Intercollegiate Quidditch Cup

[Peyton Ó Ruairc]

I have searched about this on the archives but no one has suggested it yet ... Thank god.

Anyways, it's pretty much a site wide plot because it involves either four or two school teams. Though, I prefer only two school teams as I see some of the schools don't or have few students. I could see HNZ, Hogwarts Scotland, Ilvermorny, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang as potential teams. Maybe we could have a trial run with HNZ with either of the four schools. Now I know HNZ and Hogwarts Scotland and Ilvermorny have houses but we could just pick the best players for HNZ (As we don't have a choice for the other two). I'm also hoping that this will encourage people to make characters for other schools as well and maybe the cup would be an annual thing but the cup has to be played after the very last game of the season, more like NCAA. Prizes, of course, a golden huge cup and bragging rights for an IC year

I hope I've explained it clearly and I know this will be a pain in everyone's behind but I tried
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[Professor Cyndi Kingsley]

Thank you for the suggestion, Alex. I do feel like this has come up in the past, but the teams never got too far along. We do like some aspects of this idea, but we have some concerns about other aspects which I'll explain below. Read on, if you're interested, and preferably, before you answer the poll questions.

With some recent changes in the quidditch control panel (and another coming in the near future ), we are able to hold games for non-HNZ student teams (as evidenced by the staff team). So, the quidditch control panel (QCP) does have the capability for what you are requesting. However, we do have a few concerns with your request. Namely, you’ve mentioned 4 different schools having teams. While it likely would be the case that each of these schools (and many more) would have house teams, portraying each of those on HNZ would certainly detract from the school’s teams, and we all know that the focus of the site is HNZ. And while we support the effort to have mixed-school games, if it is going to be at the expense of HNZ quidditch, then our support will decrease. When I first began working on reviving quidditch, we started off with mixed house teams and only a game or two a season. This then developed, slowly and over a great deal of time, to what we have now. Any of you who were around for those early days likely remember the difficulty of getting enough site support for half a team let alone a whole one.

As such, if we do move forward with this idea, we would like it to be limited to one team of the site’s choosing, though we’d suggest Beauxbatons or Durmstrang - there are already forum spaces to keep everything contained and there’s already an established history of these schools interacting with HNZ. If that works out well for an extended period of time, then we can consider additional schools if it makes sense for the site. Basically, the idea is to prevent over-saturation, for lack of a better word. At some point, there is such a thing as too much quidditch, and we’d like to prevent reaching that point. More importantly, we’d like to prevent other areas of the site from losing attention because quidditch is getting so much of it.

Additionally, if this is the route we go, we’d like to see the site put forth some effort towards this as well. Before we’ll commit to even setting a date for such a game, there would need to be tryouts for the team chosen, a full team developed from these tryouts, and RPs with the team. Basically, we’d like to see some attention to this, more than just a team being slapped together simply for the game’s sake.

On a related note, another idea that I’ve toyed with for ages, going back to when the QCP was first developed, is a professional game. Obviously, we wouldn’t hold a tournament (see my point on over-saturation above ) and can’t even do a quidditch world cup (nearly every 'complete' team has inactive members) but perhaps an All-Star type game could work. It would allow individuals from multiple teams (and hopefully multiple RPers) to participate and give us some use for that aspect of the site while allowing fans of multiple teams the opportunity to interact in the stands. So, that is another option. The decision made will replace the student/staff game.

With those thoughts out there, I will append several poll questions to this topic. Let us know a) if you like the idea of another game being added to the schedule, b) if you’d prefer that game to be another student game or a professional game and c) if we were to have a student game, which school you would like to see participate. This poll is OOC, so please only complete it once per RPer.

I do have some ideas on the logistics for either option, so really it's just us seeing which direction we'd slightly expand in if the site wants to see an expansion in the first place. I look forward to seeing the poll results, and thanks for drumming up the conversation, Alex.

~Cyndi

 

[James Adams]

Additionally, if this is the route we go, we’d like to see the site put forth some effort towards this as well. Before we’ll commit to even setting a date for such a game, there would need to be tryouts for the team chosen, a full team developed from these tryouts, and RPs with the team. Basically, we’d like to see some attention to this, more than just a team being slapped together simply for the game’s sake.

