We’re excited to announce the date and location of both Divisions of European Quidditch Cup 2022.
Division Two will take place on the weekend of April 23rd & 24th 2022.
This date has already been confirmed with the venue and we are now moving ahead with the planning for the event in April 2022.
It took a little longer to get a date since the venue had to wait for the rugby team’s season calendar to come out before they could offer us dates. But this is now done, and we are all set for Division Two.
Division One will take place on the weekend of June 4th & 5th 2022.
This is going to be long, but there is a lot of information we want to give to you and it includes several thoughts and discussions that we’ve had over the past couple of weeks.
The reason why it took so long to hear back is that the venue can sadly not offer us a weekend in our proposed timeframe (any weekend in May), without making huge trade-offs including a reduced number of fields and/or limited accommodation.
In principle, the weekend of June 4th & 5th 2022 is manageable, however, it falls right into the examination season of a lot of universities across Europe. In the past, this has already been discussed and the conclusion was that June should be avoided as a date for EQC.
Other alternatives have also been discussed but deemed not doable:
- What if we reopen bidding to find a new venue for Division 1?
If we reopened bidding again at this point, we would have possibly lost face and get in bad faith with our contacts in Ireland. Reopening the bids would also have meant running through the complete bidding process and effectively delaying announcing a date and location by at least 3 months. - What if we cancel Division 2 and move Division 1 to Brescia?
The venue in Brescia is not big enough to host a 32-team event. Additionally, it would be very unfair to the Division 2 teams if we cancel their event in favour of another. This especially affects NGBs that only have spots in Division 2.
Division 1 and Division 2 are connected through the performance point system. This system requires both Divisions to happen in the same year. Consequently, the performance points system “breaks down” if one of the two divisions does not take place.
With everything in mind, there were only 2 feasible options:
- Host Division 2 at the weekend of April 23rd/24th 2022. Host Division 1 at the weekend of June 4th/5th 2022. Performance points can be earned and are accounted for as usual.
- Host Division 2 at the weekend of April 23rd/24th 2022. Not host Division 1 in 2022. No performance points can be earned in Division 2.
As we couldn’t make this decision ourselves, we opened a survey for all Quidditch Europe Member NGBs to fill in.
By the responses of the member NGBs, 50 out of 54 EQC teams (whether them being Division 1 or 2 teams, excluding Emerging Area spots) were represented.
The following would apply when certain scenarios would have played out.
Hosting D1 in June & have performance points counted for both Divisions
- 6 D1 teams would possibly be affected and unable to attend
- No D2 teams would be affected as all surveyed NGBs with D2 teams preferred this option or abstained
Hosting D1 in Summer
- 13 D1 teams would possibly be affected and unable to attend
- No D2 teams would be affected
Not hosting D1 in 2022 and not having performance points counted for Division 2
- 27 D1 teams would be affected, as their NGB either preferred June or Summer
- 11 D2 teams would be affected, as their NGB preferred performance points counted
We have deliberated thoroughly, and with all that is known, we have selected the option where the least number of teams are affected, which is:
EQC 2022 Division 1 will be held on the weekend of 4-5 June 2022.
EQC 2022 Division 2 will be held on the weekend of 23-24 April 2022.
Performance points can be earned in both events.
We hope, by announcing these dates well in advance, that the possibly affected teams and volunteers can take the needed precautions to still be able to attend one of both Divisions.