Rule, Britannia, no more?

By David Banas
Guest Writer

Quadball UK (QUK) has traditionally been a giant in the European quadball scene. At the European Games, Team UK has never taken less than the bronze, and Team England – boasting much of the talent from the defunct UK squad – won gold at the 2022 rendition of the event. Furthermore, a QUK team has made a semifinal appearance or better at the last eight consecutive  European Quadball Cup D1 (EQC) tournaments, a feat to which only France – with seven semifinal appearances or better in nine tournaments – can ever come close. QUK’s Werewolves of London Firsts became the first and only UK side to ever win the tournament in 2022 in Limerick when they successfully finished off their double crown of British Quadball Championship and EQC in the same season. It’s safe to say QUK’s reign amongst the elites of Europe has been both long and consistent.

On the other hand, Deutscher Quidditchbund (DQB), while lagging behind competitively with the other NGBs in the past, has shown tremendous growth and development in recent years, defeating Team England on day one of European Games 2022 and making a finals run before falling in the rematch. The country also sent not one but two teams to the semifinals of EQC D1 2023 for the first-time ever in the form of Ruhr Phoenix and the Braunschweiger Broomicorns. Germany joins France, the UK and Turkey as the only NGBs to put two or more teams in an EQC D1 semifinals. The Germans have perhaps the strongest developmental infrastructure in the world, and it is starting to pay dividends, a fact that other NGBs – not just in Europe – would be wise to pay attention to.

So how does QUK’s consistency match up with DQB’s upward rise right at this moment in time? Well, this year’s recently completed EQC D1 gives us the perfect opportunity to check in, with QUK and DQB sending eight and seven teams, respectively, the largest contingents at the event. Combined, the two NGBs made up nearly half of all teams at the tournament. But despite the similar numbers of teams, the NGBs experienced wildly different statistical outcomes, outcomes that seem to speak to two very different futures.

By the Numbers

On an initial eye test, QUK looks to be the more competitive NGB, having sent Werewolves into the final against Antwerp with Ruhr Phoenix and Braunschweiger Broomicorns having to settle for a bronze medal match. If we dig a little deeper, however, a wildly different picture emerges.

During the group stage, of the seven matches played between QUK and DQB teams, QUK managed to win only two of them (London QC 100*-80 Braunschweiger Broomicorns and Werewolves 120*-60 Münchner Wolpertinger), both of which ended with the game in-range. All seven DQB teams ended the group stage with at least one win, while three QUK teams – Olympians, Werewolves of London 2nds and West Country Rebels – failed to score a single victory on day one. 

Furthermore, only one DQB team finished the group stage with a negative quadball point differential (QPD) compared to the six UK teams who did the same. On average, QUK teams had a QPD of -75 in the group stage, compared to an average of 88.57 for DQB teams.

Even when it came to catching flags in the group stage, DQB teams were more consistent. Every single German team caught at least one flag, while three QUK sidest failed to pull at all, a stat particularly puzzling given Olympians Josh Armitage’s propensity for making catches. DQB teams caught at a rate of .524 (11/21), while their UK counterparts clocked in at a slightly worse .458. Interestingly though, no DQB team managed to pull in all three group games, whereas three QUK teams – Werewolves, London QC and Phoenix QC – managed the feat, with the majority of Werewolves’ and London QC’s pulls coming from standout seekers Jordan Garvey Aymer-Jeffrey and Ben Morton. 

Group Stage Win Percentage by NGB

T 1	Germany	.667 (21)
T 1	Catalonia	.667 (3)
3	Belgium	.556 (9)
T 4	France	.500 (12)
T 4	Italy	.500 (6)
T 4	Norway	.500 (6)
7	Spain	.444 (9)
8	UK	.375 (24)
T 9	Austria	.333 (3)
T 9	Poland	.333 (3)

 

When comparing these results to the rest of the NGBs, the gap between Germany and the UK becomes even more stark. Of the 10 NGBs present at EQC, Germany was tied with Catalonia for the highest average win rate at .667. QUK came in a distant eighth place at .375 only slightly above Austria and Poland, who were bringing up the rear with a win rate of .333 across three games. 

