There is going to be a Quidditch Premier League in England

Until this point, Quidditch, the fictitious sport from Harry Potter, was relegated to college campuses and a bi-annual World Cup. That’s all changing with the announcement of a Quidditch Premier League starting in England.

The Quidditch Premier League will launch in May of 2017 and run through the summer. The inaugural season will see eight teams participate, pulling players from a variety of successful college teams and clubs from around England.

Re-contextualizing a magical sport on broomsticks into an actual game played on the field has required a little bit of creativity and suspension of disbelief. Obviously nobody is flying, and the “Quaffle” is just a partly deflated volleyball. The real trick comes in representing the Golden Snitch on the field. In Harry Potter, it’s a magical golden ball that flies around on its own — but in real-world Quidditch, it’s a tennis ball in a sock attached to the shorts of a “Snitch Runner” who tries not to get caught.

All of this sounds a little sad, but who are we to throw shade on people having fun? Quidditch is at least as serious as half the sports we see during the Olympics. One incredible thing about the sport is how inclusive it is. Teams may only have four players of the same gender on a team — which means everyone plays on the field at the same time.

The most important part of any new sports league are the team names, so let’s rank them:

We might have the “Eastern Mermaids” a little too low. Maybe they should be No.1.

h/t The Guardian