Quiditch

[career advisor]

No: HPFGUIDX 162221

<<Inge:
<<As for Quiditch - I find the entire game totally pointless...
 <<The game always ends as soon as the Snitch has been caught - and in 99% 
 <<of the time - (well, that's just my lucky guess of course, could be 
 <<slightly less) - the team catching the Snitch wins the game.
 <<So what exactly IS the point of the quaffle other than scoring some 
 <<useless points and keeping the game going, while waiting for the Snitch 
 <<to be caught? 
 <<Makes very little sense to me...

In an individual game your right, but as we see in Quidditch during the house cup Quidditch is not a sport in which the individual game matters much. It is a series of games in which the points are added together. In other words the points from one game are added to another to determine the winner and while catching the snitch is important a seeker could catch and win the snitch in all three games of the house cup and the team could still lose it. It is the point differentile that matters, so part of catching the snitch is timing. 

For instance I'm making up these scores to illustrate the point.  

G1  Gryffindor vs Hufflepuff    G 160- H 60  G Snith  Harry beats Cedric. H chases beat  G chasers 6-1  
G2  Ravenclaw vs. Slytheirn  S 240  R 10  S Snitch  Draco beats Cho. 
S chasers pound R  chasers 9-1

TP  S 240 G 160  H 60 R 10
snitch catches:  G 1 S 1

G3  Hufflepuff vs. Slytherin  H 160 S 150  H Snitch  Cedric beats Draco. Slytherin chasers pound H chasers  15-1

G4  Gyffindor vs. Ravenclaw   R 330  G 270   G Snitch  Harry beats Cho, but R wins anway. R chasers pound  G chasers  33-12
 
TP  G 430 S  390 R 340 H 220 
Snitch catches:  G 2 H 1 S 1 R 0

Note:  Ravenclaw could be ahead of Hufflepuff even though they haven't caught a snitch yet. When Harry catches snitch score was R 330- G 120 (33-12  since goals are worth 10). Harry catching snitch was defensive because 480-120 puts Gryffindor prob out of cup hunt.  

G5  Hufflepuff vs. Raveclaw  R 300 H 280 H Snitch (poor timing, Cedric was a bit distracted by Cho.) R wins. R chasers beat H chasers 30-13.

G6  Gryffindor vs. Slytherin.    G 170  S 150   G snitch. Harry beats Draco but Slytherin Chasers pound Gryffindor  Chasers. (15-2) 

Final points:  R 640 G 600 S 540 H 500
snitch catches: G3  H2 S1 R  0

And Ravenclaw wins the cup w/o ever catching the snitch.  
   
The play of the chasers is a lot like basketball where there is a lot of back and forth, momentum swings and fast breaks and where it it fairly easy at any time to be up 3 to 1. The key to Quidditch seems to be grabbing the Snitch when your are up at least 3-1 on points or if down less then 3-1 grabbing it before you opponent does to win and close the final point differential, . The 150 point snitch score allows you to win even when down 3 -1 for instance your down 150-50. You catch the snitch you win 200-150.

You need  600-700 points overall to win the cup so you can't just grab the  snitch and take 150 points form each game, and win each one 150-0 you'd only end up with 450 points.    Your opponent would at a minimum have more then 300 in the last game and be within snitch distance in the last round.   

Could you imagine how basketball would work if a 3/4 court shot was worth 30 points and ended the game and you added the points of at least 3 games together to determine the winner? And an individual game couldn't end until one were made. That is what Quidditch is like. 

Since you play 3 games the most you can be up is 1 snitch catches going into the final round plus minus chaser points. Prob' the range is usualy within 100-200 points in the final game. So the seeker is really impotant in the championship game, but the cushion he or she has or lacks is mainly due to the chasers. It is very important for the seeker to always know the score. For instance in the last R/H game above the H seeker caught the snitch 20  points two late or twentry to early. If he catches it when the score is R 270-H 130, Hufflepuff wins, when it is 270- 130 H wins and at 250-130 G would win the cup.      
Basically chaser/keeper defense and seeker timing is how you win cups.

Wow that was a lot to write for a fictional game. I do think JKR made on mistake in the scoring system of the game, making the center hoop 30 points instead of 10 would have made goal strategy more interesting for the keeper and made the chasers even more more important, but she wanted to empasize the seeker since it  is Harry's spot.  

What do you think?
        
 
   

 
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