My concern with this that you partially mentioned is that the teams would be unfairly unbalanced. Even if we have a few RPs that get the new school team working together, with the way that the QCP works with numbers and statistics, probability dictates that HNZ has a far greater chance of winning - HNZ players have the advantage of several games a year, for a possible seven years; as certain chasers have shown, this leads to a vastly inflated score rate, or a higher chance of catching the snitch. Of course HNZ is the focus, but I feel that such an imbalance would be detrimental to the game; I am also aware of the staff vs students game, where such things do take place, but we must remember that that was always a friendly, semi-joking game. I've not yet voted in the polls, but until there is a certain way to even this out somewhat, I feel like a HNZ vs another school is less convincing than a mature adult game. Of course we could drop the staff game and have another joking game of a similar kind with a different school instead, but I feel there is little point in that given the staff have greater interaction on the board, and we are thus more engaged with them.

 

[Nicolas King]

Additionally, if this is the route we go, we’d like to see the site put forth some effort towards this as well. Before we’ll commit to even setting a date for such a game, there would need to be tryouts for the team chosen, a full team developed from these tryouts, and RPs with the team. Basically, we’d like to see some attention to this, more than just a team being slapped together simply for the game’s sake.

My concern with this that you partially mentioned is that the teams would be unfairly unbalanced. Even if we have a few RPs that get the new school team working together, with the way that the QCP works with numbers and statistics, probability dictates that HNZ has a far greater chance of winning - HNZ players have the advantage of several games a year, for a possible seven years; as certain chasers have shown, this leads to a vastly inflated score rate, or a higher chance of catching the snitch. Of course HNZ is the focus, but I feel that such an imbalance would be detrimental to the game; I am also aware of the staff vs students game, where such things do take place, but we must remember that that was always a friendly, semi-joking game. I've not yet voted in the polls, but until there is a certain way to even this out somewhat, I feel like a HNZ vs another school is less convincing than a mature adult game. Of course we could drop the staff game and have another joking game of a similar kind with a different school instead, but I feel there is little point in that given the staff have greater interaction on the board, and we are thus more engaged with them.

I'm not sure that it's fair to say the scoring chances for chasers are "vastly inflated" - if you play for seven years, you'll probably be pretty good - especially if the keeper is inexperienced.
However, staff have the ability to change a player's stats, so as far as I know some professors have had stats edited to not play like a first year with no game experience, the same could be done for, say, Durmstrang students according to their year level in Durmstrang.
Additionally, an upcoming quidditch system update will address the problem of only official games improving a player's stats, but I'll leave its announcement to the staff.

 

[Kida Frost]

I love this idea, I've been suggesting for years to get more Quidditch into HNZ, more Games ! more around the world competitions I'm all for it after all I've based Kida all around Quidditch.

My only concern is getting a team of Durm of Beau because people may feel left out

 

[Professor Cyndi Kingsley]

I am also aware of the staff vs students game, where such things do take place, but we must remember that that was always a friendly, semi-joking game. I've not yet voted in the polls, but until there is a certain way to even this out somewhat, I feel like a HNZ vs another school is less convincing than a mature adult game. Of course we could drop the staff game and have another joking game of a similar kind with a different school instead, but I feel there is little point in that given the staff have greater interaction on the board, and we are thus more engaged with them.

Nick already pointed out our ability to alter stats which I will confirm we have done for professors who participated in the games if they had experience, so I have nothing to add there. The same could/would be done for this as I'd assume a 7th year on their school team likely didn't just join up for their last year of school. I would also like to point out that the only thing that will be at stake in this school vs school game is bragging rights, which is also the case with the student/staff game.

I love this idea, I've been suggesting for years to get more Quidditch into HNZ, more Games ! more around the world competitions I'm all for it after all I've based Kida all around Quidditch.

My only concern is getting a team of Durm of Beau because people may feel left out

Well, once you know which school (if that's the way things go) is chosen, the easy way to not feel left out is to use your character in that school or create one and try out for the team.