Average Quadball Point Differential per 3 Games Played

1	Germany	88.57 (21)
2	Belgium	70 (9)
3	Catalonia	50 (3)
4	France	22.5 (12)
5	Norway	05 (6)
6	Italy	-15 (6)
7	Spain	-20 (9)
8	UK	-75 (24)
9	Poland	-150 (3)
10	Austria	-160 (3)

 

A similar trend can be seen in relation to QPD, with Germany’s 88.57 QPD per three games in first at the tournament while QUK’s -75 earns them an eighth place finish, beating out only Poland and Austria.

Flag Catch Percentage

T 1	Spain	.667 (9)
T 1	Norway	.667 (6)
T 1	Catalonia	.667 (3)
4	Germany	.524 (21)
5	France	.500 (12)
6	UK	.458 (24)
7	Belgium	.444 (9)
T 8	Italy	.333 (6)
T 8	Austria	.333 (3)
T 8	Poland	.333 (3)

 

The only stat where both QUK and DQB teams were around tournament average was flag catching rates, with Germany finishing fourth amongst NGBs and QUK finshing sixth. The top of this category was dominated by Spain, which pulled six catches in nine games – Madrid Lynx and Malaka Vikings QT each going three for three in their group games – and Norway, with four pulls in six games.

While group stage numbers are relevant, the upper bracket is where the actual “winning” of EQC takes place. DQB sent five of their seven total teams to the upper bracket, whereas QUK sent two out of eight. Outside of Ghent Gargoyles pulling out a come from behind win against Sagene IF (90* – 80), the round of 16 featured comfortable wins for both Germany and the UK. 

The quarterfinals is where things got interesting. Of the five DQB teams in the round of 16, only three made it to the quarterfinals, with both QUK sides also moving onto the next round. There, QUK’s Werewolves of London pulled out a gritty FWIM win against DQB’s Rheinos Bonn 150*-120 to advance to the semis. LQC, however, fell 170-120^ to DQB’s Ruhr Phoenix. This brings us to one of our first observations about the tournament and the sport in general. Having a talented seeker who can consistently pull is an incredible asset, but means nothing if the other team dominates you. Here, Ruhr Phoenix scored nearly twice as many quadball points as LQC. This is also the lesson that Werewolves would learn in the finals against Antwerp. 

The final DQB team in the quarterfinals, Braunschweiger Broomicorns, managed to find themselves on the better side of a flag pull, beating Italy’s DNA QC 120*-80.

The semifinals featured two DQB teams taking on eventual finalists Antwerp and Werewolves. Antwerp, in the same dominating fashion as the rest of their EQC games over the weekend, dispatched Ruhr Phoenix 130* – 30 whereas Werewolves again won a flag-range game against a DQB side, this time beating Braunschweiger Broomicorns 110* – 50. Thus ends the tale of the DQB vs QUK comparison in bracket. Antwerp would go on to decisively beat Werewolves 130* – 30 in the finals with “King” Louis Lermytte and Seppe de Wit putting on performances that rivaled their World Cup finals loss to the US National Team in 2018. As an interesting aside, Antwerp was so dominant throughout the entire tournament that of their seven games, not a single game was in flag range (Münchner Wolpertinger played Antwerp the “closest” at 160* – 60) and going seven for seven on catches.

What then does the entire tournament mean to both QUK and DQB as a whole? It’s true that Werewolves finished second with Ruhr Phoenix and Braunschweiger Broomicorns in third and fourth, respectively, but LQC also finished fifth. Additionally, LQC, despite finishing fifth overall, beat Broomicorns in group play. Out of 32 teams, German sides finished the tournament in the third, fourth, sixth, 10th, 12th, 23rd and 25th places. UK teams finished in the second, fifth,, 18th, 20th, 26th, 29th, 30th and 32nd places. All seven German teams outperformed the bottom three QUK teams, and the top five DQB teams outperformed all but the top two QUK teams. These multiple different finish positions give rise to an interesting statistic: an average finish position. Averaged out, the eight QUK teams had a 20.25 finish position which was good enough for a distant sevent, a place which was close to Poland’s 21 finish position. In simple terms, as a whole NGB, QUK teams performed only slightly better than the Polish NGB. Italy and Catalonia were in a two-way tie for fifth ahead of the UK at an average finish position of 16. DQB as a whole averaged a finish position of 11.86, a score only slightly under top-performing NGB Belgium which came in first at 11.67. Given that DQB put in more than twice as many teams as Belgium, their score of 11.86 is highly remarkable in its consistency.

