Altador Cup 12 (XII)

[Ian Wolf-Park]

Well, the annual tournament is nearly here. I don't have high expectations for this one, given the controversies of previous cups (namely, the cheaters). Any changes would be welcome, though.

Tyrannia, Mystery Island, and Kiko Lake have their blurbs released, and it doesn't appear (so far) that any roster changes are coming to the teams (I'm basing this off the wallpapers, which are the same from previous years).

[Breakingchains]

I don't know why I wasn't expecting the Altador Cup--it comes every year, after all--but I swear I saw this thread and a tiny piece of my soul died.

Which prolly means I'm going for All-star again lol

[Duke Pikachu]

Another year, another AC. Curious what changes they've been hinting at are and will it be noticeable. Though many of the changes I would like to see would involve tinkering with the code and we know JS are a bit hesitant to do that (within reason, I suppose, since Neopet's coding is fragile. But that said, things aren't going to get any better until they do). Eitherway...

GO TEAM MERIDELL!

[Ziporen]

Still flip-flopping on joining this cup or not. I want to play, but I'm not sure if I should.

[Rabbit ♠]

Krawk Island! Krawk Island!
Not sure if I'm participating, I don't want to participate on calanera, but Krawk Island!
(Unless there's a new team that I would want to root for, I'm rooting for Krawk Island.)

[Mostly Harmless (flufflepuff)]

Maraqua for the cup...

woohoo ^^

[doctortomoe]

Once again, my loyalties are towards Team Haunted Woods

[Duke Pikachu]

So to sum up the recaps:

Altador: Team Altador is lazy and they should be practicing. Slushies > Smoothies.
Brightvale: King Hagan's discussion with the players last year must have "worked" and they got 6th place. Hopefully they'll continue to rise up the ranks.
Darigan Citadel: Tandrak Shaye has fangirls who watch him practice everyday and are camping out in front of the Altador Cup Stadium.
Faerieland: Practicing. Mentioned Haunted Woods using their court.
Haunted Woods: Have to practice in Team Faerieland's court. Says out-of-character comment speaking ill of Haunted Woods and liking Faerieland.
Kiko Lake: Maybe will add a female player again.
Krawk Island: Practicing.
Kreludor: Says they're going to do better this year.
Lost Desert: Practicing. Vonde Cayle keeps being called in by Leera Heggle.
Maraqua: Practicing.
Meridell: Says they're going to do better this year.
Moltara: Says they're going to do better this year.
Mystery Island: Practicing.
Roo Island: They like playing Yooyuball.
Shenkuu: Practicing.
Terror Mountain: They have a record of rising and falling.
Tyrannia: Practicing and says they're going to do better this year.
Virtupets: May have had been getting sponsored and equipment from Sloth supporters, equipment being examined thoroughly.

*Yawn*

Okay, there are some interesting ones. Haunted Woods sharing Faerieland's court is an interesting story idea and Virtupets having ties with Sloth is a fun conspiracy. But every other team's is boring, and the writing for the Haunted Woods/Faerieland story didn't feel right so doesn't come off as good (in addition only Haunted Woods really talked indepth about it, Faerieland only gave it a passing mention further downplaying it). Remember when TNT did this they actually went into what individual players did off season in their off time? Giving the individual characters some depth that doesn't directly relate back to Yooyuball? And though they did have stories sometimes talking about the team as a whole, I felt they made them interesting to read rather then just having the team say they're practicing or will be doing better this year. Like Altador's is alright in that case, though BV and DC aren't as it just says they're practicing and will do better this year indirectly.

Maybe when the cup actually starts and we can see the bios we may get some more interesting info.

[Duke Pikachu]

You can now join a team! 12th year veteran prize is Mysterious Vibrant Collectable Scarab. I like it, has all the teams colors are on its shell.


