Muggle or human quidditch is not a new sport outside the fictional world of J.K.Rowling's Harry Potter. Since the wizard saga gained a cult following, the fictional game has been played by universities on ground, but a viral video that broke out recently showed sky divers taking the court where it should be and flying with their brooms up in the sky for one good match of the iconic, make-believe game.
Skydivers Enjoy A Round Of Real-life Quidditch
The 90-second video starts with the players' feet still planted on ground and getting their gear ready. Looking nothing like wizards, they at least had the most important item on hand, their brooms. They boarded a jet and grouped themselves into two teams, Blue and Orange, complete with color-coded suits. Without hesitation, each player jumped in mid-air and upon gaining their stride, did not waste any time to catch the ball that must be shot on a circle ring held by two neutral sky divers.
The players were in character, pulling their brooms in different directions, as if the household item was really maneuvering them on air. When finally the ball (or in wizarding terms, the Quaffle) was in sight, some collided into each other in an attempt to catch it but an Orange Team player succeeded and scored the shot. His parachute opened up as he shouted an expression of victory. Back in the ground, a Blue Team player threw her broom into the fields and like a real wizard broom, it floated as soon as it was let go.
The video is actually an advertisement for Colombian telecommunications company, Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Bogotá or ETB. Because of the attention to detail, close proximitiy to Harry Potter's Quidditch and the daredevil attitude of the sky divers in the commerical, it instantly went viral and got all hardcore fans dying with envy.
What Is Quidditch?
For non-Harry Potter geeks, Quidditch is the most popular sports in J.K. Rowling's wizarding world. It is a game played by 7 players (three Chasers, two Beaters, one Keeper and one Seeker) who fly with their broomsticks to shoot a Quaffle on a hoop for 10 points each (Chasers), hit players of the other team with Bludgers to knock them off their brooms (Beaters), protect the team's base by not letting a Quaffle from the other team go through the hoop (Keeper), and catch the Golden Snitch for 150 points (Seeker).
Hogwarts, Harry Potter's university holds Quidditch tournaments throughout the school year for its four houses: Slytherin, Hufflepuff, Gryffindor and Ravenclaw. Harry Potter is the Seeker of Gryffindor, and he's good at it, usually in competition with Slytherin's Draco Malfoy.
Because of the novel's popularity, it has since then been adopted by humans as an official sport of college students. It was started by Xander Manshel from Middlebury College back in 2005, according to a BBC report. Basically, it runs through the same rules with the same materials (yes, even the brooms) only that there's no flying. From 2005, it became more popular and now, there's an existing International Quidditch Association that handles World Cups, as reported by News.com.au.
What's Next For Harry Potter?
The viral video indirectly helped the promotion of Harry Potter and The Cursed Child, a play that will open this July in London, according to Inquisitr. The time setting of the play is 18 years after The Deathly Hallows and stars Harry Potter's son, Albus Severus. For those who can't make it to London, a copy of the script and a book will be out in July.
