Team Meridell

Team Meridell's line up in 2014 - from left, Fiorina, Ethel Boortz, Yoris Obbles, "Wizard" Windelle, Ilsa Ellits.

Meridell's Yooyuball team is all about "speed", and is said to be described with that one word. Their superior conditioning allows them to wear down opponents with a relentless flurry of cuts and screens from the opening face-off until the end of a game. Their speed, however, masks the fact they aren't the most accurate or powerful shooters.

They began the 2006 tournament as one of the odds-on favourites to win, having run circles around Maraqua in the first round, but "smashed their head on into a brick wall" when they faced Darigan's defence in Round Two, finishing 17th. In 2007 Meridell fans hoped the replacement of reviled Left Forward Vitri Sitol with swift scorer Gregorgio Maille will not only give the team a much needed offensive boost, but also help improve their standing among fans around Neopia.

When the team in fact did worse, the demanding fans wanted more change, so Sir Pollonaire Freidl was replaced by Yoris Obbles. This was just the boost they needed, finishing 5th overall in 2008. Needless to say expectations were high for Team Meridell in Altador Cup V, but they were a disappointment, finishing 11th overall. Although in 2010, they fought with Roo Island for the final spot in the finals, but just fell short, entering the playoffs in 5th place, and leaving in 8th.

Altador Cup VI was very similar for the Meridell team. Again, they fell just short of first tier to end the round-robin in 5th. However, they managed to defeat both Terror Mountain and Tyrannia to secure 5th place, the best they've done since Altador Cup III.

As a team hungry for victory, this team was a favorite to win going into Altador Cup VII. However, with the new format of gameplay, it was debatable as they have gone without a roster change for the 4th straight year. However, their strength was hardly matched, especially in the second and fourth rounds, where 5 out of the 6 matches were sweeps. Hardly any teams were able to counter the Meridellian's strengths in Yooyuball, with only Kiko Lake, Kreludor, Mystery Island, and Brightvale avoiding a defeat in that event. However, they lacked a same power as Kreludor and fell in a tiebreaker match against Mystery Island for 2nd, which they lost, placing them in 3rd.

In Altador Cup VIII they kind of fell back from their great position. They became 6th. Still with pride and glory.

Meridell got hit by bad luck in Altador Cup IX. Besides from that their play wasn't as fierce as the previous years. But they were entirely eclipsed by top tier teams. Becoming third, fourth, third and fifth in their brackets of respectively round 1, 2, 3 and 5. The only luck they had was when they avoided the top teams in round 4 so that they could grab a few extra points to avoid ending out of the top 10. Meridell eventually became 9th.

Meridell continued to struggle to return to the podium after Altador Cup X featured a continued struggle for Meridell to make a name for itself, especially due to their unfortunate pairing. Having consistently been beaten repeatedly by the tourney's top four teams, Meridell's team had to fight hard to get anywhere, and ultimately they could only make marginal progress as they stepped up a single position, to 8th place. Things continued to look grim for Meridell's chances at the cup.

But a vast improvement in Altador Cup XI, along with a little bit of luck, allowed for Team Meridell to take another swing at the trophy. Having been placed in a nightmarish first bracket, Meridell struggled in the beginning, they managed to improve little by little, and by the last bracket, Meridell had been paired up against teams that they could consistently beat, such as Lost Desert and Shenkuu. Thanks to their stellar performance in the final round, Meridell shot up to 4th, tied with Faerieland. Though not quite a podium finish, hopes for the Meridellians to claim another podium spot have been revitalized.

Roster

Team positions are as follows (Team Captain indicated in bold):

Year	Goalkeeper	Left Defender	Right Defender	Left Forward	Right Forward
2006	Sir Pollonaire Freidl	Ilsa Ellits	Vitri Sitol	"Wizard" Windelle	Fiorina
Year	Goalkeeper	Centre Defender	Left Forward	Centre Forward	Right Forward
2007	Sir Pollonaire Freidl	Ilsa Ellits	Gregorgio Maille	"Wizard" Windelle	Fiorina
2008	Yoris Obbles			"Wizard" Windelle
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013			Ethel Boortz
2014
2015

Final Standings

Year	Result
2006	7th
2007	8th
2008	5th
2009	11th
2010	8th
2011	5th
2012	3rd
2013	6th
2014	9th
2015	8th
2015	4th (tie)

Trivia

• Team Meridell is the first team to have had a change in Team Captains. Following that would be Krawk Island, which kept its former Captain until replacing him in 2011. And following thát was Brightvale, who switched Captain in 2012.