IQA

Feature

Regionals

Regional Championships Q&A

by IQA Staff | August 16, 2013

With three Regional Championships announced earlier today, we reached out to the Regional Directors for their take on the decision-making process.

Midwest Regional Championship

October 26 - 27 in Rockford, IL
Regional Director:

Why did you choose this particular site for Regionals?

The Midwest was lucky enough to receive four bids for this year’s regional championship. Though Chicago Southland, IL; Columbia, MO; and Peoria, IL all submitted great packets, the bid from the Rockford Area Convention & Visitors Bureau was ultimately selected. The RACVB teamed up with the Illinois State Firebirds last spring to put on the Rock River Invitational and now they are more excited than ever to bring our regional championship to Rockford. With the offer of a central location for all our teams, the high-quality Sportscore II facility, exceptional connections to local media outlets, as well as many other services at our disposal for the tournament, Rockford was a clear choice to host our event this season!

What do you hope teams, players, and spectators take away from the tournament?

Last season in the IQA had seen some of the most tremendous growth in the history of our sport, and it is my goal to help the league continue along that path of development. Players have come to expect a high level of game play at these events and I hope that we can outdo ourselves this time around in all aspects of the tournament. I want regional championships to be an opportunity for our community to reconnect, for teams to come and compete at their highest caliber, for new cities to find a love of the game, for athletes to enjoy playing quidditch as well as cheering on the other teams, for friends, family, and new spectators alike to come out in support of Midwest quidditch like they have never before. This year in quidditch holds so much potential and I hope that anybody who attends the Midwest Regional Championship will walk away with renewed passion for the sport and excitement for the future.

How can individuals get involved in planning the tournaments?

The best way to get involved is to keep an eye on the IQA site. There are volunteer openings posted often online with opportunities to get more involved in the Midwest and in the league as a whole! Feel free to apply to a position on our Regional Championship Committee or for any other vacancy. Additionally, there will be more opportunities to lend your services to the regional championships, which will be handled by RCC Volunteer Coordinators. (Disclaimer: Once you apply for an IQA staff position, it is difficult to limit yourself to just one.)

—Luke Zak

 Northeast Regional Championship

November 16 - 17 in Rochester, NY
Regional Director:

Why did you choose this particular site for Regionals?

This year Monroe County, the city of Rochester, and the Snow Belt Conference submitted a spectacular bid for the 2013 Northeast Regional*. At the Total Sports Experience (TSE) facility in Rochester, NY, we will have access to a major sports complex that is experienced in putting on major tournaments. This means that we will have access to soccer fields, restrooms on site, and a concessions center, making it easy for players to stay on site all day. The site includes 14 soccer fields,127,500 square feet of indoor space, and complimentary wireless Internet.

The University of Rochester, RIT, and the Snow Belt Conference have offered to provide game equipment at no cost to the IQA.

*Rochester, NY was the Northeast’s only bid.

What do you hope teams, players, and spectators take away from the tournament?

We hope that teams will be able to appreciate Rochester as a fantastic and supportive city. We also want everyone who plays to be able to experience what it's like to have a tournament at a sports facility that hosts other large-scale tournaments. Quidditch is moving from “the fort” into a state of the art facility that will offer us the ability to run a high-quality sporting event. For most teams that attend this tournament, it will be their last stop on the road to the World Cup, and they deserve to have a tournament held to a high standard. From the facility, to the refs and snitches, to how the tournament is run overall, that's what we intend to deliver to them.

How can individuals get involved in planning the tournaments?

This tournament will not be able to be run without an amazing set of volunteers. Keep an eye out for a RCC position posting on the IQA page and e-mail Jenna for more information!

—Jenna Jankowski

 Western Regional Championship

November 23 - 24 in Tempe, AZ
Regional Director:

Why did you choose this particular site for Regionals?

The West received two bids - Tempe, AZ and Burnaby, BC (for those wondering, Riverside is putting in a bid for next year, not this year) - and of those two really solid bids, we decided to go with Tempe for several reasons. Proximity to a majority of the teams in the region was one of the main draws to Tempe. Also, being part of the Phoenix-Metro area (the 5th largest city in the US) means that there is a huge population always looking for things to do for entertainment for us to tap into. The Tempe Tourism Office and the City of Tempe are both backing this tournament with financial and marketing support, respectively. Tempe also has gorgeous weather in the fall - November is generally in the 70s with very little chance of rain. As a college town that runs around Arizona State University, there are a lot of great things to do outside of the tournament for players and spectators alike.

What do you hope teams, players, and spectators will take away from the tournament?

I fully expect this tournament to be the biggest the West has seen to date. With a large population at our fingertips and a ton of marketing support from the city, we will be able to bring in a large amount of people. This will definitely go a long way to getting a great bid for the next season. I want teams to be able to only worry about the competition and not what weather will be like, whether there will be enough amenities, etc. And I want spectators to walk away impressed by our sport and wanting to see more of it.

How can individuals get involved in planning the tournaments?

Please, if you're remotely interested in helping to plan your regional tournament, please apply to be on our RCC. If you don't want all of that responsibility but still want to help, please be on the lookout for when we start hiring our general volunteers, refs, and snitches. Feel free to contact me at any time if you want to help in any capacity, and we will figure out how to make that happen.

Anything else that you would like to say?

One of the big things I feel that teams will find advantageous about Tempe is how cheap and easy travel is. Since Phoenix is such a large business hub, flying into PHX is, in most cases, very inexpensive. Tempe is also within a 6 hour drive of Los Angeles, 4 hours of Las Vegas, and 10 hours for most other teams located in the west. Once in Phoenix, the Light Rail offers a cheap and easy way to get from the airport to Tempe, and there are plenty of very cheap or free bus routes that cross the entire city.

—Alexis Bristor