Quiyk at the Quidditch Olympic Summer Games

Whoa. Where to begin. I guess I’ll just start from the beginning.

It’s been a whirlwind of a week for Quiyk, definitely the most action packed 7 days in the company’s history. I’m on the plane back from England right now, a place I definitely did not think I would be a week ago.

[Insert Wayne’s World Scooby Doo Ending music here…]

Last Wednesday was the 4th of July. Everything was rad. I went cliff jumping with some friends and lit off some sparklers on the beach. I went to bed excited as I was picking up the first batch of the Quiyk Olympics uniforms order for the IQA Summer games athletes, which I would overnight to New York the following morning for them to be able to make it to Oxford, England on time.

Why so last minute you ask? Well, reason with me a bit. We at Quiyk have been working NON STOP on this order for the past three weeks- when really, this order should take much much longer than three weeks to produce. But that’s just how things worked out and even with a super tight schedule, we decided to work our hardest to make these jerseys happen in time for the games.

So, now to what went wrong. Simply, a miscommunication with our manufacturers unfortunately resulted in some sizes not getting done. Most finished on time, but others were done in the wrong size (example XL instead of S) and we realized would could seriously be in a world of hurt if something was not done immediately.

Let’s just say Thursday was the craziest day of my life. Talk about game time decisions. From 6:45am, I don’t think I had a break from the phone for more than a half hour. I called the factory, asking, begging, pleading for them to fix this issue, while at the same time called every shipping company I knew to see if I could overnight a package to England. Unfortunately things didn’t work out and it looked like the remainder of the jerseys would not make it to Oxford. Sick to my stomach, and not knowing what to do, it was crazy plan time. I would hand deliver the jerseys to the tournament. Yeah, I could buy a plane ticket the day before I had to leave to fly 11 hours from Los Angeles to London to deliver the jerseys that would not have gotten there by conventional means. Word.

So that’s what I did. Called my (real job) work and told them I wasn’t coming in for the week, dropped everything (including the LA Firemercs Quidditch tournament… sorry Black Team!) in order to go to England. Gnarly, I still couldn’t believe it when I touched down in London on Saturday.

And am I EVER SO GLAD I DID. I had the most amazing time in England the past 4 days, hanging out with the teams, watching some extremely high level quidditch get played, and all on the international platform of the Olympics. I was afraid I would show up, deliver the jerseys, and have nothing to do for 4 days until my return flight. Man, was I wrong. Team USA accepted me as one of their own (love ya guys) and I made some awesome friends on all the teams (shout out to Borris from France, Matt from Australia, Harry from the UK, and Plunger from Canada)! I also learned a lot, such as why Benny Nadeu likes Zach D’Amico so much, why Texas is a team to be feared, and how community teams are going to play a huge role in the evolution of Quidditch.

Also, did I say I got to watch some of the most exciting Quidditch ever? Watch out world, Team France is going to wreck at the World Cup next year. And Australia is going to leave you bruised and wishing you could avoid tackles. And just be grateful that Team USA isn’t in your region, because you’ll be outta snitch range before “broom’s up” is called.

I am so freaking pumped that everything worked out.

The jerseys made it, the teams loved them, and looked fantastic playing in them.

I can’t wait for the rest of you guys to get yours (please just be patient with us as we’re doing all we can).

This trip has further confirmed the power of Quidditch for me. It’s able to bring complete strangers from around the world together and turn them into best friends in a weekend. Whether it was walking back from the Oxford club at 3am with Team USA, having in depth conversations with Luke Zac and Allison Gillette about the future of Quidditch, or merc playing for Team UK with Borris from France, I had an absolute blast, making this trip one I will never forget.

Thanks and much love Quidditch world,

-Matt from Quiyk