The Northern and Southern Cups are the two major regional quidditch tournaments of the United Kingdom. Organised by QuadballUK, the tournaments serve both as qualification prerequisites for other tournaments, such as the European Quidditch Cup and the British Quidditch Cup alongside being their own stand alone tournaments. Regionals are often considered the most important tournaments of the year after the British Quidditch Cup and they serve as qualifiers for the latter tournament. Those teams that fail to qualify for BQC each season compete in the Development Cup instead. From 2021 onwards the tournaments have been held as a series of one-day fixtures exclusively for university teams with the equivalent Community League tournament held for community teams.
History
The idea for a regional tournament originally came from Southampton Quidditch Club, who devised an independently organised Southern Cup, which was due to take place in February 2014. Inspired by this, Keele Quidditch Club created a counterpart "Northern Squirrel Cup" open to all the teams who were not invited to the Southern Cup (on the basis of geographical location). Due to adverse weather conditions, the Southern Cup's expected debut was cancelled, but the Northern Cup went ahead as planned in March. Eight teams competed, with Bangor Broken Broomsticks winning the tournament after beating Nottingham in the final. The Southern Cup eventually went ahead in November of that year—the next quidditch season—where another eight teams competed. Southampton, the hosts, were defeated in the final by Radcliffe Chimeras.
Seeing the initial success of these tournaments, QuadballUK, the United Kingdom's governing body for quidditch, took both tournaments under their control, in time for the 2015–16 season. These tournaments were organised by QuadballUK and a committee selected by them, rather than by any specific club. Similarly, no club officially hosted either tournament, though both locations were situated nearby to established QuadballUK teams. The Northern Cup was hosted at Belmont Community School in Durham on 31 October–1 November, while the Southern Cup took place at Horspath Athletics Ground in Oxford, on 14–15 November. The latter had played host to several tournaments in the past, including the 2015 European Quidditch Cup.
From 2016 onwards as there were now more teams in the United Kingdom than the British Quidditch Cup could support both the Northern and Southern Cups were used as qualifiers for it. From 2016 to 2019, the top 16 teams from each tournament moved on to BQC, with any teams who did not qualify eligible to compete instead at the Development Cup.
In 2021 following the Quidditch UK university-community split the format of both cups was changed. Instead of being single two-day knockout tournaments Northern and Southern now take place as series of two single day round-robin fixtures with only university teams competing. The new equivalent Community League following the same format but with three single day fixtures per season was set-up for community teams. The top 12 teams across both Northern and Southern qualify for the university tournament at the British Quidditch Cup, with the top 12 community teams across the Community League qualifying for the community BQC tournament. Development Cup is still held for any teams who do not qualify for BQC.
Qualification
Qualification for either tournament is based solely on the geographical location of the team, with no regard to experience or skill level. A theoretical horizontal line is drawn at latitude 52.632000 (52°37′55.2″), dictating that any teams based south of that line compete at the Southern Cup, and all north at the Northern Cup. Up until 2021 there was no additional criteria and any team registered with QuadballUK was eligible to play. From the 2021/2022 season onwards, only teams affiliated with a university could compete at the Northern and Southern Cups and a separate UK-wide Community League was created for community teams.
Format
Traditionally, the tournaments have consisted of pool play, followed by bracket play, in a standard knockout tournament structure. The exact format however is flexible, due to the varying number of teams competing in each iteration of the cups. The top two teams from each group move through to the upper bracket while the rest play in the consolation bracket. In order to balance group play and allow for more representative bracket play a seeding system is used.
Seeding All teams are split into three categories: first seeds, second seeds and unseeded teams. How teams are seeded depends on where they came at last years nationals and how many groups there are in the competition. Each group is randomly allocated a first and second seeded team, then the unseeded teams are randomly allocated a group.
The teams final standing in tournaments affects their seeding for the upcoming British Quidditch Cup. The top four teams are placed in the first seed, the fifth to eighth teams are second seeded, and any other qualifying teams are unseeded.
University/community team split and new format For the 2021/2022 season and onwards, the format of the Northern and Southern Cups was changed. University and community teams would no longer compete together with there now being a separate Community League for teams not affiliated with a university. This meant that only university teams would now compete at Northern and Southern. In addition, the format of both tournaments was changed. Teams now compete in either two or three (depending on the number of teams attending) divisions within their region, with each division having 4-6 teams in it. Each cup is now split across two different 1 day events instead of being a singular 2 day tournament. Teams play a round-robin event within their division during each fixture and are ranked accordingly. Teams who place last in their division are relegated to the division below and teams who place first in their division are promoted to the division above for the next fixture. The final rankings after all fixtures are used to determine seedings and qualification for the British Quidditch Cup and European Qualifier Tournament.
