European Quidditch Cup

European Quidditch Cup

Full name	European Quidditch Cup
sport	Quidditch
abbreviation	EQC
Association	International Quidditch Association
League foundation	2012
Teams	48 (2019)
Title holder	Paris Titans (4th title)
Record champions	Paris Titans (4 titles)
TV partner	Ruhr Phoenix TV
Website	Official website

The European Quidditch Cup ( EQC ) is an international Quidditch competition and the top division for university and club teams in Europe. It is held annually under the umbrella of the European Standing Committee of the International Quidditch Association (IQA), the global governing body of the Quidditch sport. The tournament first took place in Lesparre-Médoc, France, in 2012 , when the sport began to spread across Europe. Since then, the EQC has developed into one of the largest and most important Quidditch competitions in the world.

From the 2018/2019 season, the European Quidditch Cup will be held in two divisions for the first time, similar to the European competitions in club football. Division 1 of the EQC 2019 took place from May 11th to 12th, 2019 in Harelbeke , Belgium , division 2 was played on April 13th and 14th, 2019 in Warsaw . The reigning titleholders and record European champions are the Paris Titans, while the Berlin Bluecaps won division 2.

history

Lesparre-Médoc Brussels Oxford Gallipoli Mechelen Pfaffenhofen Harelbeke Warsaw Ghent Brescia

The previous venues of the European Quidditch Cup: blue = division 1, red = division 2

European Regional Championship (2012-2014)

An international Quidditch tournament for club and university teams was held for the first time in 2007. Until 2014 it was organized annually under the name IQA World Cup by the then International Quidditch Association . For geographic reasons, however, the field of participants was heavily concentrated on teams from the USA and Canada. As the sport spread across Europe, the interest of European teams in participating in the IQA World Cup increased. In 2012, regional championships were introduced for the first time, which served as qualifying tournaments for the international competition in the following year. As such a regional qualification tournament, the first European Regional Championship was held on October 13, 2012 in Lesparre-Médoc , France . After the first edition of the Quidditch World Cup in Oxford in 2012, it was only the second international Quidditch tournament outside the USA.

The French national association Fédération Quidditch français (FQF) hosted the first European Regional Championship. In addition to the local team Anthéna Lesparre and the eventual tournament winner Paris Phénix, four other teams from France and Italy took part in the first edition of the tournament. The mode comprised a round robin with two groups of three teams each and a subsequent knockout phase in which the teams were assigned according to their performance in the preliminary round.

With the second edition of the European Quidditch Championship, which took place in Brussels on February 1 and 2, 2014 , the field of participants expanded to include teams from Spain, the United Kingdom and Norway. Of the twelve participating teams, the best six qualified for the IQA World Cup 2014.

European Quidditch Cup (since 2015)

Due to the strong centralization and concentration of the former international Quidditch Association IQA on the USA, a structural reform in the international Quidditch sport took place in 2014: The IQA, founded in 2005, was transformed into a national US American umbrella organization and renamed US Quidditch. At the same time, a world association was created with the new International Quidditch Association. Since then, the European Standing Committee (its own name is Quidditch Europe), which is part of the newly founded IQA, has been responsible for organizing the Quidditch European Cup.

With the formation of the European Standing Committee, the transformation of the European Regional Championship into an independent European Quidditch competition was initiated. The first European Cup tournament, which took place under the name European Quidditch Cup, was held in Oxford in 2015, where the first Quidditch World Cup had already taken place three years earlier. The number of participants grew to 32 teams that had to qualify for the European competition through national tournaments for the first time. For the first time, German teams took part in the competition. After the number of participants was increased to 40 in 2016, it has been back to 32 teams since 2017.

Division into two divisions

With the expansion of Quidditch in Europe and the increase in the level of competitiveness in the top leagues of the largest European national associations, the difference in performance between the teams of different nations also grew. Small national associations such as Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Sweden were also guaranteed at least one starting place in the European Quidditch Cup, and an upper limit of four participating teams per country was applied at the EQC 2018. In the run-up to the tournament, the call for a reallocation of the EQC starting places was loud. Representatives of the British national association Quidditch UK called for more starting places for their teams at the expense of the less strong national associations in order to maximize the quality of the European competition. On the other hand, the critics of this demand feared negative consequences for the growth of the sport as a whole and a dominance of British teams in the European Cup.

