1864 Chad

The 16th Quidditch World Cup was held in Chad. It was the first time a country has hosted the tournament for a second time. The last time Chad hosted the World Cup was in 1824 where Romania were crowned champions.

This was also the first Quidditch World Cup to increase the playing countries from 16 to 31. A Group Stage was implemented for the first time, with five groups of six and three qualifiers from each group. The host nation has automatic entry into the first round of the knockout stage. The decision was made in order to reduce the the qualifying stage to a smaller quantity and to make the game fairer because it would give more teams a chance to win.

Speculation over the change in tournament format has been subject to board criticism. Some people think that the decision was made in order to allow the elite teams, such as Malawi, Bulgaria and Syria to succeed over the smaller "rookie" teams. Reason behind the speculation has come from the fact the previous two tournaments before this one, the 1856 Quidditch World Cup and the 1860 Quidditch World Cup were both one by rookie teams; Brazil and Turkey respectively. The board has denied claims these are the reasons for the change.

Knockout Stage
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