 

[Peyton Ó Ruairc]

Oops! I totally forgot about the QCP thingy, that slip out. But anyways, now I know it's capable of doing more. Can I suggest one more thing? Instead of picking one school, I assume it's Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, can we alter them every IC year? Like, if ever this gets approve, this coming IC year HNZ would play Beauxbatons and the next year would be Durmstrang? I mean I'll still be happy if we're to play only Beauxbatons but alternating them would be more fun. The only time I get to get up early is because of Quidditch match, having more would be awesomesauce.
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[Professor Cyndi Kingsley]

I have a much longer opinion on this, but my short answer is I don’t think that one IC year is enough and switching between teams will not be beneficial to building this aspect of the site. If you really want this to succeed long-term, I think it would be more beneficial to work with one team - the Beauxbatons team, which seems to be the majority choice by the individuals who do want to see a school game - for a few IC years before considering adding another school team to the mix, again if it makes sense for the site.

 

[Peyton Ó Ruairc]

I get yah. I hope everyone would participate, can't wait to start this.
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[Liberty Kaelen]

I hope it's okay to 'reopen' this but I've been considering something similar and wondered if I could get further opinions & dicussion on this topic

I can see from the Polls above, that Beauxbatons is the most favourable school for which HNZ would play against. I believe that with the number of students who'd like to be involved in Quidditch, the addition of 1 outside student team would prove useful to adding activity to the site.
In order to get the most fairly found team, I am wondering whether there is an active / dedicated Head Person for Beauxbatons? I would like to suggest that if this could be arranged (or if already is) that they would organise the inital try-outs for the school, and choose the first offical Captain to lead try-outs from there. Given that Hogwarts also has the benefit of set year groups, I would also like to suggest that the Head Person has an official record of the active Beauxbatons students and their yeargroups, to avoid any jumping around of years in order to fit into the team (This could also benefit prefects etc).
In order to not detrack from HNZ, would it be possible for the Beauxbatons team to go to the Hogwarts grounds, and have 2 matches a year within the school? This would add a couple of games, but not so many that it becomes crowded, and the focus is still within the main school.
In time things could progress further, but these are just my thoughts that may assist with opening the site plots to more people.

Thanks

 

[Professor Cyndi Kingsley]

I don't see that a Headmaster is crucial to the team holding tryouts. They don't do it on HNZ. Alex brought this suggestion to the site's attention, so having her as the first captain seems fair to me. In order to create some balance and not put everything on her, perhaps her co-captain could be the person with the oldest, active student currently in the Beauxbatons group. Let's find out who that is and see if they're up for the job.

Currently, there is only one page worth of students, and you'd expect at least a fraction of the current students don't care a lick about the sport. I have faith in members of our site to be honest about their students' grade levels and not make any changes there. The quidditch team can comprise of students from nearly any level, so what would be the point? Once a team is chosen, those students will be locked in with a year and will not be able to change that in the qcp which does keep track of entry year into the team. That will help to set a reference point for future students, teams, etc since this will be the only time that I'll back date years on the team for the team. After this, they'll have joined the team in whatever year we're up to.

Finally, I think asking for two games when we are nearing the end of the semester and tryouts haven't even been held is putting the cart before the horse. As we indicated before:

we’d like to see the site put forth some effort towards this as well. Before we’ll commit to even setting a date for such a game, there would need to be tryouts for the team chosen, a full team developed from these tryouts, and RPs with the team. Basically, we’d like to see some attention to this, more than just a team being slapped together simply for the game’s sake.

It's already nearly three months beyond when I said that, and there has been no tryout. At this point, I expected things to be much further along, so I'm not even agreeing to setting a date for one game let alone discussing other details. IC, however, it wouldn't make sense for Beauxbatons to just show up to HNZ for their quidditch games. They'd have a pitch of their own, which doesn't need to be created as a subforum to exist. Let's get this team together, and then we can discuss next steps.

Thanks for bumping this, Phoebe. I look forward to seeing the site's effort in developing a Beauxbatons team.

 

[Liberty Kaelen]

I understand that nothing has happened yet, but I think someone needs to take charge in order to organise this. Regarding Head People, I think this would help in long run, and if other opportunities opened up in the future, their participation would help in that also. Currently there would be no character able to put a team together, given their positions. Alex's character could definiately be a Captain, but I think there would need to be someone to put that into place. If I can find it, I will link a topic from a few years ago regarding the fair selection of teams members, and after rereading that, I believe someone outside of the team would be required to organise it initially. I have tried to get this running in the past, and would be happy to try to again.

I know Beaubatons would have no reason per say to join HNZ, however this would increase the site activity and site plots. We can use this to open up more ideas in the future. Of course no matches would take place at HNZ just yet, especially considering we're half way through the year

Would I be able to organise this, and see potentially whether it's a viable option for the site please?