In December 2017, the European Standing Committee first presented a draft for dividing the European competition into two divisions. After that, two separate tournaments with different levels of performance will be held annually from 2019. While Division 1 will henceforth be reserved exclusively for top-class and highly competitive teams, Division 2 will primarily serve the development and growth of sport in Europe. After the first edition with 16 teams in 2019, the number of participants in Division 2 is also to be increased to 32 from 2020. In 2020, 64 teams will take part in the European Quidditch Cup for the first time.

In addition, a relegation system is planned, which will make it possible to gain starting places in Division 1 through good performance in Division 2. The upper limit for the number of teams approved per national association will be increased to a total of twelve (eight in the transition year 2019). The starting places in Division 1 are allocated on the basis of the performance in the tournaments of previous years, while the starting places in Division 2 are based on the size of the national associations.

Award

The award is made by Quidditch Europe, the European Standing Committee of the International Quidditch Association, following a Europe-wide tender. Applicants can be national umbrella organizations, individual associations, organizations or local governments or municipalities. Comprehensive documents must be submitted for the application, including information about the sports facilities and accommodation options available. In addition, there are on-site visits by representatives of the European Standing Committee. In 2019, the European Quidditch Cup will be divided into two tournaments (divisions) for the first time, which will also take place at different venues.

qualification

Successful qualification via national leagues, championships or separate qualification tournaments is usually a prerequisite for participation in the European Quidditch Cup. It is up to the national umbrella organizations to determine the modes and criteria for qualification for the EQC. An exception to this rule are teams from the so-called emerging areas, ie from countries without a national umbrella organization and without regular competitive play. These are allocated starting places by the European Standing Committee. For the European Quidditch Cup 2019, 3 starting places in Division 2 were planned for such emerging areas.

The allocation of the starting places for the next European Quidditch Cup to the individual national umbrella organizations will take place after the previous tournament on the basis of the performance of the participating teams. For this purpose, the teams earn so-called performance points by placing them in the final tournament ranking. By adding the performance points of all teams from a national association, the number of starting places of this national association in the following tournament can be determined.

Germany

As a national umbrella organization, the German Quidditch Federation (DQB), founded in 2015, is responsible for designing qualifications for the European Quidditch Cup. In 2015, for the first time, a national qualification tournament took place in Germany. With the growth of the German Quidditch community and the change in the European Quidditch sport, the mode of the German EQC qualification has changed constantly since then.

German qualification

year	Qualification path	host	Starting places
			Division 1	Division 2
2015	EQC qualification 2015	Darmstadt	3	-
2016	German championship 2016	Darmstadt	3	-
2017	German Quidditch Winter Games 2017	Munich	3	-
2018	German Quidditch Games 2017	Bremen	4th	-
2019	League finals 2018	Karlsruhe	4th	4th
2020	League finals 2019	Munich	8th	2

Previous participants

team	European Cup participation
	Division 1		Division 2
Darmstadt Athenas QC	2015-2019	5		0
Rheinos Bonn	2016-2020	5		0
Three River Dragons Passau	2015, 2017, 2018, 2020	4th		0
Ruhr Phoenix Bochum	2016, 2019, 2020	3		0
Munich Wolpertinger	2018-2020	3		0
Augsburg Owls	2020	1	2019	1
SCC Berlin Bluecaps	2020	1	2019	1
Black Forest Bowtruckles	2015	1		0
Deluminators Dresden	2020	1		0
QC Hamburg werewolves	2020	1		0
LSV Looping Lux Leipzig		0	2019, 2020	2
Bielefeld basilisk		0	2019, 2020	2

Division 1

Division 1, which will be held under this name for the first time in 2019 after the tournament reform, is the more important of the two tournaments from a sporting point of view. The number of starting places per national association is based on the performance of the teams in the two previous tournaments.

Tournaments

The following table gives an overview of all European Cup tournaments in Division 1 that have been held since 2012.

year	host		final				3rd place match				Teams
			winner	Result a	2nd place		3rd place	Result	4th Place
2012 details	Lesparre-Médoc		Paris Phénix	50 *: 20	Paris Frog		Milano Meneghins	120 *: 70	Anthéna Lesparre		6th
2014 details	Brussels		Radcliffe Chimeras	100 *: 30	Paris Phénix		Brussels Qwaffles	50 *: 20	Lunatica QC		12
2015 details	Oxford		Titans Paris	150 *: 80	Radcliffe Chimeras		Southampton QC Firsts Nottingham Nightmares				32
2016 details	Gallipoli		Titans Paris	120 *: 60	Deurne Dodo A b		METU Unicorns Nottingham Nightmares				40
2017 details	Mechelen		Antwerp QC	120 *: 110	METU Unicorns		Werewolves of London	80 *: 60	NTNUI rumble dunk		32
2018 details	Pfaffenhofen on the Ilm		Titans Paris	130 *: 70	Antwerp QC		METU Unicorns	160 *: 140	Velociraptors QC		32
2019 details	Harelbeke		Titans Paris	170 *: 90	METU Unicorns		Werewolves of London	170 *: 80	ODTÜ Hippogriffs		32
2020 details	Ghent										32
Hints a The score of the team whose seeker caught the snitch is marked with an asterisk in accordance with the standardized result notation. b Deurne Dodo is the original name of the Antwerp QC, under which the team competed in tournaments until 2016.

