Surprisingly, Quidditch of today’s real world is not that much different from the wizardry sport. Quidditch was founded back in 2005, as a few freshmen students of Middlebury College, Vermont started looking for a new dynamic Sunday sports activity they could engage in. Since then, the sport that had only remained in the Harry Potter books has gained extreme popularity; many other students from different schools and regions joined the new sports trend. There have even been two Quidditch World Cups so far, with the tenth one planned for this upcoming July.

 

It is undeniable that bringing Quidditch to life seems rather odd. How do the players fly? How do the balls move around by themselves? Are not the players simply Harry Potter nerds? Surely, certain rules are flexibly transformed into ones that can rightly adapt to current human abilities. Instead of riding on their flying broomsticks, players hold onto their broomstick-like poles between their legs as they run around the field. The balls are also thrown around by hand. A certain person plays the golden Snitch—Seekers of each team must fervently try to catch the Snitch person.

 

Real life Quidditch is a sport that is a mixture of dodgeball, rugby, and tag. Chasers are those responsible for scoring by striking goals through the posts at each end of the field. They are to avoid the attacks of the Beaters, who constantly try to stop Chasers from scoring by throwing balls (bulgers) towards them. Then the Keeper must stop the ball from entering the posts. Lastly, there is the Seeker, which is the position Harry played in the movies. Tackles are allowed, too, making the sport sometimes very fierce.

 

One of the biggest features that makes Quidditch attractive is that it is a coed sports. “In a way Quidditch tries to establish gender equality,” said Lee Song Yun, head of the Puffskeins, the one and only Korean Quidditch team by far. “Everyone participates on an equal status in Quidditch,” Lee added. In addition, because there are various positions that players can participate as, Quidditch is not a sport that specifically suits men better than women or vice versa.

 

Another charming point of Quidditch is that it is, ironically, complicated. It could be said that within one match of Quidditch, three subordinate games are simultaneously played as followed: the Chasers’ game, the Beaters’ game, and the Seekers’ game. Thus, whereas players must focus on the games that are specific to their positions, they must also have a blueprint on the process of the match as a whole. The complexity of the game is what makes it so thrilling and exciting.

 

Puffskein, the Quidditch group of Seoul National University (SNU), was founded in September 2015, as Lee felt the need to newly introduce Quidditch in Korea after participating in one as an exchange student in Norway. She used Facebook to gather people, not only from SNU, but also from other schools, who were interested in participating in Quidditch. “I started Quidditch because of curiosity,” said Hong Joon Sun, a relatively new member of Puffskein, and a fan of the Harry Potter series since his youth. “However as I began playing I noticed how systematically organized Quidditch was, and came to like it as a sport itself,” he added.

 

Puffskein will be participating in the Quidditch World Cup 2016, held in Germany this upcoming July. The International Quidditch Committee has presented them with the qualification to participate as representatives of Korea. “We are so grateful! We started as a small group, gathered more people, enhanced our skills, and finally won our position to compete worldwide. And that is just awesome!” Lee excitingly said.

 

Members of the Quidditch team are aware of the fact that some view the actualization of the sport as quirky and nonsensical. “It is a pity that people are too biased. I bet they will change their attitudes towards Quidditch if only they are given a chance to actually try it,” Hong pointed out. Certainly, using brooms throughout Quidditch may be one of the factors that arouse a sense of resistance. As to this, Lee urged people to view the usage of brooms merely as part of the rules of a sport, just as players are restricted from using hands in soccer.

 

The fact that Quidditch gains more popularity each day illustrates just how creative people can be. Quidditch is the epitome of how people incorporate ideals with curiosity and bring imagination to life. The Quidditch trend does not seem to be evanescent; in fact, it is just the beginning of the entrenchment of popularity. “We hope that many other schools, including Korea University (KU), will found their own Quidditch teams, too,” Lee said. For those who hesitate in trying out Quidditch, remember this: “Quidditch is a sport for everyone – for both Harry Potter fans and for those who love sports,” as Hong described.