January 13, 2022

EQT 2022 Cancelled

Leagues

European Qualifier 2022 Cancelled

QuidditchUK has made the difficult decision to cancel the European Qualifier Tournament for 2022, and award the spots based on the performances of previous events this season.

After taking on the feedback and insight from your clubs' leadership over the holiday break, and have made the following decisions about EQC spot allocation.

  • The top eight community teams will be awarded EQC spots and the relevant seeds per the list further in this email.
  • The final two spots will be awarded to the division one Northern and Southern winners (both are unseeded spots at EQC D2) in the February university fixtures.
  • We still intend to host all of our other tournaments this season, including our second university fixtures next month. We expect both BQC and Development Cup to continue as originally planned.

Awarded Spots - EQC Division One

First Seed, WEREWOLVES OF LONDON FIRSTS
First Seed, LONDON QUIDDITCH CLUB A
Second Seed, VELOCIRAPTORS QC
Third Seed, LONDON UNSPEAKABLES
Fourth Seed, OLYMPIANS QC

Awarded Spots - EQC Division Two

First Seed, OXFORD MAMMOTHS
First Seed, SOUTHSEA QUIDDITCH CLUB
Second Seed, WEREWOLVES OF LONDON SECONDS

Unseeded, SOUTHERN LEAGUE WINNER
Unseeded, NORTHERN LEAGUE WINNER

QuidditchUK will approach these clubs directly with a formal confirmation, which will need to be confirmed by the end of February.

Should teams forfeit, decline, or for any other reason be unable to take a spot, the appropriate seeding will be adjusted and another club will be offered a spot instead.

Should the February iterations of Southern or Northern be canceled for any reason, the spots will be offered to Southampton Quidditch Club or Holyrood Hippogriffs respectively.

Decisions and Reasoning

Why have you decided to cancel the European Qualifier Tournament 2022?

The spiking COVID-19 numbers had left us feeling uneasy about hosting a 2-day event indoors, where approximately 350 people would be in an enclosed space for an entire weekend.

As this is only a qualification tournament for another event, unlike BQC which has far more importance, we felt it irresponsible to carry on with this event when we do have access to other fair and objective metrics to determine qualification.

This, coupled with the high event cost, risking players and volunteers by bringing in members from all corners of the country, and the indoor restrictions now in place in Wales is what made us make this decision.

If the event in question was BQC, we would likely have gone ahead with more stringent safety checks in place, but we do not think the high risk and resource requirement of our volunteers is worth it for just EQT.

Why have you decided to continue with the Southern Cup, given it's timing AND location is more or less the same as EQT?
Southern Cup is entirely outdoors, and being a single day event with only 5 teams attending (compared to the 12-14 we expected for EQT) it falls within the bounds of safety and risk for us.

It also impacts attendance at BQC and the development of university teams which is important to us as we continue to work our way through this pandemic?

Why have spots been allocated to university teams over community teams?

Development is important for us, and having a European level event on the table specifically for our university clubs gives them something to strive for and experience.

QuidditchUK would rather guarantee spots to university teams that can learn and grow and experience an EQC environment, than potentially have a better run at EQC by allowing another community team to come in.

We do intend to have EQC entirely decided by our league fixtures in future seasons, including allocated university spots. This approach we've taken simply brings that element in sooner.

What about allowing smaller inter-competition to determine seeding or spots?

We did strongly consider this, however fairness was the main point against it. Having (for example) West Country and/or LQC B compete against Southampton for their prospective spot, but Holyrood would gain theirs more or less unchallenged, with the possible exception of Kelpies Quidditch Club.

Ultimately, this felt more trouble than it was worth, and we would rather award these spots now and give the teams time to prepare and plan for their European competition.

Who is in line for the next spot?

If a community team pulls out, the next team to be awarded a spot is West Country Rebels.
University teams pulling out will be reviewed on a case by case basis, but we will favour university teams first before offering spots to community teams.

Contact Us

Matt Bateman

By Matt Bateman
January 13, 2022

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