 

[Ezekiel Eindhoven]

I'm so sorry, I had no clue I had to organize try outs I was so excited about this that I totally forgot who does what. I don't mind doing the try outs but is it best to wait for next IC year or just do it now and hope for the best? I so happened to make a 5th year Beauxbatons who is perfect for captain at least?

 

[Professor Cyndi Kingsley]

I'm so sorry, I had no clue I had to organize try outs I was so excited about this that I totally forgot who does what. I don't mind doing the try outs but is it best to wait for next IC year or just do it now and hope for the best? I so happened to make a 5th year Beauxbatons who is perfect for captain at least?

You didn't and don't have to. I just thought it was fair for you to have the opportunity since you began the resurgence of this idea.

Regarding Head People, I think this would help in long run, and if other opportunities opened up in the future, their participation would help in that also.

Totally agree that this will be helpful in the future, and when it becomes more apparent to me that Beauxbatons is going to have more activity, I will absolutely look to post an application for a Head Person there.

 

[Liberty Kaelen]

So Alex & I have been chatting about this, and we've had some ideas Do you think it would be best if for now we take say, the Beauxbatons Head Girl/Boy and ask them to hold the very first tryouts (Someone with no intention of being on the team) so that the team can be founded fairly?

I wonder if we could set up tryouts to see how many active students would be interested, and they can spend the second semester of this year in practise. Regarding the actual games, we could begin with one additional game a year, which would be between Beauxbatons and the winning Hogwarts team at the end of the year. If it works, we can also add in Durmstrang later too.

We have some further thoughts and details, but these are the basics

Thanks

 

[Professor Cyndi Kingsley]

Sorry for the delay. I thought I'd replied to this already.

In order to create some balance and not put everything on her, perhaps her co-captain could be the person with the oldest, active student currently in the Beauxbatons group. Let's find out who that is and see if they're up for the job.

Do you think it would be best if for now we take say, the Beauxbatons Head Girl/Boy and ask them to hold the very first tryouts (Someone with no intention of being on the team) so that the team can be founded fairly?

I think I pretty much said the same thing. Since we don’t assign Head Boy/Girl, it might be a tad more time-consuming to find who that person is, if they even exist (there might be no 7th years in the group or that individual might not consider their character a Head Boy or Girl which would then result in a delay in creating such a person and deciding who is going to create that person, etc.)over my suggestion of simply taking the oldest, current person in the group. You do run the risk that this person or your Head Boy or Girl is interested in playing on the team, but I'm not as concerned about this as you are. I trust that whoever is involved in deciding the team will share the wealth and make attempts to involve as many people as possible, and the staff and I are always available to provide guidance and answer questions along the way so long as the entire thing isn’t falling on us.

I wonder if we could set up tryouts to see how many active students would be interested, and they can spend the second semester of this year in practise. Regarding the actual games, we could begin with one additional game a year, which would be between Beauxbatons and the winning Hogwarts team at the end of the year. If it works, we can also add in Durmstrang later too.

Thanks

As for games, I’ll continue to say the same thing that I’ve been saying all along. This needs to get beyond just the forming of a team before I’ll sit down with the captain(s) and iron out details regarding games. I’m not committing to any games until that point, and I'm definitely not even discussing any additional schools until this is successful. I’m hopeful we will get to that phase, but let's take it one step at a time.

 

[Teagan Riley]

I have another suggestion regarding games ...

Charity Games and spectators

1. Charity games, happens every 6 months of RL calendar depending of what IC months we are in (we can also do this in IC calendar). So, charity games involves money (galleons for that matter) and a charity (duh) but I was wondering instead of a non existent charity, the team whoever wins choose one RL charity that's closest to their heart. Remember, no real money involve (an angel will make the chosen charity happy ) and this will not be a part of the actual tournament games.

How will it work? Comes the spectators. Like the owlery, outside people/none student can post there maybe we can do the same? Some students who plays Quidditch has family members who might want to see their kids play against international school or the minister wants to see a game with his son. The ticket will only cost 1 galleon maybe to track who bought tickets is to make an ooc account? And possibly a password enable thread for spectators and someone could pm them to access the said thread.

I could explain this better if I'm on my laptop but this my thoughts for right now.

PS: DO NOT WORRY ABOUT THE RL MONEY
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