Major League Quidditch is a semiproquidditch league based in the United States and Canada. The league is composed of 15 teams—13 in the U.S. and 2 in Canada. The MLQ season runs from June to August, with each team playing nine games in the regular season. The playoffs includes the top 12 teams competing in the MLQ Championship in late August, culminating in the championship series. The winning team is awarded the Benepe Cup.
History
Major League Quidditch was founded in 2014 by Ethan Sturm, who joined with Amanda Dallas in hopes of developing quidditch further. Sturm and Dallas currently co-commission the league. The first season took place in 2015 with eight teams. MLQ had an extremely successful first season, picking up a partnership with SAVAGEultimate, Petersons Brooms and Destination Toledo, hosting 12 regular-season, three-game series, and the 2015 MLQ Championship in Toledo, Ohio. In the 2016 season, MLQ doubled the size of the league to 16 teams and geographically expanded it with the creation of the South and West Division. The new teams were located in Austin, Kansas City, League City, New Orleans, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, and San Francisco. Starting in 2018, the Phoenix Sol relocated to Boise, Idaho as the Boise Grays. During the 2018 season, MLQ announced that Boise would be disbanded as a punishment for a brawl during a game with the Salt Lake City Hive. Following the end of the season it was announced that during the 2019 season, the league would be reorganized as a 15-franchise league with three five-team competitive divisions. Salt Lake City, Los Angeles and San Francisco were eliminated along with the West Division. Rochester was moved from the North Division to the East, and Minneapolis and Toronto were added to the North; San Antonio was added to the South, with identities for the new Quidditch teams to be announced in February, followed by tryouts.
Competition format
Three game series are played between every team in each division throughout June and July. All three games are played in each series, regardless of the outcome of the first two games, though the team that wins at least 2 out of the 3 games wins the series. Teams are ranked as a result of these series' outcomes. The top three teams in each four team division are invited to the Championship in August. These twelve teams are re-sorted into pools and play in a bracketed series format working towards the final three-game series for the Benepe Cup. Starting in 2018, there will be the "SuperSeries", involving three teams playing at one location over two days. This was added in an attempt to save costs for the players.
Teams
Former Teams
Expansion Teams
The West Division was eliminated at the end of the 2018 season due to extensive travel time for the teams. In addition to the 3-team expansion in 2019, the Rochester Whiteout were moved from the North Division to the East.