Removing the three single-team NGBs also creates some interesting observations. The UK drops to second-to-last out of the seven NGBs, beating out Norway’s finish position of 22.5 distinctly but not comfortably. Germany retains their same position, mere decimals behind Belgium. The most interesting aspect, however, when the three outliers are removed, is the emergence of three distinct tiers of NGBs. In A-tier are the Belgian and German NGBs, receiving nearly identical scores. B-tier is made up of the Spanish, French and Italian NGBs, with only one finish position separating their scores. In the distant C-tier is the UK and Norway. What these groupings suggest is that at EQC D1 2023, DQB performed nearly identically to the top performing Belgian NGB, while QUK was on par with the Norwegian NGB, a difficult conclusion to swallow given their comparative histories.

 

What It All Means

If you have gotten this far into the article, now is the time where I will no longer be discussing necessarily the statistical results from EQC, but rather prognosticating about the future, although these predictions are informed by the statistics and trends that have been discussed above. If you have skipped to this conclusion, I highly recommend that you go back and read the statistical breakdown first. The following will be opinion based.

After all the above analysis, I believe there are two clear conclusions to be drawn about the dichotomy of circumstances in which the UK and Germany currently find themselves.

First, QUK, as a competitive NGB, is in serious trouble. A common saying during the peak of Britain’s power was that “the sun never sets on the British Empire.” If QUK is the quadball equivalent of the British Empire, what we are seeing now is the twilight of that empire unless some drastic measures are taken. What these measures are, I as an outsider cannot tell you, and I firmly believe that only QUK’s members themselves can decide. 

Perhaps newly-appointed QUK President Declan Ramsay can right the institutional ship and provide a steadying presence at the helm while Team England shows up to IQA World Cup 2023 and pulls out the type of gutsy wins seen in their European Games performance. But it’s just as possible that Ramsay will join the rotating door that has been the mode du jour of QUK’s administration in recent years while Team England—the only one of three national teams that make up QUK attending World Cup—will suffer multiple losses in the same vein as their 140*-110 loss to Germany on day one of European Games 2022.

For those unfamiliar with QUK, an “Urgent Appeal for Volunteers” at multiple high-level positions was issued on April 19, 2023. While the roles of president and events director have now been filled, other vital positions either remain in flux or unfilled at the time of this writing, perhaps most glaringly the role of gameplay director. While only time will tell, from all the above information and personal experience playing in QUK, I do not see a hopeful future unless significant changes are made.

The second conclusion to make of all this is that DQB is on the rise and, at the current pace, the sky’s the limit for their competitive potential. While progress is rarely linear in any sport, quadball included, DQB’s has been on an incredibly steep upward slope and shows no signs of slowing. If DQB continues at its current pace, we will see a DQB team lift the EQC D1 trophy within the next four seasons, and perhaps even an all-German semifinals before the decade is out. 

All of this club level success is likely to lead to further excellence at the international level, as well, and the German National Team has already shown that it can not only hang with the top national teams but also beat them—most recently defeating both England and Australia at the European Games 2022. The future is bright for DQB, and those teams that draw Germany at World Cup should be wary lest they fall victim to the rising German juggernaut.

At the heart of these diverging paths currently facing QUK and DQB is the culture of each NGBs community. Where QUK’s culture is a fractured hellscape of rivalries, DBQ’s is one of cooperative competition and fellowship. 

One DQB interviewee highlighted what they termed “competition on the pitch, cooperation off the pitch” in that DQB teams were just as likely as their QUK counterparts to play competitively in game, but were capable of leaving that competitiveness on the pitch. To that end, DQB features shared training camps with multiple teams before EQC, teams that normally compete against each other in the German domestic league. 

While there is an argument to be made about the concentration of teams in Germany enabling this, I have yet to see that type of regular inter-team training camps in the most concentrated of QUK hubs: the London community team scene, which features three community team programs and five total squads (Werewolves of London Firsts, Werewolves of London Seconds, London Quidditch Club A, London Quidditch Club B and Phoenix). Germany’s collaborative efforts helps not only the teams themselves survive and get better, but also encourages the formation of new teams, which furthers the talent pool from which an NGB can draw. This is a particularly pronounced difference between DQB and QUK, with the former boasting a myriad of robust teams after the Covid-19 pandemic, an incredible feat due in no small part to the strong community ties that DQB has sought to create. 

