It should come as no surprise that the past 12 months have left a bevy of MLQ volunteers with that ever-rare commodity of free time—and, with that, a bevy of new projects to focus on.
An MLQ Youth Rulebook is one project that has been brewing inside the minds of MLQ leadership for a while now, but we never felt that we had the time to give the initiative the due diligence it deserves alongside the demands of running a full MLQ season.
And then came 2020. For the past year, I have been blessed to work with the ceaseless talent of Serena Monteiro, Frankie Matos, Christian Barnes, Mario Nasta and Emily Hickmott to put together this new rulebook—one we are immensely proud to present, and one we believe has huge potential in developing a future of contact-free quidditch (in both the youth scene and beyond).
We set out to create this rulebook with two goals in mind:
- Remove as much contact—and chance for contact—as feasibly possible while keeping the gameplay compelling and interesting.
- Simplify the game of quidditch to a point where a newcomer can pick the concepts up more easily. Quidditch is an inherently complex sport in its own right, and, even in a youth adaptation, it would be hard to completely remove that. However, in places where we could, we tried to place the complexities and nuances of this rulebook on the shoulders of officials, letting the kids, as they say, play.
How We Got Here
Our first thought when we started was to try to pare down the current rulebook we had, removing contact and hoping the rest could follow, but we soon realized that simply removing contact and trying to keep the rest of the elements of the sport leaves too many gaps that led to a form of gameplay that was more one dimensional than quidditch deserves.
Ultimately, the path we decided on was to build this rulebook from the ground up—mirroring quidditch wherever we could and adding or changing elements where we felt they were needed to keep the rulebook in line with the goals mentioned above. Some of these changes went further and are things we are excited to bring to the sport of quidditch for the first time.
Major Differences and Callouts
There are many differences between MLQ and USQ’s standard rulesets and the MLQ Youth Rulebook; while the best way to understand the intricacies of the new regulations is to read the youth rulebook itself, here are a few major items we want to call out to highlight the key changes with the youth rendition:
The gender rule has been updated to a three player (four with seekers) maximum.
We aim to instill the mentality that all genders are equal at an early age and hope that this is a change that can ultimately be echoed at all levels of quidditch as a greater number of athletes enter the sport.
Chasers and keepers wear flags, like in flag football.
Each quaffle player will wear a flag belt with two flags. If one of these flags is removed while the quaffle player is in the opponent’s keeper zone and the quaffle player has possession of the ball, that ball is turned over.
Bludger immunity has been extended to all beaters without a bludger. Beaters also may not throw a bludger unless it is an attempted beat or a pass to their teammate.
This not only simplifies much of the complexities surrounding third-bludger and immunity rules, but we hope it will also balance the beater game—potentially preventing one experienced beater from completely taking over a game and preventing the other team from ever getting bludgers. Bludgerless beaters are not allowed to use their immunity to act as bludger shields for other players.
Seekers and the snitch also wear flags, and they will take turns trying to catch the snitch.
The “offensive seeker” will wear a flag belt with two flags. The snitch also wears two flags—one at each hip—rather than snitch shorts, and the offensive seeker must remove one of those flags and carry it across their opponent’s endline without being beat or having their own flag pulled by the defensive seeker. Not only does this remove the majority of potential contact from the seeking game, but it also balances the skill level of a snitch. Pulling the “tail” is purposely intended to be much easier in this format, meaning that having a very good or very bad snitch will have less of an impact on the game.
Players are able to move during stoppages.
After a stoppage, the player with the quaffle needs to return to a set area of the field, but other players are allowed to freely move during stoppages, better aligning this version of quidditch with most other major sports.
Penalties have been simplified, and the “penalty shot” was added.
This allows for mid-level fouls where no turnover is available to still penalize the team that committed them without having to card the player that committed the foul and take them out of the game. Games may now also end in penalty shots.
We’re incredibly excited to see this rulebook in action and have put extensive effort into making sure it will be playable from day one for any group looking to play contact-free quidditch.
That said, there’s a reason this rulebook is “Version 1”. Despite wanting to, the current health climate has prevented us from playtesting this rulebook in any significant format. We expect to continue to improve this ruleset as time goes on, and we would love to do so with your feedback. You can submit your initial thoughts through this form. We would also like to invite you to join us next Wednesday, April 14 at 7 PM ET/ 6 PM CT on Facebook Live to learn more about and discuss this new ruleset. But, even more so than that, we would love to see groups (when it’s safe to do so in their area) pick this rulebook up, play with it and then tell us what they liked and what they didn’t.
We’re wholeheartedly enthusiastic to expand the horizons of how and where quidditch is played, and we hope you’re willing to go there with us.
Josh Mansfield is the MLQ Gameplay Project Manager. He is part of the MLQ Gameplay and Rules teams and the MLQ COVID Task Force. Mansfield has volunteered with MLQ for six years and been a member of the New Orleans Curse since its inception in 2016.