The trouble with Quidditch

[Neri]

No: HPFGUIDX 168907

> Bart:
> The basic problem in Quidditch is that there are just too damned
many points for catching the Golden Snitch. It is admitted that the
team that catches the Golden Snitch is almost never the loser. A
logical strategy would be to ignore the Chasers, and have the Beaters
go against the opponent's Seeker. As long as it's not a VERY lopsided
game, the team that caught the Snitch first would win, and therefore
the proper strategic place to put your efforts is making sure the
other team does NOT catch the Snitch, and hope that your Chasers and
Keeper won't get TOO far behind. <snip>
> 
> My best guess: JKR wanted to make the Seeker the most important
player on the team, and didn't bother to do the math to see that he
was the ONLY important player on the team. 
> 

Neri:
I agree. My first thought when reading that catching the snitch was
worth 150 points was that it's way too much, although I didn't
calculate strategies and I didn't think about the strategy of ganging
on the seeker. I definitely agree that JKR failed to do some basic
thinking in her rush to make her hero more important. 

Now, how can we correct this flaw in a way that fits with canon? One
thing would be to prevent the ability to gang on the Seeker. If the
only way (or the only legal way, at least) to take down the Seeker is
using bludgers, then the Beaters can't gang on the other team's Seeker
because they must follow the bludgers, and the bludgers (barring
magical interfering from nosy house elves) don't gang on the Seeker.
Indeed, in the first SS/PS game we see that the most basic strategy
for a Seeker is to fly above the other players and mostly stay out of
harm way. The opponent Beaters can follow him there, of course, but
they'd be useless if the bludgers mostly stay low bothering the other
players.

So, if the beaters can't gang on the opponent's Seeker, their next
best strategy might be to concentrate on guarding their own Seeker and
forget about the much less important Chasers and Keeper. But we've
actually seen Fred and George doing this in CoS, when the rogue
bludger was after Harry's blood (well, bone), and the disadvantage of
this strategy is canonically explained there: the Beaters would also
get in the Seeker's way and prevent him from seeing the snitch. 

Another canon argument is that winning isn't everything in Quidditch
--  the spread is also very important. IIRC all four complete Hogwatrs
Quidditch seasons we've seen in canon (SS/PS, PoA, OotP and HBP) were
won by the larger spread, because two teams were tied at the top with
two victories and one loss each. If you concentrate on your Seeker you
may be able to increase your chances of winning, but only by a small
spread because you've left the other team to score goals unimpeded,
and this might cost you the cup by the end of the season.

So what happens if you stick these factors into your strategy
calculations?


Neri