Silicon Valley Skrewts

My #MLQChampionship Journey, Day 1

There are three reasons why I travel for quidditch:

  1. To go to the quidditch tournaments themselves, obviously.
  2. To see more of the country.
  3. To see my friends across the country.

I had a plan today when I landed in Austin at noon. I was going to drop my stuff off at Caroline’s, play tourist, get some good shots of the city, and then have plenty to choose from for today’s post.

Instead, I ended up napping the day away and then using the afternoon as whine & wine (except I got a beer because this is me we’re talking about) time with Caroline, my former Skrewts teammate who I never see anymore. I didn’t even take this picture with the intention to post it. I just liked the beer and wanted to remember it for later if I wanted to find it again. It’s not even Texan; it’s from Colorado.

I had to choose between #2 and #3, but it was no contest. Austin isn’t going anywhere. My friends, on the other hand, are going places. Keeping up with them is far more important.

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Scene: Argonauts Thursday Night Practice

MANAGER Barcelos, chatting with CHASER COACH Oelze, mentions the Year in Review that ROOKIE Ardin Lo wrote about his college squad, Cal Quidditch.

ROOKIE: Hey Liz, can you share it on Barcelos Knows?

MANAGER: Are you kidding? You wrote about me as a player. That’s never happened before. Of course I will.

ROOKIE: Yes! We finally made it.

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NCQC You Next Year

I started to draft this on Tuesday morning, my body still aching from the weekend. I went from fourth string to second string and played seven games in two days. I finally played against my alma mater but I didn’t come away with the championship that I obviously, desperatly wanted because NorCal crowned a new champion.

There’s a lot to unpack. Let’s get into this.

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Kissimmee Cooldown

A lot happened at US Quidditch Cup 10. Today, I’ll be covering what it was like to play again and be a part of NorCal quidditch on the national stage.

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Liz’s Hot Takes: US Quidditch Cup 10 Pool Ponderings

Okay, this might be a bit of a lukewarm take. This was supposed to go up last night, but between Portuguese school, trying to cook dinner, and deciding that watching The Great British Baking Show was a better way to spend my night, this got put off to today.

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Countdown to Kissimmee: Writing a New Chapter

A little over two weeks ago, I was sitting at the airport, putting together the fundraiser for the Skrewts postseason tournament. I found myself pausing when asked to give it a title. I’m a planner by nature and that means planning for the worst case scenario. I’d quietly mentioned Consolation Cup to our team president at our last practice before regionals and he looked fit to kill me. I evaded a swift death but reminding him that I believed in our team and telling him to pretend that the whole conversation had never happened.

But I couldn’t pretend. After several minutes of staring at my laptop, I typed “Help the Skrewts Go East” into the box because both Texas and Florida are east of Silicon Valley and I didn’t want to jinx things. I might be a hockey atheist, but the Spirit of St. Quidditch is still real to me.

real to me

I’m also a big believer in stories. I have a degree in them, after all. Taking events and piecing them together into a narrative helps me bring meaning to life. As I sat in that airport terminal, I was apprehensive. Would the coming weekend be the beginning of the twilight of the Skrewts? It felt like the narrative I deserved after playing Achilles in his tent earlier this season.

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