Quidditch Australia has taken to Facebook to break the news that our team on the international stage, The Dropbears, have taken out pole position at the 2016 Quidditch World, becoming the first time Team USA has ever lost a round (Game? Match?) of the sport.
The Dropbears (let’s just hang on that for a second…The Dropbears….anyway) were effectively the underdogs in the situation, a miscalculation fans of the sport won’t ever make again. During the finals against the reigning champs, The Dropbears brought it home with a convincing 150 – 130 victory.
The two-day tournament saw The Dropbears lay waste to titans of the sport including Belgium, Slovakia, Ireland, France, Canada and host nation Germany.
This is in stark contract to our performance last year with The Dropbears being knocked out buy the US team. However, there isn’t the rivalry in Quidditch that there is in say, State Of Origin. Teams seem genuinely stoked and supportive of each other and the sport has a well-documented gender-equality.
The Dropbears victory couldn’t have happened without the strong support of the international community. The team started a crowdfunding campaign to fund the trip. Raising just about $17,000, it cost a helluva lot less than our entire Olympic Male swimming team and produced far, far greater results.
@IOC, you seein this, guys?