Sport Quidditch Inaugural season 2012 IQA Summer Games Most recent
champion(s) Australia | Founded 2012 No. of teams 21 | |
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Formerly Summer Games
Global Games | ||
The IQA World Cup (formerly named Global Games and Summer Games) is the international quidditch tournament contested by NGB's national teams hosted by the International Quidditch Association, the sport's global governing organisation. The championship has been awarded every two years since 2012. The current champions are Australia, who defeated the United States in 2016.
Contents
History
The IQA World Cup was first held in July 2012. The tournament was named the "Summer Games" in accordance with its unofficial tie-in to the 2012 Summer Olympics, and because the name "World Cup" was already being used for the much longer-running US Championship (renamed the US Quidditch Cup as of 2016). The tournament was held in Oxford, United Kingdom as the Olympic torch was passing through the city. Five teams took part: Australia, Canada, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The event followed a round-robin format, with the last place team being eliminated and the others advancing to the bracket phase. The UK was defeated by all the other competitors and did not make the bracket. The US took first place, defeating France in the final, and Australia claimed bronze by defeating Canada.
2014 saw the tournament (rechristened as the "Global Games") take place under an updated IQA which became a truly international sports federation. The Games were under the supervision of US Quidditch but were held in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. Seven teams came out to compete: Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Italy had planned to compete but had to pull out. The event was contested over a round-robin, with positions in a series of playoffs determined by each team's result in the first round. Due to limited media relations and improper planning, the tournament was relatively unknown and had a lacking medical staff which became evident when Belgium chose to forfeit after suffering multiple injuries. The United States defended their title by defeating Australia in the final, and Canada claimed bronze by defeating the United Kingdom in the playoff.
The 2016 World Cup took place in Frankfurt, Germany. The initial tournament plans involved 25 competing teams, but because of dropouts, only 21 actually competed. The tournament took place using a pool-play format, followed by a single-elimination bracket with all 21 teams. Ahead of the tournament, exhibition matches were held between Canada and the United Kingdom, Turkey and Mexico and Australia and Germany. Uganda and South Korea were to have an exposition match on the same day, but due to Uganda having to drop out, the game was cancelled.
Qualification
Since quidditch is still an up-and-coming sport, there is no qualification at this time for entry to the Global Games. To be eligible, the team must be representing a region's national governing body
Results
The following table shows a list of all IQA World Cups to date. The team that caught the snitch is denoted with an asterisk.