Quidditch World Cup: Latest News and Information for 2011 World Cup

Quidditch has taken the world by storm since J.K. Rowling released her series of Harry Potter books. Quidditch is the game played by the characters of Harry Potter and is defined by HarryPotterFans.com in the following manner:

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Each team has seven playing members. The playing team consists of three chasers, two bludgers, a goal keeper and a seeker. On each side of the field there are three goal hoops that stand vertically. In Quidditch, a goal is scored by putting the quaffle, a ball similar to soccer ball, through any of the vertical hoops by the chasers only. Each goal is worth 10 points.

The job of the goal-keeper is to block the quaffle.

The bludgers are two enchanted balls that fly around the stadium. The bludgers are partly controlled by the two beaters on the either sides. The beaters carry the cricket-like bats and when a bludger comes near the team, the beaters hit it away with the bat, hoping to knock it into members of the opposing team.

The fourth and final ball in Quidditch is the Golden Snitch. The seeker who catches the golden snitch earns his team 150 points. Catching the golden snitch also announces the end of the game and usually results in a win for the team catching the golden snitch.

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Confused yet? If you are, you should catch a couple of the Harry Potter movies to brush up on your Quidditch knowledge.

Since Harry Potter took the world by storm, the International Quidditch Association has been sponsoring the Quidditch World Cup.

This year's World Cup is set to take place in New York City on Randall's Island on November 12th and 13th.

According to the International Quidditch Association, there will be 100 teams participating in the fifth annual World Cup. Most of the teams come from colleges from the United States; however, there are teams participating from as far away as New Zealand and Argentina. There are also a number of high school teams participating in the event.

The first three World Cups took place at Middlebury College in Vermont before moving to New York City last year.

Tickets for the event are on sale and available through Brown Paper Tickets.