Globe Blitz: Behind the Scenes
Prof. Scarlet Leslie-Lewis
June 2016
It's hard to remember exactly where the idea for Globe Blitz came from. We were probably talking Quidditch or maybe even discussing some ideas for Emerald Cup. But we did know that we had a lot of fun running Bracket Blitz together the previous year and Cody wanted to run something similar to my Race Around the Globe activity. When Cody first told me his idea, I was a bit skeptical. Only after writing everything out so that I could see it properly did I start to get excited about Globe Blitz.
Initially, we planned to choose seven different locations based on professional Quidditch teams. Cody even had player pools created for Europe and Australia. A few days after we finalized our locations, the Wizarding schools were released on Pottermore. They turned out to be really close to all of our chosen locations, so we shifted our focus to the seven schools. Players generated for Europe went to the Durmstrang player pool and a few of the Australian names went to Hogwarts. Gary Granner, the superstar seeker from Ilvermorny, was a tribute to one of our early Globe Blitz supporters - Ryan Granger!
I checked Pottermore constantly to see if there would be any information about Ilvermorny, but eventually gave up on that and wrote about Quodpot. The History of Magic in North America did provide clues for the crossword puzzle for our final Portkey. (Though I was pretty sure that it said "Chocktaw" when I first selected words for the puzzle.)
When choosing Portkey release times, Cody was adamant that we had to select set times, arguing that working on the puzzles with team members was his favorite aspect of Race Around the Globe. It was definitely fun to see everyone stalking the HOL forum right before Portkeys were posted. Every time we posted a Portkey, one of us would say, "What if we made the puzzle too hard?" But, of course, we didn't have to worry for more than about five minutes. HOL'ers are really good at puzzles! Cody said that "Whoever doesn't crash in Mahoutokoro" would win Globe Blitz, and R2V2 did well by staying fairly consistently in the top four for all Portkeys.
We did intend for the Training Clinics to involve a choice depending on the players each Scouting Group had on their roster. However, there was already too much going on for us to add variety to our Training Clinic options. So we kept it simple. Needless to say, Scouting Groups certainly didn't disappoint us! It was neat to see the rookie cards, especially those Scouting Groups who decided to make one for every player. I loved reading through all the creative submissions. There were lots of great stories and many requests to remove snitchnip as a Quidditch foul.
Unlike Bracket Blitz where we only had one spreadsheet to update, at one point we had three different spreadsheets for Globe Blitz. We eventually cut that down to two, so that we each updated a different spreadsheet. Cody was a bit possessive of his sheet, frequently asking me, "Why are you on my spreadsheet?!" Not my fault that points were easier to update than Talent Scores!
Globe Blitz might make a return in the future. After all, we do have a few names that weren't used this time!
It's hard to remember exactly where the idea for Globe Blitz came from. We were probably talking Quidditch or maybe even discussing some ideas for Emerald Cup. But we did know that we had a lot of fun running Bracket Blitz together the previous year and Cody wanted to run something similar to my Race Around the Globe activity. When Cody first told me his idea, I was a bit skeptical. Only after writing everything out so that I could see it properly did I start to get excited about Globe Blitz.
Initially, we planned to choose seven different locations based on professional Quidditch teams. Cody even had player pools created for Europe and Australia. A few days after we finalized our locations, the Wizarding schools were released on Pottermore. They turned out to be really close to all of our chosen locations, so we shifted our focus to the seven schools. Players generated for Europe went to the Durmstrang player pool and a few of the Australian names went to Hogwarts. Gary Granner, the superstar seeker from Ilvermorny, was a tribute to one of our early Globe Blitz supporters - Ryan Granger!
I checked Pottermore constantly to see if there would be any information about Ilvermorny, but eventually gave up on that and wrote about Quodpot. The History of Magic in North America did provide clues for the crossword puzzle for our final Portkey. (Though I was pretty sure that it said "Chocktaw" when I first selected words for the puzzle.)
When choosing Portkey release times, Cody was adamant that we had to select set times, arguing that working on the puzzles with team members was his favorite aspect of Race Around the Globe. It was definitely fun to see everyone stalking the HOL forum right before Portkeys were posted. Every time we posted a Portkey, one of us would say, "What if we made the puzzle too hard?" But, of course, we didn't have to worry for more than about five minutes. HOL'ers are really good at puzzles! Cody said that "Whoever doesn't crash in Mahoutokoro" would win Globe Blitz, and R2V2 did well by staying fairly consistently in the top four for all Portkeys.
We did intend for the Training Clinics to involve a choice depending on the players each Scouting Group had on their roster. However, there was already too much going on for us to add variety to our Training Clinic options. So we kept it simple. Needless to say, Scouting Groups certainly didn't disappoint us! It was neat to see the rookie cards, especially those Scouting Groups who decided to make one for every player. I loved reading through all the creative submissions. There were lots of great stories and many requests to remove snitchnip as a Quidditch foul.
Unlike Bracket Blitz where we only had one spreadsheet to update, at one point we had three different spreadsheets for Globe Blitz. We eventually cut that down to two, so that we each updated a different spreadsheet. Cody was a bit possessive of his sheet, frequently asking me, "Why are you on my spreadsheet?!" Not my fault that points were easier to update than Talent Scores!
Globe Blitz might make a return in the future. After all, we do have a few names that weren't used this time!