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Here is a CBS Sunday Morning video about how quidditch team tournaments became popular across the United States, which was shown on April 17, 2016.
The United States Quidditch is a nonprofit national organization, which started in 2010. USQ as a national quidditch community was able to make the game an official sport for universities, high schools, and communities in the US For five years before USQ was created, quidditch college teams were forming and competing against each other in tournaments. In 2009, the third World Cup tournament happened, which had 21 teams competing. One of the quidditch teams participating was Texas A&M University. The very first college that formed a quidditch team was in 2005, at Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont. The quidditch team allows men and women to compete together following the game rules from the Harry Potter novels. The quidditch teams now also follow the rules from USQ.
There are four positions that comprise of a team being a Beater, Keeper, Seeker and Chaser. The Seeker is the one that catches the golden snitch (small yellow ball). The snitch is attached to an equipment by a person that has it hanging on the back of his shorts, while he or she is running around on the playing field. When a Seeker from a team grabs the snitch from the person’s equipment, then the game ends. Whatever team gets the snitch will receive 30 points. The Chasers and Keepers (goalies) play against each other by trying to either get or prevent a Quaffle (volley ball) from going through the hoops, which is similar to the game Soccer. Each Quaffle that gets through the team opponent’s hoop is worth 10 points. The Beaters try to knock out the opposing players with Bludgers (dodge balls) from the other team. When players gets hit by Bludgers, they then have to get off of their broom to run and touch the hoops on their side of the field. Then they are able to get back on their brooms, and they are able to play again. The purpose of beating the other players into getting their brooms is a way of messing up their defense. The quidditch teams can only have a maximum of 21 players that are on the roster list.
In 2011, one of the quidditch teams, which is a members of USQ, were able to compete against a foreign team in the International Quidditch Association (IQA). The Vassar College Quidditch from Poughkeepsie, New York competed against the University of Vassa from Finland. It was the first-ever quidditch match of transcontinental teams. USQ then hosted its first official regional tournament, the Swamp Cup in Gainesville, Florida. Regional tournaments then followed at locations across the U.S. and in Canada.
In 2015, the last Quiddich World Cup, which was the 8th quidditch championship, was held in Rock Hill, South Carolina, which featured 60 teams. The University of Texas won their 3rd straight title as national champion, defeating Lone Star Quidditch Club in the finals. In 2016, the US National Quidditch Team will play against a foreign team in Frankfurt, Germany on July 23-24, 2016. It will the tournament championship for the IQA World Cup of 2016.