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Post by Twillie on May 18, 2023 8:53:50 GMT -5
This year’s Altador Cup is almost upon us! *insert noises of joy and/or dread* Press briefings for each team have started publishing a couple days ago, with three new briefings a day. Signups are also scheduled to start Tuesday, May 23rd. Going off of last year’s timeline, there will likely be 1-2 weeks between sign ups opening and the games actually starting. You can find the Altador Cup hub here, and there’s also a link to it on Neopets’ main page.
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Post by Breakingchains on May 18, 2023 9:35:41 GMT -5
Oh boy here we go again. I've got a lot of TV to get through so let's see how this goes lol.
I did run into issues last year with what I suspect was some kinda flag on my account, because my scores were failing to send about 50% of the time by the end of the month. Was super annoying because I ended up not getting enough points for all the stamps, and seemed odd because I've been getting all-star legit for years and had never had the issue before. I dunno what exactly ticked off the almighty anti-cheat gremlins, but I'm just gonna take more frequent breaks and hope it doesn't happen again this year I guess.
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Post by Ian Wolf-Park on May 18, 2023 11:12:55 GMT -5
Twillie-Er, I've already made a thread, but didn't put the number in.
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Post by Twillie on May 18, 2023 11:19:38 GMT -5
Oh sorry, I didn’t realize that was for this year’s AC! You only made mention of last year’s prize shop closing, so I thought the thread was just a reminder for that.
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Post by Ian Wolf-Park on May 18, 2023 15:08:37 GMT -5
Oh sorry, I didn’t realize that was for this year’s AC! You only made mention of last year’s prize shop closing, so I thought the thread was just a reminder for that. That's okay. Probably my fault for not being clear.
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Post by Duke Pikachu on May 19, 2023 16:39:51 GMT -5
So read through the pre-cup News and, hey, I think they're getting better at writing them. While most of them are still about the team reflecting on last year's placement, promising to keep improving, and training; at least some are now being a bit more descriptive in how they're training and giving certain players personalities:
Darigan Citadel: Thanked the fans, promise to keep winning, trained by running through hot coals and dodging razor-sharp pendulums.
Kiko Lake: Cellers defended Lever to critics blaming her for their lower place, promised to do better, training along the lake with a new coach (not that affects the team line-up).
Altador: I like the re-textualize phrase "can't stand the heat, stay out of the sun" sound likes an Altador thing to say. Otherwise been practicing in the hot fields till sweaty and sunburnt.
Krawk Island: Trained on the open seas for the entire year, refusing any assistance.
Haunted Woods: Trained in a haunted house.
Faerieland: Took advice from Darigan Citadel to toughen up by flying into storms.
Brightvale: Didn't want to comment coming in behind Meridell, Hagan built them a top-of-the-line training centre, trained with the head knights, training included using swords on training dummies wearing Meridell jerseys.
Maraqua: Hughlis refuted claims he took it easy, team trained in the Maraqua Trench where sea pressure made it hard to move.
Lost Desert: Trained in the desert sand.
Shenkuu: Oh, didn't realize Grelinek was gay (was revealed in an Editorial a year ago, maybe should start reading those again)! Anyway said girlfriend, Ginia, is now Shenkuu's coach (her father was the previous coach which was scouted by another team, Kiko Lake?). Trained in town instead of the mountains and got a lot of support from their fans.
Mystery Island: Dissapointed for placing 8th. Though, for once, instead of training they actually did other things! Volleyball, smoothies, relaxing by the sea. No indepth details, but hey, it's something other than training; which they also said they did by swimming laps and practiced a game at least once a day.
Kreludor: Fans dissapointed for placing 10th, Dahy lifted spirits in his own rude way, invited some fans to a lunch-in in Cafe Kreludor while they put on space suits and did one-on-one matchs in space (wait, Kreludor has a breathable atmosphere, so for them to train in space they'd have to go pretty far up which would make watching them train from Cafe Kreludor difficult).
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Post by Duke Pikachu on May 22, 2023 16:39:22 GMT -5
So the next three teams pre-cup news:
Terror Mountain: Dissapointed for placing 16th, lots of ice & snow puns (some I'm not sure works, though I think that's the joke?), and added different temperatures to their training (for below-zero to sweltering heat). Not quite sure what they mean with the temperature, like is it some kind of room controlled room this is taking place in which seems to be the implication from it changing at any time?
Roo Island: Happy they got 2nd, thanked the fans by having a special performance with King Roo's top circus performers: Circus Rooleil. I guess I shouldn't be surprised King Roo not only has a personal circus but top performers from it.
Moltara: Happy they've improved getting 12th, they built a training field over lava (being Moltara is underground wouldn't it be magma?) to raise the stakes for themselves to not slip up.
As of typing there's about 22 hours left. This is odd because there's still 3 teams left to reveal: MERIDELL, Tyrannia, and Virtupets (and you all know why I capitalized Meridell). This makes me wonder 2 things:
1. Why didn't they update over the weekend? Saturday & Sunday there was no updates, but had they we'd have today (Monday) and half of tomorrow to read the pre-cup news. If I recall, normally when Sign-Ups start they take down the pre-cup news, so if this is true than we'll only have till the afternoon to read MD, TY, and VP Pre-Cup news. 2. Did they save these three last because they're the ones getting roster changes? One getting a new player and the other two trading?
Guess we'll see tomorrow.
