What is Quadball?

Quadball is a competitive sport growing rapidly around Australia and the world. It is played predominantly by university students, but it is also played by older and younger community teams, and even schools. Derived from the fictional sport ‘quidditch’ in JK Rowling's Harry Potter novels, it was developed into a real life sport by fans back in 2005, and has since grown into a worldwide phenomenon. It is currently the only mixed-gender full contact sport in the world, played in over 30 countries and governed by the International Quadball Association (IQA).

Today, there are over 30 teams across Australia within university and community clubs, who are governed by Quadball Australia, and the various state governing bodies, including the Queensland Association of Quadball (QAQ), Quadball NSW (QNSW), the Quadball Victoria (QV)).

How did Quadball start?

One afternoon in 2005, two students at Middlebury College in Vermont, USA, Xander Manshel and Alex Benepe, decided that rather than playing bocche, they would have a go trying to play quidditch instead. Because why not? 

With a group of friends, they created the very first version of real-life quidditch. Gradually, they codified the rules as news spread and others schools heard about it and their regular intramural games. Two years later in 2007 came the first intercollegiate match. From there, the sport really took off.

The switch from quidditch to quadball occurred in 2022, spearheaded by US Quadball and endorsed by the International Quadball Association. As of 2023, Australia embraced the name ‘quadball’, changing our organisation name to Quadball Australia.

A Brief History of International Quadball

Just a year after the first intercollegiate match saw the first international quadball games, with a "World Cup" championship featuring 11 US college teams and one team from Canada. As the game grew in the US and Canada, the IQA was founded to govern the sport and was incorporated into an NFP business in 2010. The 'Quidditch World Cup' was held annually in the US, featuring rapidly increasing numbers of college and community teams from around the States, with the odd other team from Canada, France, and even Finland. By 2011, World Cup V in New York featured 96 teams and 10,000 ticketed spectators. It was also the year quadball finally reached Australia, with the first tournament outside of the USA, the QUAFL Cup, held in Sydney.

2012 saw the first proper world cup, called the Summer Games, and held in Oxford to coincide with the Olympics and raise awareness for the sport. It was contested by national teams from the US, Canada, Australia, France, and the UK, with the US coming out dominant. This kick-started the rapid development of quadball throughout Europe. 

By 2014, the sport had become significantly international, which resulted in the predominantly US based IQA splitting off into US Quadball and a truly international IQA. This was also the last year where the US 'World Cup' was called such, and the last year where international teams were invited. The US World Cup VII featured the first Australian club team to play internationally and the only one to play in the US - the University of Sydney Unspeakables. After this, the annual US World Cup became the somewhat more accurate US Nationals. 

2014 also saw the second tournament held between national teams from around the world, where 7 countries (the original five plus Belgium and Mexico) converged on Bunbury, Canada, to compete in the Global Games. The US also dominated this tournament, with the Australian National Team, affectionately known as the Dropbears, placing in second. 

Two years later saw the 2016 IQA Quidditch World Cup, a landmark event in the history of the sport, held in Frankfurt, Germany. The tournament now featured 21 teams from 5 continents, and saw the first time in history where the US was defeated, with the Australian Dropbears winning the grand final 150*-130. 2016 also saw the ANU Owls become the second club team to compete outside of Australia, winning the Asia-Pacific Quidditch Cup.

From there, Quadball has only continued to grow, as more and more countries in the Asia-Pacific region began taking up the sport as well and growing to a level of prominence that allowed them to compete in the 2018 World Cup, held in Florence, Italy. In this tournament, luck of the draw pitted rivals Australia and the USA against each other in pool play, where the USA fought back for a narrow victory. The US proceeded to knock Australia out when the two teams met again in the quarter finals, and went on to win the grand final against Belgium, while Australia defeated France for 5th place.

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly halted the development of the sport through 2020 and 2021, with the 2020 World Cup being post-poned until 2023. The first return to international quadball was the 2022 Pan-American Games, held in Lima, Peru. The second event was the 2022 European Games, in Limerick, Ireland. The Australian Dropbears were fortunate enough to be invited this event - their first international appearance in four years. With nearly a full squad of players making their international debut, the Dropbears competed against several European national teams and ultimately brought home the bronze after a nail-biting game against Germany saw them miss their chance at gold. The 2023 World Cup will be held in Richmond, Virginia on 15-16 July and will mark the first ‘Quadball’ branded international event.

Today there are over 30 official member nations in the IQA, each officiating tournaments and gameplay in their own countries, with quadball also being played in smaller scales in many more countries all over the world.