US Quadball launches All Star Weekend in Middlebury for 20th anniversary

US Quadball is trying to do more than stage a showcase. By putting its first All Star Weekend in Middlebury, pairing elite college and club players with fan voting and bringing Major League Quadball into the same October window, the governing body is testing whether it can create a recurring centerpiece for the sport rather than a one-off celebration.

The inaugural USQ All Star Weekend is set for Oct. 10-11, 2026, at Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont, a campus USQ has long identified as the birthplace of quadball. That history runs directly through Battell Beach, where a group of Middlebury students played the first game on Oct. 9, 2005, including Xander Manshel and Alex Benepe. USQ is wrapping the new event in that origin story as the sport enters its 20th-anniversary era.

The event’s structure shows how seriously USQ is taking the experiment. The centerpiece will be a regional all-star tournament with five teams: West, Midwest/Great Lakes, Southwest, Northeast and Mid-Atlantic/South. Each roster will carry 21 players, four alternates and two to three coaches, with spots drawn from both college and club quadball so the weekend does not skew toward one pipeline. USQ says the format is meant to bring together elite college and club athletes, alumni, organizers, founders and community figures in the same room, and Major League Quadball will add its own all-star programming during the same weekend.

The selection process is already in motion. Nominations opened June 23 and close July 2, followed by fan voting from July 5-14. Regional committee and coach selections run July 17-22, with rosters announced July 24. USQ says the top six vote-getters in each region will automatically make the roster, while committees will round out the teams based on competitive balance, college and club representation, positional needs and diversity. To qualify, players must have been registered for the 2025-26 USQ season and played at least one official game.

For USQ, the All Star Weekend is also a branding play. The organization, which rebranded from US Quidditch in 2021, describes itself as the national governing body for quadball and one of the most gender-inclusive sports leagues in the country. Its calendar already includes fixtures such as Quadballfest and the US Quadball Cup, but the Middlebury event is being positioned as something different: a fall marquee with its own voting cycle, its own alumni pull and its own claim on the sport’s identity. If it lands, the weekend could become the kind of annual event that helps define quadball’s next chapter.