Altador Cup XV

[Kat]

Jun 28, 2020 8:00:05 GMT -5 Herdy said:

Meridell -- Brightvale in second, Kiko Lake third. You can see the standings here:

www.neopets.com/altador/colosseum/standings.phtml

There was nothing KL could have done to get higher than third.

So the overall standings prevail even though KL is shown as being ahead of MD in the bracket standings?

(EDIT: Kat, that's why they're called "overall", ya dunce.)

DOUBLE EDIT: Is it possible for them to shift while the scores are being tabulated and whatnot?

[Duke Pikachu]

No matter what happens, Meridell, Kiko Lake, & Brightvale all are podium placers this year so we can tale pride in that.
As for Meridell, we can also be proud that our Captain "Wizard" Windelle is the Top Goal Scorer this year so next year is finally going to get his bobblehead (which would look excellent in my Team Meridell Gallery)!

TNT STAFF TOURNEY MATH TIME:
So at the end of the Staff Tourney I like to calculate so see what could have been the max points a player could have gotten (I used to also calculate what would have been the lowest amount of points but nowadays I feel that's unnecessary and a bit mean):

First, if you stuck with the same players throughout the AC Tourney, the following would have been your best choice:
Best Team Overall: Gutterfoot, SenorMalo, Kikocat, van Doodle, Binary Supagoo
Total: 38,671

But, if you were a powerful psychic that could see into the future thus picked the best team for each round, this would have been how that went:

Best Team Round 1: DJ Skellington, SenorMalo, Kikocat, Scrappy, Ehlo Froyo
Total: 9,650

Best Team Round 2: Gutterfoot, SenorMalo, Kikocat, van Doodle, Binary Supagoo
Total: 9,883

Best Team Round 3: Agog, Gutterfoot, Kikocat, van Doodle, Binary Supagoo
Total: 10,370

Best Team Round 4: DJ Sally, Gutterfoot, Kikocat, van Doodle, Binary Supagoo
Total: 10,317
Combined Total: 40,220

Only 2k off from the overall best team, of course that's whether you picked the best team which I have a feeling not a lot of players did.  And aside from the first round where you could rely on past results, I don't think anyone aside from luck could have correctly guessed the best team for round 2, 3 & 4 (simply due to Agog and DJ Sally playing better than SenorMalo).

This year's AC Tourney was actually quite surprising, so much so I'm not sure who I would pick for next year. 

[doctortomoe]

So if Meridell is the winner, then there's still a chance that next year Haunted Woods will be the first team to threepeat

[Breakingchains]

Hoo boy, it has been a while since DC got this close to the podium. Stinks to be 4th, but at the same time I'm happy to see the jump in the standings. Next year maybe.

[doctortomoe]

Meridell was robbed.

[Kat]

SCREAMS AND CRIES

I literally got on the NTWF discord voice chat to scream and cry. Oh well, I got a silver trophy.

[Ian Wolf-Park]

Geeze, that's one stunner of an upset for Meridell.

[Stephanie (swordlilly)]

The first day of prize shop opening was very exciting for a Neutral Steph. x)

So, the Slushie Stand foreground is priced at 12,000 prize points, same as last year's Yooyu Trellis Arch foreground (which is now worth 20M). The aesthetic equivalent to Yooyu Trellis, Shamrock Vine Arbour, is a highly sought-after NC item.

I figured the Slushie Stand would also be pretty popular, since the aesthetic equivalents (Bakery Display Case and Pink Lemonade Stand) are both highly sought-after NC items. However, this year there were also more people with time to play (hence increased supply of the foregrounds). So its value won't be 20M in a year's time (I think?), but it's definitely worth more than 7.5M, which is what I found it selling for on the front page of the auction house. It was a somewhat high-increment auction (increments of 500K). Someone had already bid 7M.

I only had 7.2M in the bank, having recently bought the Shenkuu stamp avatar. But I trusted my instincts, sold some stocks short (for about 20 to 30np apiece), and took the plunge. I happened to be the last person to bid, and the FG was sold to me for 7.5M.

Then I threw it back into auctions for 8M, at increments of 100K, and made a board in the customisation chat. Within an hour, two people had bid. The foreground sold for 8.1M and I made a profit of 600K in one evening


I haven't spent my own prize points yet. Will watch the market to see how the prices fluctuate first. x) I have a little over 8,000 points to spend and will likely either buy 2 stamps and some low-end wearables, or the apron. It depends on how many people buy the apron though since it will be a niche HTS item.

[Duke Pikachu]

Saw the disappointing news. *Sigh*

I don't mind the rule change, but to do it at the very end of this tournament felt like TNT pulled the rug from under us. But we all agree KL beat us during the finals. Eitherway this was going to end ugly, and sadly it was us that drew the short stick.

But, we've always been the underdogs, and we all shall remember this year and use it to fuel our drive next year!

It's not all bad news of course, Wizard Windelle did get 1st place as top goal scorer.

[Kat]

Still though, we posted higher standings than KL during the round robin. Oh well, we'll be back next year to break the bridesmaid syndrome. Am glad for Windelle though. Gotta get his figurine next year and hopefully reach All-Star then to have more points! Just the stamp is going to cost me 4000 points and I have only over 5000.

Bought three wearables from the staff tourney shop now. IDK how much they'll be going but eh, if they turn out to be relatively cheap I can just use them myself or hold on to them for later.

[doctortomoe]

Everyone join HW next year so we can three-peat too

[Kat]

Jul 4, 2020 1:55:10 GMT -5 doctortomoe said:

Everyone join HW next year so we can three-peat too

Sorry, I already promised my MD board mates that I'm staying with Meridell until further notice.