Past champions
Northern champions YearHostWinnerScoreRunner-upThird placeScoreFourth placeNumber of teams 2014 Keele Quidditch Club Bangor Broken Broomsticks 80-60* Nottingham Nightmares Keele Squirrels 90^–60* Loughborough Longshots 8 2015 Belmont Community School, Durham Nottingham Nightmares 150*-50 Durhamstrang Loughborough Longshots 100*–70 Keele Squirrels 142016Belmont Community School, DurhamVelociraptors QC150*-30DurhamstrangTornadoes QC120-110^Loughborough Longshots202017Sheffield Hallam Sports Park, SheffieldVelociraptors QC180*-20York HorntailsHolyrood Hippogrifs Firsts90-70*Tornadoes QC252018Sheffield Hallam Sports Park, SheffieldVelociraptors QC270*-50MegalodonsHolyrood Hippogriffs Firsts150*-100Glasgow Grim Reapers222019Sheffield Hallam Sports Park, SheffieldVelociraptors QC120-60*Olympians Quidditch ClubHolyrood Hippogriffs Firsts110*-80Megalodons20
Updated format SeasonFixtureHostDivision 1Division 2WinnerRunner-upNumber of teamsWinnerRunner-upNumber of teams2021/2022Northern 1Salford Sports Village, ManchesterHolyrood HippogriffsLeicester Thestrals5Manchester ManticoresBangor Broken Broomsticks5Northern 2EdinburghCancelled due to poor pitch conditions
Southern champions
YearHostWinnerScoreRunner-upThird placeScoreFourth placeNumber of teams 2014 Southampton Quidditch Club Radcliffe Chimeras 140* - 30 Southampton QC London Unspeakables 50* - 40 Falmouth Falcons 8 2015 Horspath Athletics Ground (Oxford) Radcliffe Chimeras 130* - 90 Warwick QC Southampton QC Firsts 100* - 0 Brizzlebears 172016Millbrook Rugby Club (Southampton)Warwick QC40* -20Werewolves of LondonBrizzleBears110* - 30London Unspeakables172017Millbrook Rugby Club (Southampton)Southampton QC Firsts140* - 90Werewolves of LondonWarwick QC120* - 30Bristol Bears212018Knole Academy (Sevenoaks, Kent)Werewolves of London70* - 60 London Quidditch ClubLondon Unspeakables120* - 90Southampton QC Firsts182019Oxford Brooks UniversityWerewolves of London Firsts160°° - 120*°London UnspeakablesLondon Quidditch Club A160* - 10Oxford Mammoths16
Updated Format SeasonFixtureHostDivision 1WinnerRunner-upNumber of teams2021/2022Southern 1King's House Sports Ground, LondonSouthampton Quidditch ClubWarwick Quidditch Club5Southern 2Cardiff City House of Sport, CardiffSouthampton Quidditch ClubExeter Eagles5
Northern Cup
2014 The first Northern Cup was held at Keele University in March 2014. Eight teams competed over the weekend with Bangor Broken Broomsticks being the eventual winners. The final standings were as follows:
Final standings PositionTeam1stBangor Broken Broomsticks2ndNottingham Nightmares3rdKeele Squirrels4thLoughborough5thChester6thLeeds Griffins7thDerby QC8thHogYork Horntails
2015 The second Northern Cup was held on 31 October 2015 in Belmont. Fourteen teams competed after the withdrawal of the Preston Poltergeists. After two days of competitive games, composed of pool play and both upper and Consolation brackets, the final standings were as follows:
Upper bracket
Consolation bracket
Final standings Position Team Stage Position Team Stage 1st Nottingham Nightmares Final 8th Leeds Griffins Quarters 2nd Durhamstrang Final 9th Derby Union QC LB final 3rd Loughborough Longshots Semis 10th Chester Centurions LB final 4th Keele Squirrels Semis 11th St Andrews Snidgets LB semi Finals 5th Leicester Thestrals Quarters 12th HogYork Horntails LB semi Finals 6th Bangor Broken Broomsticks Quarters 13th Durham Direwolves Group stages 7th Holyrood Hippogriffs Quarters 14th Manchester Manticores Group stages
2016 The third Northern Cup returned to Belmont on 12 November 2016. Twenty teams competed over the weekend. On the first day, five groups of four played each other, with the two highest ranked teams from each group moving into the upper bracket while the rest competed in the Consolation bracket. This was the first tournament to be used to qualify teams for nationals, with the top 16 teams invited to compete in the coming British Quidditch Cup. The results of the tournament were as follows:
Upper bracket
Consolation bracket
After bracket play had finished, two more matches were played between the four quarter-finals losers in order to rank the 15th–18th places: Chester130*20St Andrews SnidgetsDirewolves90*10Liverpool
Final standings Position Team Stage Position Team Stage Position Team Stage 1st Velociraptors QC Final 9th Nottingham Nightmares UB play ins 17th Liverpuddly Cannons BQC playoffs 2nd Durhamstrang Final 10th Manchester Manticores UB play ins 18th St Andrews Snidgets BQC playoffs 3rd Tornadoes QC Semis 11th York LB Finals 19th Holyrood Hippogriffs SecondsLB play ins 4th Loughborough Longshots Semis 12th Sheffield QC LB finals 20th Preston LB play ins 5th Bangor Quarters 13th Derby QC LB Semi Finals 6th Leeds Griffins Quarters 14th Keele Squirrels LB Semi Finals 7th Leicester Thestrals Quarters 15th Durham Direwolves LB Quarter Finals 8th Holyrood Hippogriffs Firsts Quarters 16th Chester LB quarter Finals
2017
The fourth Northern Cup was held at Sheffield Hallam Sports Park on 25–26 November 2017. Twenty-five teams competed over the weekend. Velociraptors Quidditch Club were the champions for the second time in a row.
Final standings