Medal table

space	team	gold	silver	bronze	total
1	Titans Paris	4th	0	0	4th
2	Antwerp QC	1	2	0	3
3	Paris Phénix	1	1	0	2
	Radcliffe Chimeras	1	1	0	2
5	METU Unicorns	0	2	2	4th
6th	Paris Frog	0	1	0	1
7th	Nottingham Nightmares	0	0	2	2
	Werewolves of London	0	0	2	2
9	Milano Meneghins	0	0	1	1
	Brussels Qwaffles	0	0	1	1
	Southampton QC Firsts	0	0	1	1
Total		7th	7th	7th	21st

Division 2

Division 2 was first played in April 2019 with 16 teams in Warsaw. The expansion to 32 teams is planned from 2020. The allocation of starting places per national association is based on the respective size of the national association, minus the starting places already allocated in division 1.

Tournaments

The following table gives an overview of all tournaments in Division 2 since 2019.

year	host		final				Game for third place				Teams
			winner	Result a	2nd place		3rd place	Result	4th Place
2019 details	Warsaw		SCC Berlin Bluecaps	120 *: 50	LSV Looping Lux Leipzig		Vienna Vanguards	190 °°°: 180 * °°	Augsburg Owls		16
2020 details	Brescia										24
Hints aThe score of the team whose seeker caught the snitch is marked with an asterisk in accordance with the standardized result notation. For games that are not decided until the first or second extra time, degree signs mark the team whose searcher was not successful in the respective season.

Medal table

space	team	gold	silver	bronze	total
1	SCC Berlin Bluecaps	1	0	0	1
2	LSV Looping Lux Leipzig	0	1	0	1
3	Vienna Vanguards	0	0	1	1
Total		1	1	1	3

Web links

• Great atmosphere at the European Quidditch Cup in Pfaffenhofen , Donaukurier, April 29, 2018
• Berlin Bluecaps win European Quidditch Championship , BZ, April 15, 2019
• Official Quidditch Europe website

See also

• Quidditch (sports)
• Quidditch World Cup

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ruhr Phoenix TV to Livestream EQC 2019 | Quiddich Europe. Accessed April 11, 2019 . 
2. ^ About EQC. In: European Quidditch Cup 2019. December 31, 2018, accessed April 16, 2019 (American English). 
3. ↑ Final Ranking. In: European Quidditch Cup 2019. Accessed November 23, 2019 . 
4. ↑ European Regional Championship | US Quidditch. Retrieved April 11, 2019 . 
5. ↑ European Regional Championship Date and Location Announced | US Quidditch. Retrieved April 11, 2019 . 
6. ↑ European Regional Championship | US Quidditch. Retrieved April 11, 2019 . 
7. ^ IQA Announcement: The Future of Quidditch Development | US Quidditch. Retrieved July 2, 2018 . 
8. ↑ James Burnett: Quality Over Quantity: A Critical Look at the Allocation of EQC Places for 2017-18. In: Quidditch Post. October 22, 2017, accessed April 16, 2019 . 
9. ^ Richard Turkowitsch: EQC Counterpoint: Arguing for Growth. In: Quidditch Post. November 6, 2017, accessed April 16, 2019 . 
10. ^ QE EQC Proposal (public). Retrieved April 16, 2019 . 
11. ↑ Two-tier EQC Spot Distribution Explanation | Quidditch Europe. April 26, 2018, accessed April 16, 2019 . 
12. ↑ European Quidditch Cup 2019 - Division 1 & Division 2 Bid Package | Quidditch Europe. (PDF) Retrieved April 16, 2019 . 
13. ↑ European Quidditch Cup | Quidditch Europe. Retrieved April 16, 2019 . 
14. ↑ EQC Emerging Area Spots | Quiddich Europe. Retrieved January 23, 2019 .