Besides, gotta help MD finally nab its first championship!

[Duke Pikachu]

RED ALERT!

Heads up Neopians, the Altador Cup prize shop will be closing soon in preparation of this year's Altador Cup. So make sure to use any unredeemed points to pick up your favourite Altador Cup XV prizes and Staff Tournament prizes before the prize shop closes on May 13th!

• Main Prize Shop
  
• Staff Tourny Prize Shop
  

Now how you spend your points is up to you, but if you want some suggestions if you aren't so sure here are some of my thoughts:

MAIN PRIZE SHOP:

• LEGEND:
  * Red: Complete junk if not a rip-off; skip.
  * Purple: For a very select few people; It's not quite junk/rip-off, but to most it's useless.
  * Blue: HTS (Hard to sell); buy only if you want it or willing to wait to sell it.
  * Green: Good investment.
  * ( ): The parenthesis indicates these are a group of items instead if a single item.
   

• Clockwork Dress: Not bad, though I'd really suggest only getting it if you plan on using it. If you want to invest your points than there are easier to sell items. Yes, the dress probably would net a lot of NP if you can sell it, but that "if" is a big one.
• Slushie Stand Foreground: Also a hard to sell, maybe even moreso as the Clockwork Dress makes for a nice general cool-looking wear, meanwhile the only reason you'd have the Slushie Stand Foreground on is if your Neopet is customized around that theme. If you want your Neopet to be host to a Slushie Stand it's the perfect foreground, but if you don't than once more maybe a better idea to move on.
• Snow Paint Brush: REALLY JS?! Couldn't think of a better (aka more expensive PB)? HARD SKIP! You can buy these for around 50k from the Shop Wizard!
• Snow Yooyu: Now the problem with the Snow Yooyu is that it's an old prize from a previous AC. Now you may think that means it already has market value... but, how I see it, anyone who wanted a Snow Yooyu pretty much already got one. Oh, and my complaint it STILL doesn't look like a proper Snow Yooyu is still valid even after all these years *grumble*.
• Altador Cup Tailgate Grill Apron: Now an apron is a bit more versatile than the name implies. Sure, it says its a grilling apron, but I imagine you can use this apron for really any customization that you think an apron could be used for (like a blacksmith/metalworking custom or a paleontology custom). Still, unless you're going to use it, might be harder to get off your hands.
• Streamer Explosion Foreground: I don't think this is so bad as a celebratory foreground so has a wider use than one thinks, but still gotta give it a blue.
• Altador Cup XV Commemorative Stamp: Finally the first green, and it's for a predictable one: the stamp. No matter how many points you have, if you can afford it I'd suggest at least buying one (two if you can). Stamps are ETS (generally) and as they're used one it's price is likely to increase as long as more aren't released in an easily obtainable way.
  
• Prytariel Action Figure: Have a Team Terror Mountain or Aisha (or I guess also Cloud?) Gallery? You need this. Don't? Skip, you're likely never going to sell it.
  
• Altador Cup Winning Podium: Want to give this a green, but problem is its a background and I think you can only wear one of those at a time... and as you can see it's just a podium and nothing else. Not going to say it's worthless but it really needed something like a cheering crowd in a stadium setting.
  
• (Books): Books in general are always a nice investment.
• (Vintage Team Jerseys): DON'T BOTHER! You can get them the Shop Wizard for cheap.
  
• (Low Cost Wearables): Unlike the wearables that cost thousands of points so getting even one limits what else you can get, these are kind of like filler and because of that I think have better investment value.
• (Team Gym Bags): Always like a Team item that isn't just Gallery fodder. The team gym bags are pretty nice and fall under what I said for the Lost Cost Wearables. You may even want to focus on getting the ones you want first before buying any of the higher costing items above, that's how good I think they are.
• (Everything Else): We got a LOT of ugly (animated) items this year, many just being toys if not completely useless gifts. Heck, I'd say even the dirt cheap items before the Team Gym Bags are better than several of the middle costing ones. Some of them may have made for nice Furniture if there were still even doing those (but since they aren't I wish they would stop making those items unless they do make them Neohome v1 Furniture or wait till NeoHome v3).

Staff Tourney Prize Ship:

1. Get whatever TNT Staff Stress Balls you want.
   
   
2. If you still have enough points leftover you can get the higher point prizes... but you can also just buy those with NP, they're all under 100k, so I'd honestly suggest getting them that way and just spending as much points as you can to get Stress Balls.
   
   
3. Once you're under 3.5k, get whatever smaller cost prizes they have. Like, I try to get one of each at least, though you can just keep buying the highest cost ones you can until you're out of points. NOTE: No matter what, you'll end up with a lot of Comfort Rocks.

Now don't take my lack of enthusiasm representing the quality of the prizes, I think they're all nice in their own way and the wearables certainly have their uses. They're just not really worth much and that sort of unintentionally gives them a sort of "meh" feeling to them. So much so that even JN is suggesting just spending all your points on Comfort Rocks to donate them to the next Charity Corner!

[Allison]

Thank you so much for the suggestions for the prize shop! Also, I really, really wish there were a way to buy the comfort rocks in bulk.

[Duke Pikachu]

May 8, 2021 20:30:19 GMT -5 Allison said:

Thank you so much for the suggestions for the prize shop! Also, I really, really wish there were a way to buy the comfort rocks in bulk.

Well JN sort of posted a way to at least buy them faster... but yeah, they really should include a "bulk" buy option. If they're worried about kids accidentally buying in bulk, make it its own page or section on the bottom of the page.