US Quidditch Holds Mid-Atlantic Regional Championship
After its Welcome Weekend, US Quidditch’s (USQ) regional championships for Muggle quidditch started in the United States. The first one was the US Quidditch Mid-Atlantic Regional Championship (MARC).
USQ MARC was held in Richmond, Virginia, on October 23–24. It is an event that is organized for both college teams and club teams. Both are separated and divided into two divisions.
The collegiate division was organized through pool play. Teams participated in two pools, with four teams in each pool. In the first pool, the teams were Virginia Tech (VT), the Salisbury University Quidditch Club (SUQ), the Virginia Quidditch Club (UVA), and WVU Summit (WVU). In the second pool, the teams were Maryland Quidditch (UMD), the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Quidditch (UNC), Wizengamot Quidditch of VCU (VCU), and George Mason Club Quidditch (GMU).
After the first set of games on Saturday morning, the teams were seeded into an upper pool and a lower pool based on their results. On Saturday afternoon, the teams in both pools played against each other without playing against their previous opponents. The next day, on Sunday morning, all teams continued in the bracket structure.
In this structure, the Virginia Quidditch Club won against George Mason Club Quidditch and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Quidditch but lost to Maryland Quidditch. Meanwhile, the Salisbury University Quidditch Club won against the Virginia Quidditch Club but lost to Virginia Tech, which won another match against WVU Summit. The final game was played between Virginia Tech and Maryland Quidditch. Maryland Quidditch won the game and became the champion of USQ MARC in the collegiate division. That means that Maryland Quidditch, Virginia Tech, and the Virginia Quidditch Club will have the first bids at the 2022 USQ Cup.
The club division was simpler because there were only three teams: the District of Columbia Quidditch Club, Earth Wake Quidditch, and the Philadelphia Freedom Quidditch Club. There were neither brackets nor pool play. Teams had to compete against each other two times. If needed, there would have been another game between the top two teams to decide who would be the champion, but the District of Columbia Quidditch Club was named the champion after three wins.