Grab your Nimbus 2000 and start perfecting your quaffle toss, because the quidditch Global Games are coming to Burnaby.
The sport, though born in the mythical world of J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" series, has become a real-life game complete with international championships.
Run by the International Quidditch Association (IQA), 2014's Global Games will take place on July 19 at Burnaby Lake Sports Complex West. International teams will compete for the title of world quidditch champion (though, uh, no one will ever be as good as Team Gryffindor).
It's worth pointing out some of the differences between Harry's version of quidditch and the one in this world.
While witches and wizards fly around the quidditch pitch on broomsticks, muggles (i.e. real people) must run by holding the brooms between their legs. The quaffle is really just a volleyball, and the bludger is actually a dodgeball.
In Harry's world, the snitch is a small golden flying ball, in our version it's a human dressed in yellow, running around the field and trying not to be tagged (he or she wears a waistband with a small ball attached to the back; seekers must actually grab the ball for it to count).
So, basically, human quidditch is dodgeball meets tag meets basketball. On a broom.
Adapted for muggles in 2005 at Vermont's Middlebury College, quidditch is now played at over 300 universities and high schools spanning Europe, North America, and Australia.
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