The COVID-19 Task Force is tracking recent case changes, likely linked to the increased prevalence of the more infectious COVID-19 Delta Variant in the U.S. The recent spikes seem to be mostly localized in less-vaccinated areas; however, there is additional evidence that the Delta Variant does pose an increased risk for the fully-vaccinated individuals when compared to other strains of the virus. 

That being said, all vaccines still provide significant protection against serious illness from all strains of COVID-19. We would like to once again encourage all members of the quidditch community to seek out a COVID-19 vaccine if they have not already received one. We feel this is increasingly important in the face of the more dangerous Delta Variant’s rise in prevalence.

Because of these increased risks, and the level of uncertainty that this new variant provides, we do not feel comfortable loosening any of our COVID-19 restrictions at this time. This means that teams whose surrounding areas are in Tier 1 (whose team is in Tier 4 with their vaccination boost), will not be able to compete or participate in full-contact, unmasked practices. We have worked with our gameplay team to determine the following procedures for series where a Tier 4-or-lower team is scheduled to play:

• Any game that needs to be cancelled due to a team’s return to play tier status will be treated as a loss for that team and a win for their opponent for the purpose of standings.
  • If both teams are unable to play due to their tier status, both teams will be assessed with losses for that series.
• For the purpose of 2021 MLQ Championship seeding, if a team’s tier status after the Aug. 8 standing puts them in Tier 4, they will not be able to attend MLQ Championship. Teams in that division will then be seeded as if that team is not present in the division.
  • There will be one final tier status update on Aug. 15. This tier update will not be able to “rule-in” any teams who were previously ruled-out of championship based on their tier status, but if a team’s tier has dropped at that point, they will not be able to attend the MLQ Championship.

We still feel confident in our COVID-19 return-to-play policies, and they were constructed to be robust in responding to challenges like those presented by this and other potential higher-risk variants. At this time, we are not making any changes to our three-tier vaccination boost for teams. We are closely monitoring this situation and will make any necessary changes to our policy as additional information and data is released.