Altador Cup XVI

[Lord Hayati]

wow I actually hit rank 1.

[Ian Wolf-Park]

My goodness, the games are slow. Shame that there isn't a way to change the quality of the games.

[RielCZ]

Welp, I managed to get into a rhythm with YYB and SoSd and got to Rank 4 today!

I doubt I'll be able to keep up this pace, especially considering (IMO) it's now easier to max YYB than SoSd, but we'll see what happens and if the games continue working for me.

Go Lost Desert!

[Lord Hayati]

I hit rank 2. I can't believe it. this is more effort I've put into the AC than... really, the past 7 years combined

[Duke Pikachu]

I have a bit of stuff going on in real life that I'm unsure if I can play to the fullest each day, but I'll keep trying to do my part for Meridell.

I'm Rank 5 right now, here are my stats: www.neopets.com/altador/colosseum/2021/trophy.phtml?username=pikachu315111

Now having played a lot more of each game I also have a lot more to say about them, so probably will do that sometime over the weekend. If you want the tl;dr version of what my thoughts are, well wait no longer: They should have either waited next year or contracted out the games. 

[Patjade]

I'm glad some people are getting to enjoy it.

Finally managed to get YYB working after trying different assorted browsers. Given how the gameplay is, I think if I can manage to get to Rank 1 before the end of the competition, I'll call it good. Not worth the time and effort, not to mention hopping browsers, which probably sets off flags.

[Rabbit ♠]

Proud to say that RielCZ and I have our official Altador Cup merch!

Riel wanted a Lost Desert pin and since shipping across the border is both time consuming and expensive (we both know from experience at this point), he shipped the LD pin to me as a middle man. He also bought me a Krawk Island pin as payment. (Thank you, Riel.~)

The pins themselves are good quality. I opened my pin and it feels pretty good. It's a good size, it's made of metal, the colors are very nice. I tried scratching at the colors on my pin and they stayed on. No scratches or anything.

Pictures in spoilers.

SPOILER: Click to show

Both of the pins together.



The Krawk Island pin. Clearly the superior team.



The Lost Desert pin. A nice team, but inferior to Krawk Island.



Both pins on Kitty because I wanted to see if she would move. Answer: Kind of but she didn't run away.

[Carolyn]

Ah--those pins look delightful. I'm low-key tempted to buy the Brightvale one because of Brightvale University and all. Have to say it, the merch from Geekify has (generally) been quite solid. I'm impressed!

[Ian Wolf-Park]

Don't forget to make your picks for the Staff Tournament. Most of the crew returns, with a couple of new players and a couple of redraws (Jade and Scrappy, by the looks of it)

[doctortomoe]

I would love to get a Haunted Woods pin.

[Kat]

I still want to get a Meridell pin but with my worst enemy always being shipping, I have to buy something else from the shop to justify the shipping fee, and I'm hanging on to my extra money to see how many of the NC items from the Altadorian Coastal Gala (the NC tie-in) I will want to get.

[doctortomoe]

Man, not being able to control the goalie and with stealing next to impossible now pretty much means if the opposing team gets the ball, or gets their easy steal, it pretty much means they're going to score a goal.

[Ian Wolf-Park]

Jun 8, 2021 22:52:36 GMT -5 Duke Pikachu said:

I have a bit of stuff going on in real life that I'm unsure if I can play to the fullest each day, but I'll keep trying to do my part for Meridell.

I'm Rank 5 right now, here are my stats: www.neopets.com/altador/colosseum/2021/trophy.phtml?username=pikachu315111

Now having played a lot more of each game I also have a lot more to say about them, so probably will do that sometime over the weekend. If you want the tl;dr version of what my thoughts are, well wait no longer: They should have either waited next year or contracted out the games. 

I think they did contract out all of the Flash games to some third party companies/developers, if I remember correctly reading somewhere. Not sure if the Cup games were also contracted out, but it's likely

EDIT: I don't think I'll be able to rank at all for this Cup, given how the side games are slow as molasses. I have yet to play Yooyuball as it is the only I haven't been able to load at all.

[Patjade]

Jun 11, 2021 19:01:00 GMT -5 Ian Wolf-Park said:

EDIT: I don't think I'll be able to rank at all for this Cup, given how the side games are slow as molasses. I have yet to play Yooyuball as it is the only I haven't been able to load at all.

I have been able to load YYB by switching to the Opera browser (I use a Mozilla browser usually, but it refuses to load). You also have to pick the YYB icon in the group below as the main one doesn't do anything.

So I log into the Opera browser, play YYB, then switch back to my regular browser when I'm done.

[Duke Pikachu]

Rabbit ♠ I blame you for this:

SPOILER: Click to show

JK 

So yeah, I caved and got some of Geekify's Neo Merch. I got a Team Meridell Pin and a Thieves Guild Patch:


Back of the cardboard that pin was attached to... and already I spotted one mistake: Altador was asleep for 1,000 years, not 100. 


Here's the back of the patch, does it fair better? Hm, I think it could be worded better:
* Not sure if that comma after "unknown" was needed.
* Second paragraph could lose a "power" or two. Instead of "factions of power in Neopia" I think "secret organizations from around Neopia" sound better.
* I think it should be "seek" and not "seeks". Could be wrong though.
* The Sway's reason could be clarified better. All the factions are fighting for the Obelisk's power. I think they could have summed up the Sway's as "The Sway seek to control the world order".