On the other hand, QUK has struggled to maintain that same level of league health in a post-Covid world. On this topic, one QUK interviewee opined that you need only to look north of the English border to see the damage, with teams like the Glasgow Grim Reapers and St. Andrews Snidgets – one of the oldest QUK teams – either dead or functionally so. Only Stirling, Edinburgh and the shards of a community team in the form of Kelpies still exists—and Stirling and Edinburgh had to combine to field a team for BQC.

Another aspect to be touched on is that of regular play between teams of different levels. And, in this respect, I believe QUK to be on the right track, with both community and university fixtures throughout the season. However, it is nowhere near on par with DQB’s six regional leagues, which all provide regular play. 

DQB interviewees also pointed to the high level of organization and efficiency that is almost stereotypically German within their NGB, whereas one QUK interviewee claimed that although QUK tries to do the “right thing” most of the time, they nevertheless get caught up following a process rather than moving forward with the “common sense decision.” 

If there is hope to be found in QUK, it must be in the form of new volunteers, and, right now, volunteering in the UK seems like a fraught experience. At the moment, the most engaged spaces for “discussion” in UK quadball are two satirical meme pages – The Only Boundary and Off Broom Gang – and one anonymous Instagram confessions account – Quadball Confessions. Even as this article was being researched and written, a “#notmypresident” call against newly appointed QUK President Ramsay – less than a month in office – was issued by an anonymous keyboard warrior on Quadball Confessions. 

While all quadball spaces, regardless of NGB or location, feature a certain amount of aimless whining and complaints, the QUK spaces seem especially filled with more than their fair share of whining, volunteer bashing and general complaining. For a sport that thrives, nay, lives on volunteers, it does not take a genius to figure out the end result of this attitude.

 

GROUP RESULTS (BY NGB)

Germany

	W	L	QPD per 3 games	Flag Catch	Total Game Time
Ruhr Phoenix	3	0	240	2	1:09:55
Rheinos Bonn	3	0	150	1	1:18:29
Braunschweiger Broomicorns	2	1	140	1	1:08:48
Münchner Wolpertinger	2	1	110	1	1:11:50
Heidelberger HellHounds	2	1	40	2	1:17:19
SCC Berlin Bluecaps Sky	1	2	30	2	1:14:05
Augsburg Owls	1	2	-90	2	1:13:02
Totals	14	7	620	11	8:33:28
Averages	.667	.333	88.57	.524	1:13:21

 

Spain

	W	L	QPD per 3 games	Flag Catch	Total Game Time
Madrid Lynx	2	1	90	3	1:09:11
Malaka Vikings QT	2	1	70	3	1:13:32
Dementores Coruña	0	3	-200	0	1:16:22
Totals	4	5	-40	6	3:39:05
Averages	.444	.556	-20	.667	1:13:01

 

Austria

	W	L	QPD per 3 games	Flag Catch	Total Game Time
Danube Direwolves	1	2	-160	1	1:11:56
Averages	.333	.667	-160	.333	1:11:56

 

UK

	W	L	QPD per 3 games	Flag Catch	Total Game Time
Werewolves of London 1sts	3	0	240	3	1:03:25
London QC	3	0	200	3	1:08:24
Phoenix	1	2	-110	3	1:21:32
Southsea Quadball	1	2	-110	1	1:13:25
Velociraptors	1	2	-110	1	1:24:30
Olympians	0	3	-170	0	1:21:32
Werewolves of London 2nds	0	3	-270	0	1:02:26
West Country Rebels QC	0	3	-270	0	1:05:30
Totals	9	15	-600	11	9:40:44
Averages	.375	.625	-75	.458	1:12:35

 

Norway

	W	L	QPD per 3 games	Flag Catch	Total Game Time
Sagene IF	2	1	160	2	1:11:58
NTNUI Rumpeldunk	1	2	-150	2	1:13:49*
Totals	3	3	10	4	2:25:47
Averages	.500	.500	05	.667	1:12:53

* NTNUI Rumpledunk’s original hour time was entered as “21” and not “1.” This author has assumed it to be a typo and corrected it as such.

