Istanbul Quidditch Cup 4

Istanbul Quidditch Cup is a fun tournament held by the members of Bogazici Quidditch society. It was first held in 2018 and became a tradition for the team. This year, on July, the fourth edition had been held and I had the opportunity to be chosen as a captain in the tournament.

Because IQC is a merc tournament where the tournament committee picks the captains, and then captains pick their players from the pool; the picking was really intimidating for me, since I didn’t know all the members of the quidditch society in Turkey. I watched those who applied from the matches, and I admit that I even stalked them. At the end, I believe that I created a sufficient team. Another thing about being a captain is that you get to choose the name of the team. it was really hard for me to pick one because I wanted it to be both funny and catchy while already having a picture of the jersey in my head. I wanted it to be colorful, so I had to pick the name accordingly. Finally, I decided on Bukalemun, which means chameleon, and had the most wonderful jersey, thanks to Utility and their designers.

The tournament was in Kilyos in Istanbul, which is a coastal area of the city, meaning that we had the chance to go and swim after a day full of quidditch. And at nights we were gathering around the campfire. I can count at least 5 people that I met sitting there. Nothing brings people closer than a campfire and shared marshmallows, and this is the main purpose of these kinds of tournament. As I mentioned above, I didn’t know much people before; however, after the Cup I know that I made some wonderful friendships. This means so much because the quidditch society is getting bigger and bigger everyday and it is important to know the other members of our little community.

Additionally, such tournaments are a great way for people to show their performance. I believe that in IQC4 almost everyone got the moment to shine and show themselves by giving them the opportunity to get the time they want and play the position they want to play in. Which reminds me the most wonderful moment of the tournament: the game for the third place. With the other captain of the team Palmiyeler, we decided to have an amicable match and not to try hard to give people the opportunity to play in any positions they wish and in a friendly atmosphere, that reminded us how fun can playing quidditch be.

I love playing quidditch, but I loved it more after attending to the IQC 4. This way I had the chance to play in a less stressed atmosphere. So many people came from many different cities, jus to play quidditch for two days… This made me realize that people do love playing quidditch very much, and this realization accelerated my feelings. Now I can only hope that the days pass fast enough to reach Istanbul Quidditch Cup Fifth Edition!