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Post by doctortomoe on May 23, 2023 1:41:16 GMT -5
Team Haunted Woods for life here.
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Post by Duke Pikachu on May 23, 2023 14:02:27 GMT -5
Final teams are up and there doesn't look to be any roster changes:
Meridell: Happy placed 3rd *loud groan*, welcomed back with parade, joined Skarl for a week worth of feasts, and went back to training doing the same thing Brightvale is doing (though would have practiced with TNT Smasher if it was still available).
Tyrannia: Disappointed they came in 9th but fans cheered them up. To both train and "broaden their horizons", they toured around Tyrannia doing various activities like meditating in a volcano, rock climbed, and played in the Concert Hall (did they play music?).
Virtupets: Excited they got 2nd and hyped to get 1st. Upgraded their gravity chamber so it creates obstacle courses as well as got a computer genus to program in simulations of the other teams.
And now all popcorn is in the NC Mall... including Team Dacardia. Well, we got 30 minutes left till sign-ups, maybe then we'll see if they added another team (though I'm betting they're an NC thing).
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Post by Lex on May 23, 2023 14:57:39 GMT -5
They didn't even give Meridell (or Tyrannia or Virtupets) a full day to enjoy the pre-cup press coverage. Seethe. Anyway, RED AND BLUE and all that. Surely this will be Meridell's year...
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Post by Gelquie on May 23, 2023 16:45:21 GMT -5
Yeah, I really thought it'd be one more day before sign-ups. Based purely on what I read (since I wasn't there), it kind of looks like Meridell's getting the shaft.
But since it kind of looks like the competition is a bit of a crapshoot for who actually wins, I'll just support the team I like. Which... is a lot of them. xD I thought about switching it up from my typical Lost Desert this year, but after reading the bios and thinking about it, I think I'll go with my old favorite after all. (Besides, picking a different one to be loyal to takes too much mental CPU for me right now, lol.)
So Lost Desert it is, for me. Good luck to other teams! Especially Meridell.
EDIT: Oooh, they have player bios now, at least! I do miss the old days of player bios in which they were actually bios and less stats-y. But maybe I'll read through those first before picking a team for sure.
(But yes, they should've left it another day to not leave the last 3 teams in the dust for attention.)
EDIT x2: Wait, waiiiit a minute. The team bios are different now. The other bios spent time talking about their training regiment, and now the new bios are a lot more generic.
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Post by Duke Pikachu on May 23, 2023 18:25:43 GMT -5
Yeah, I really thought it'd be one more day before sign-ups. Based purely on what I read (since I wasn't there), it kind of looks like Meridell's getting the shaft. But since it kind of looks like the competition is a bit of a crapshoot for who actually wins, I'll just support the team I like. Which... is a lot of them. xD I thought about switching it up from my typical Lost Desert this year, but after reading the bios and thinking about it, I think I'll go with my old favorite after all. (Besides, picking a different one to be loyal to takes too much mental CPU for me right now, lol.) So Lost Desert it is, for me. Good luck to other teams! Especially Meridell. EDIT: Oooh, they have player bios now, at least! I do miss the old days of player bios in which they were actually bios and less stats-y. But maybe I'll read through those first before picking a team for sure. (But yes, they should've left it another day to not leave the last 3 teams in the dust for attention.) EDIT x2: Wait, waiiiit a minute. The team bios are different now. The other bios spent time talking about their training regiment, and now the new bios are a lot more generic. Yeah, it's very weird, the Pre-Cup Bios for them were only up for a few hours. For some reason the Pre-Cup news didn't update on the weekend so the last three teams only had a few hours and the previous 3 before them a day & a half. I posted what the Pre-Cup News essentially said above. If you want I could provide some more detail (and minus my commentary), but honestly they weren't that interesting as they were all pretty much about training. Not that should mean they should become unavailable once the cup begins, something which has always annoyed me even when old TNT was still here. Like, we have the Neopedia, they couldn't add a page for each of the teams and posted Pre-Cup News and Tourney Bios there? Not sure how much of the old ones JS even has access to.
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Post by Gelquie on May 23, 2023 18:48:58 GMT -5
While I haven't found the team Pre-Cup bios on JN, I've found them on SunnyNeo. Shenkuu's stood out the most to me due to the Pre-Cup mention of Mirsha's girlfriend, so that's what I looked for. www.sunnyneo.com/altadorcup/teams/shenkuu.php(And you can see the other ones from that page, I'm just linking to one.) But it seems they didn't get the bios for the last three teams in time. I know because I remember some tidbits about them, I just didn't think this would happen and thus didn't copy it. I recall Virtupets mentioned specifics of how they trained, so that's what I'm looking for.
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Post by Duke Pikachu on May 23, 2023 20:43:01 GMT -5
But it seems they didn't get the bios for the last three teams in time. I know because I remember some tidbits about them, I just didn't think this would happen and thus didn't copy it. I recall Virtupets mentioned specifics of how they trained, so that's what I'm looking for. Ah, I see. Well if you want to see what they exactly said, you could try sending in a question for the next NT Editorial asking them to print it there. SunnyNeo is also an official Recommended Site, so explaining its for archival purposes could help them printing it in the NT.
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Post by Ian Wolf-Park on May 24, 2023 14:14:31 GMT -5
I just hope that this is not a bad omen as the closure of the previous cup's Prize shop was only announced a few hours before the Pre-Season coverage began.
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