IQA World Cup

IQA World Cup
	File:Global Games Logo.jpg The 2014 Global Games logo
Tournament information
Location	Burnaby, British Columbia
Month played	July
Established	2012
Administrator(s)	International Quidditch Association
Current champion
	United States

The IQA World Cup (formerly named Global Games) is the international quidditch tournament contested by NGB's national teams hosted by the International Quidditch Association, the sport's global governing organisation. The championship has been awarded every two years since 2012. The current champions are the United States who have placed first in both iterations of the games.

History

The IQA World Cup was first held in July 2012 in . The tournament was named the 'Summer Games' in accordance with it's unofficial tie-in to the 2012 Summer Olympics, and because the name 'World Cup' was already being used for the much longer-running US Championship (Now US Quidditch Cup as of 2016). The tournament was held in Oxford, UK as the Olympic Torch was passing through the city. Five teams took part; the USA, UK, Canada, Australia and France. The event followed a round-robin format, with the last place team being eliminated and the others advancing to the semi-finals, and then the final. The UK was defeated by all the other competitors and did not make the bracket. The US took first place, defeating France in the final, with Australia claiming bronze by defeating Canada.^[1]

2014 saw the tournament (rechristened as the 'Global Games') take place under an updated IQA which became a truly international sports federation.^[2] The Games were under the supervision of US Quidditch but were held in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada.^[3] Seven teams came out to compete: Canada, the UK, the US, France, Australia, Mexico and Belgium. Italy had planned to compete but had to pull out. The event was contested over a round-robin, with positions in a series of playoffs determined by each team's result in the first round. Due to limited media relations and improper planning, the tournament was relatively unknown and had a lacking medical staff which became evident with Belgium's multiple injuries, which eventually caused them to forfeit rather than risk further injury.^[4] The United States defended their title by defeating Australia in the final, with Canada claiming bronze by defeating the United Kingdom in the playoff.^[5]

The 2016 World Cup is going to take place in Frankfurt, Germany. The tournament is still in the planning stage, but thus far 25 teams have registered an interest in competing, meaning that the tournament will be substantially expanded from previous years. The United States, United Kingdom, Norway, Mexico, France, Ireland and Australia have confirmed their attending rosters. Ahead of the tournament, exhibition matches are planned between Canada and the United Kingdom and Australia and Germany. ^[6]

Format

Qualification

Since quidditch is still an up-and-coming sport, there is no qualification at this time for entry to the Global Games. To be eligible, the team must be representing a region's national governing body

Results

The following table shows a list of all IQA World Cups to date. The team that caught the snitch is denoted with an asterisk.

Year	Host	Winner	Score	Runner-up	Third place	Score	Fourth place	Number of teams
2012 Details	Oxford, United Kingdom	United States	*160-0**	France	Australia	*60-50**	Canada	5
2014 Details	Burnaby, Canada^{[note 1]}	United States	*210-0**	Australia	Canada	*70-40**	United Kingdom	7
2016 Details	Frankfurt, Germany^[7]	TBD	? - ?	TBD	TBD	? - ?	TBD	TBD