France

	W	L	QPD per 3 games	Flag Catch	Total Game Time
Titans Paris	3	0	270	3	1:07:51
Paris Frog	2	1	40	1	1:18:09
Olympiens Paris	1	2	-50	1	1:10:38
Toulouse Minotaures	0	3	-170	1	1:12:11
Totals	6	6	90	6	4:48:49
Averages	.500	.500	22.5	.500	1:12:12

 

Belgium

	W	L	QPD per 3 games	Flag Catch	Total Game Time
Antwerp	3	0	270	3	1:05:33
Ghent Gargoyles	2	1	130	1	1:11:14
Liège Leviathans QC	0	3	-190	0	1:13:01*
Totals	5	4	210	4	3:29:48
Averages	.556	.444	70	.444	1:09:56

* Liège Leviathans QC’s original hour time was entered as “21” and not “1”. This author has assumed it to be a typo and corrected it as such.

Catalonia

	W	L	QPD per 3 games	Flag Catch	Total Game Time
Bocs Folls	2	1	50	2	1:10:11
Averages	.667	.333	50	.667	1:10:11

 

Italy

	W	L	QPD per 3 games	Flag Catch	Total Game Time
DNA QC	3	0	170	1	1:20:29
Siena Ghibellines QC	0	3	-200	1	1:09:21
Totals	3	3	-30	2	2:29:50
Averages	.500	.500	-15	.333	1:14:55

 

Poland

	W	L	QPD per 3 games	Flag Catch	Total Game Time
Kraków Dragons	1	2	-150	1	1:06:06
Averages	.333	.667	-150	.333	1:06:06

 

Group Stage by Statistic

Average Win Chance per Game

T 1	Germany	.667 (21)
T 1	Catalonia	.667 (3)
3	Belgium	.556 (9)
T 4	France	.500 (12)
T 4	Italy	.500 (6)
T 4	Norway	.500 (6)
7	Spain	.444 (9)
8	UK	.375 (24)
T 9	Austria	.333 (3)
T 9	Poland	.333 (3)

 

Average Win Chance per Game with Statistical Outliers Removed

1	Germany	.667 (21)
2	Belgium	.556 (9)
T 3	France	.500 (12)
T 3	Italy	.500 (6)
T 3	Norway	.500 (6)
6	Spain	.444 (9)
7	UK	.375 (24)

 

Average Quadball Point Differential per Three Games Played

1	Germany	88.57 (21)
2	Belgium	70 (9)
3	Catalonia	50 (3)
4	France	22.5 (12)
5	Norway	05 (6)
6	Italy	-15 (6)
7	Spain	-20 (9)
8	UK	-75 (24)
9	Poland	-150 (3)
10	Austria	-160 (3)

 

Average Quadball Point Differential per Three Games Played with Statistical Outliers Removed

1	Germany	88.57 (21)
2	Belgium	70 (9)
3	France	22.5 (12)
4	Norway	05 (6)
5	Italy	-15 (6)
6	Spain	-20 (9)
7	UK	-75 (24)

 

Average Flag Catch Chance per Game

T 1	Spain	.667 (9)
T 1	Norway	.667 (6)
T 1	Catalonia	.667 (3)
4	Germany	.524 (21)
5	France	.500 (12)
6	UK	.458 (24)
7	Belgium	.444 (9)
T 8	Italy	.333 (6)
T 8	Austria	.333 (3)
T 8	Poland	.333 (3)

 

Average Flag Catch Chance per Game with Statistical Outliers Removed

T 1	Spain	.667 (9)
T 1	Norway	.667 (6)
3	Germany	.524 (21)
4	France	.500 (12)
5	UK	.458 (24)
6	Belgium	.444 (9)
7	Italy	.333 (6)

 

Average Time per Three Games Played

1	Poland	1:06:06 (3)
2	Belgium	1:09:56 (9)
3	Catalonia	1:10:11 (3)
4	Austria	1:11:56 (3)
5	France	1:12:12 (12)
6	UK	1:12:35 (24)
7	Norway	1:12:53 (6)
8	Spain	1:13:01 (9)
9	Germany	1:13:21 (21)
10	Italy	1:14:55 (6)

 

Average Game Time per Three Games Played with Statistical Outliers Removed

1	Belgium	1:09:56 (9)
2	France	1:12:12 (12)
3	UK	1:12:35 (24)
4	Norway	1:12:53 (6)
5	Spain	1:13:01 (9)
6	Germany	1:13:21 (21)
7	Italy	1:14:55 (6)

 

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