Liveblogging Quidditch World Cup 2008!

After a day of torrential downpour, a crisp, beautiful and cold morning greets spectators and players alike for the Qudditch World Cup 2008!

Live Broadcast Coverage Begins Today at 10AM! MiddBlog will be providing periodic updates with photographs, commentary, and more. For statistics, match results and such, stay tuned to Collegequidditch.com, which was down last night to install the streaming TV portion of the site. Let’s just hope they have enough bandwith to carry coverage nationwide.

Here are some links to the visiting teams and planned festivities. Check out parent Steve Mease’s photos from yesterday’s Middlebury qualifying round. Emerson College got written up in their school newspaper.

Stay tuned!

9:30AM: Quidditch teams were spotted in the dining halls partaking in a fuel-up session. A Midd student remarks, “There are more kids with capes on in here than there are without…”

10:45AM: The World Cup has kicked off with a procession/parade of all twelve teams. Live coverage over at collegequidditch.com is working smoothly, so feel free stream it online if you’re in your dorm room and don’t want to get out of your PJs. All in all, a nice start. Weather is mild and sunny, perfect for Quidditch. Should be quite a mud-match later with large patches of standing water from last night’s storm still hampering play. 3 snitches will be rotating games. Announcers are stationed in a raised sports-broadcasting booth between the two fields. It looks fantastic. There is a mini-players village set up on the north side of the fields — small tents for players to put their belongings. On the south side of the field are the a few early vendors including American Flatbread (they brought their clay oven) and the Skinny Pancake (they brought a bus). Owl and alpacas will make an appearance later with a half time show that includes the Mountain Ayres (quidditch themed acappella), fire jugglers, and stilt walkers. Careful it’s slippery out there!

11AM: First set of photos are up! Collegequidditch.com statistics show more and more people watching online with around 89 viewers watching live.

1PM: Reports are that CollegeQudditch.com is having some slowness even as only under hundred viewers are watching live. Middlebury won their match just barely this morning, even not grabbing the snitch, winning on hoop points. The Middlebury Mamajamas performed for a mid-morning break. McGill University is getting all the TV coverage with WCAX following them almost exclusively. The Ives Pond team sang the Canadian national anthem. Finally, the owls have arrived and are drawing big crowds especially among the family-crowd. The commentators are dishing amazing coverage — MiddBlog soundbites to follow. At least a thousand people have turned out to watch today in person. Half-time is coming up around 2PM. Action photos coming soon.

3PM: Middlebury won their second match against Emerson College. Fantastic half-time show with the main attraction being the Flying Fists Juggling Brigade. They also did stilt-walking, unicycling, flame juggling, knive juggling, etc. The Mt. Ayres impressed with two Harry Potter songs. Some magical flaming potions too! A Middlebury-Vassar rematch is coming up soon.

4PM: Middlebury versus Vassar for the final match! Because it is double elimination, Vassar would have to beat Middlebury twice to claim the World Cup. Midd up 30-0. Collegequidditch.com live broadcast cut short by some technical difficulties — offline.

4:30PM: And it’s over. Midd won 70-40 over Vassar in short match. Closing ceremonies are taking place. It is Rainey Johnson (snitch) and Commissioner Alex Benepe’s last World Cup as students here at Middlebury. The actual cup broke while being hoisted up by the Middlebury team. Time to invest in a non-vodka-bottle-based cup for next year. The real question: will Middlebury always host the World Cup or will a new location be selected for next year?

4:47PM: Until next year, MiddBlog signing out.

10/27 Update: We’ve got some fantastic audio clips of commentary from the World Cup. Will Bellamy and Ken Grinde play sportscasters narrating the games with everything from fake player names, multi-language coverage, and special correspondents. Collegequidditch.com is experiencing major downtime today as they remove the streaming feature on the site and possibly get some archived video coverage of yesterday’s festivities. More photos are making appearances on the web especially more from the closing ceremonies and Saturday’s qualifying round. For the best overall photos, check out more photos from Steve Mease at Picture This Photos or friend him on Facebook!

Stay tuned for national media coverage…