Australian Dropbears win the Quidditch World Cup
The fictional game invented by JK Rowling has turned into a global competition between 21 teams, and this year Australia has taken home the gold.
The Australian Dropbears (named after the vicious Australian predator) have become the latest sporting champions from the land down under. The Aussie team beat the US team 150-130 at the Quidditch World Cup held in Frankfurt, Germany over the weekend -- the first ever loss for the US.
"Over the last year, coach Gen Gibson has worked this team from the ground up with the express purpose of taking on the best team in the world," Quidditch Australia posted on its Facebook page. "Today we showed the world our strength and determination, but more importantly our love for this sport and community."
The game has undergone a few changes over the years since it was first played in 2005. It's based on the elaborately described fictional version JK Rowling invented for her Harry Potter novels, but obviously has some significant limitations compared to its namesake; namely, the absence of flying brooms and a magical flying Golden Snitch.
For the muggle version, the Golden Snitch is a sock carried by a person, and capturing it only nets 30 points, as opposed to the 150 it's worth in the wizarding world. Other players called Chasers will compete to get the quaffle (a ball) into one of three hoops at their end of the pitch (like a goal), each of which is worth 10 points. Meanwhile, players called beaters will chuck dodgeball-like Bludgers at the other team.
And players need to do all this with broomsticks between their legs. The (rulebook can be found here.)
"I started dating a girl and she said, 'Look, I play this sport, I reckon you might enjoy it'. And I thought, 'Well, I reckon I might like to impress you'," team captain James Mortensen told the ABC earlier this year.
"And I fell in love with it. I love that it's the only sport that I've ever seen that rewards quick thinking as much, if not more than strength or speed. So being the biggest, fastest or nastiest person on the pitch isn't going to save you."
If you missed all the excitement, you can catch up here, where Sportdeutschland is uploading all the matches played over the weekend.