TOURNAMENT CHANGES:
There will be two parts to this year's Altador Cup.
Round 1 is a single round robin. Every team will play against each other once.
Depending on the results of Round 1, Round 2 will place the teams in one of three brackets where another round robin will take place within each bracket.
This means the Cup will be shorter than previous years, 25 days specifically. The cup begins on June 1st and ends June 25th.
Now if you done the map you'll discover there's 3 extra days (17 + 5 = 22). This is because there are 3 practice/bye days: One of the 7th, another on the 14th, and the last on the 18th (when Round 1 ends). There will be no practice/bye days during Round 2.
Finally on July 1st the winner will be announced and prize shop will be open.

I'm quite happy with this change. We've always wanted a shorter cup and I think that this is the shortest we're going to get it while still being as fair as it can be. And with the Practice/Bye Days being placed where they are I feel it'll help let players recharge after a week of straight playing (unless you still get prize points & rank ups for playing). Overall I'm looking forward to see how this change pans out and hopes it proves to be a improvement.

TEAM BIOS:
Nothing interesting and all the talk about new players/trades came off as nothing but smoke.

STAFF TOURNEY:
Senor Malo and DJ Skellington are confirmed coming back and 3 new staffers: Kakarot, Scrappy(!), & Enigma. Ignore the silhouette, though it says its for 2017 you can clearly tell it has many of the old TNT staffers. You can start picking your Staff Dream Team on June 2nd.

[Ian Wolf-Park]

Just a heads up. Although the Cup has not started, there is a glitch where you're 'kicked off' the team that you signed up for, so it means that you will have to resign with your chosen team. It also means duplicate prizes, so discard them

[Allison]

Roo Island for me again this year. From back when I was reading "Hunger Games" and came up with the saying "Roo Island for Rue." lol Plus it's Droplet's former team, so there's that too.

[doctortomoe]

Good to know that DJ is still around. He's still my favorite staff member.

[smudgeoffudge]

Today I went to the rules page, as suggested by the news. While looking for the actual rules, I was able to read a lot about the history of the cup. But the history of the cup and how the game works, is not the type of rules I was looking for. So I went to the FAQ looking for the rules. While reading the FAQ I was able to learn about the history of the cup and how it works, but still, was only able, after searching, to find one rule.

Don't play on more than one account.

So I know in the past news, in the past editorals, some things were discussed and clarified. One would have to go and search for this.

Now imagine a new player, perhaps a child, who doesn't read that well. Now imagine a new player, maybe not a child but still new to the site. They would have to go looking into the past news articles or editorial, because the actual rules page does not say anything that is helpful.

I can imagine some players that even have been on the site a while being confused. You just can't find anything helpful.

I know not to play on more than one account.

I know not to create a way, or use someone else's way to exploit the game.

If a player is talking about another player who is exploiting a glitch, and this player gives too much detail about the glitch or how to exploit the game, that player could be frozen for even talking about the glitch. Even if they said it was bad and were trying to make people aware of it. Even if they were directing their post to the staff. The person could get frozen for talking about it.

If a player is new and rotten at the game, especially a kid, they might have more than one computer going. Maybe they are just a little guy who is getting some help. So they are trying to figure out the game. One kid on one computer and the older person logged into their account from another computer in another room or something. Then they get frozen. They didn't know not to ask for help.

So when you go to the rules page as of now, it says pick a team. It says nothing about you can't pick a team from another account. While most people should know better, some of them are just some kids. How are they going to know. They might not even be able to read well.

I can think of a lot of ways this can go wrong and they just don't clarify. Even if a person gets frozen and they submit a ticket, they may not ever know the real reason they were frozen. They might not even get a response at all.

[Rabbit ♠]

It took some time for each game to load on my computer (bad internet), but once everything was loaded, everything ran fine. I'm a bit rusty at Yooyuball, but I'm doing well. I even reached Rank 1 today, so that's good. Since I'm at Rank 1 now, I'm playing some side games.
Slushie Slinger is harder than I remembered.

[Thorn]

Do DC still have the same roster? xD It's been years, that's crazy, I remember excitedly waiting for some new characters back when I used to play.