, up from just seven last time around.

News stories about the victory lauded Quidditch as a sport that encourages positivity and sportspersonship, while requiring incredible sporting prowess. I thought it sounded kind of bullshit. Real-life Quidditch looked like a sad take on the Harry Potter sport, a bunch of 20-somethings running around with sticks between their legs.

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But, trying this new thing where I try to be less of a cynical asshole, I decided to interrupt the celebrations of the Dropbears' chaser, Tara Rawson, to ask whether Quidditch is the real deal.

VICE: Hey Tara, congratulations on your win. I have to be honest, I didn't know Quidditch was a sport people actually played until a few hours ago. Was it hard to win a spot on Australia's national team?
Tara Rawson: People from all over the country tried out for the team. It's definitely getting more and more competitive. The first time around, it was just sort of an elect yourself, send some videos—because all of our games get filmed—so we could show what we could do for the selection panel.

This time around… [they] watched us at the national tournament, which is called QUAFL. And then they picked a giant pool of 50 people for two weekend-long selection camps. Everyone who was invited to those hand to try out: we did beep tests, they tested us physically, they tested our endurance, our footwork. They picked the team from that, plus reserves.

I feel like Quidditch players must occupy this strange intersection of people that are both massive Harry Potter fans, and also really into sport. Is that the case?
You do kind of get the spread, people are usually either very much a Harry Potter fan or very much a physical, sporty person. I don't think I realised until this trip how much our very, very sporty—I mean they are the best in the country—how many of those people are actually massive Harry Potter fans. People are actually doing side trips to London while we're over here to see the Harry Potter park. One of our players brought a trivia quiz of Harry Potter, and everyone knew all of the answers.

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Is that how you first got into Quidditch, being a massive Potter-head?
I heard about it and I think I probably had the same reaction most people do, this is not a thing. I had to check it out, it sounded hilarious. And I fell absolutely head over heels in love with the sport, which I think everyone who actually gives it a decent go does. It's completely unique, I've never played anything like it… Once you get going, the Harry Potter side falls away. It's just the most amazing sport on its own.

Right so break it down for me, a mere muggle. How do you play real-life Quidditch?
Okay, so you have to kind of let go of the fact that it's Harry Potter and we don't actually fly and all of that. But we do all run around with a stick.

Like a broomstick, between your legs?
Yeah, it actually just adds an extra level of difficulty. You're performing tackles with one hand, a lot of our catches and throws are done with one hand. You have to be able to run as fast as you can, and move as fast as you can with [the stick] in your hand.

So you're a chaser. Are the other positions all the same as in Harry Potter?
Yeah it's kind of split between your chasers, who wear white headbands, and they score the goals. You've got a keeper, who wears a green headband, and they are sort of a glorified chaser. And then you've got your beaters, who wear black headbands… they have to hit people with dodge balls and knock them out. And the final part is the snitch and the seeker.

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In the books, the seeker has to catch the snitch, right? Tell me how that works in the real world.
Yeah the seeker has to catch the snitch, who is sort of an impartial person. It's like tag footy for them. They have a tag on their shorts, and the game doesn't end until you catch them.

Oh, I get it. The snitch is a person, rather than like a magical flying ball.
Of course, so when we're playing back a home, the snitch is a person from another team who isn't playing the game. At the World Cup, we had impartial snitches who were chosen, they were the best in the world. They are either really physical, they can throw you around. Or they are incredibly fit and they just run and run and run. It's actually incredibly difficult to catch them.

So that's how Australia beat the US, we caught the snitch?
We did, yeah. But the snitch is only worth 30 points, so you have to score goals, you can't just focus on catching the snitch. In the books it's worth 150. So we were down, but we were within "snitch range." I think we were 20 or 10 points down and we caught the snitch.

America actually caught it first but the catch was called "no good," because it has to be clean. So America caught it, we were still absolutely elated because we were like, "Oh my god, we're still within snitch range. We've given our best, no one has ever done this well." And then the catch was called "no good," so everyone picked up again. When our seeker Dameon Osborn actually caught it, that was the longest two-three minutes of my life, waiting for them to deliberate over whether to call it good or not.

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… So they called it good?
Yeah and as soon as they called it good, I mean the entire team flooded the field, all of the supporters too. I've never been in a mosh pit like that before. It was so intense.

Were the US the team to beat? The Slytherin of the Quidditch World Cup, if you will.
Absolutely, they started the sport I think it was 10 years ago now. And, you know, it's America: they take everything so amazingly seriously, and they absolutely dominate everything that they do. So they had a head start on the world and because it's America it's been—up until this point—literally impossible for anyone to get even close to them.

Have the Dropbears versed the US before?
At the last World Cup, America and Australia were in the grand final again and I think the final score was like 250, or even more, against nothing. Australia didn't even get on the scoreboard. So to come in and have a really close game, and then win, it is just the most amazing feeling in the world… No one thought we could do it, we didn't go in as favourites. People thought Australia would get top eight, maybe push into the top four.

Okay, so you're world champions. What's next for Quidditch in Australia?
I think we just want to take what we've learnt from this experience back to our local teams. I just really want to improve people's opinion of the sport, as well. There's still such a stigma about it because it's from Harry Potter.

Follow Maddison on Twitter, she's a Hufflepuff.