Altador Cup III
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- This article is about the plot details of the Altador Cup in 2008. For information about Yooyuball, see Altador Cup. For the plot details of 2006 and 2007, see Altador Cup I and Altador Cup II respectively.
Altador Cup III is the third annual Altador Cup Tournament. It is a flash game-centered plot which began on June 12, 2008.
News
In the New Features for June 7th/8th, The Neopets Team released information regarding the beginning of the upcoming tournament. The words "la, la, la... oh do you want to know about the Altador Cup?" were used to link players to an advertisement for the upcoming event. Appearing in the advertisement were the infamous blaring crowd, as well as four highlighted fans, a Usul, Aisha, Yurble and Skeith who were cheering and shouting. At the end, a fire Yooyu flew through the trailer and the date 06.12.08 was displayed.
Althought TNT hadn't confirmed anything else but the starting date of the Cup, the staff of the Neopets help site Jellyneo found evidence that the Kiko Lake team would not be participating in the 2008 tournament. They discovered an image of the updated chatboard logo, which shows the colors of the teams participating. The Kiko Lake colours of brown, green and black were missing, replaced with the orange and purple colours of the Kreludor Team. This was true, as Kreludor returned. Make Some Noise, along with Slushie Slinger also returned.
From looking at the outcome of the Altador Cup so far, it is said that Yooyu Ball is worth more than both Slushie Slinger and Make Some Noise; one example being Faerieland losing to Virtupets in the finals although they won in Slushie Slinger and Make Some Noise.
Plot summary
To earlier reports, it has now been confirmed by the Committee that Kiko Lake are not participating in the third annual tournament. The Committee, three high-ranking Neopets who make every decision in the interest of the game sent out a press release stating: "Now that every other team has arrived at the Altador Colosseum and the pre-tournament practice sessions are well underway, the big question on everyone's mind is: where is Kiko Lake?!?
No one has seen or heard anything from them, and after initially extending the 9th Day of Relaxing mandatory arrival date an additional 48 hours, the Altador Cup Committee has declared that they will not be able to let Kiko Lake participate in the tournament. The committee has, however, set up an investigation into the team's whereabouts and sent out a search party to try and track them down.
When asked to comment on Kiko Lake's exclusion from the tournament, a committee member said, "There's far too much happening for us to simply hold an open place for them. For example, a schedule of pre-tournament training matches has been put together for the Colosseum. Including Kiko Lake on that schedule could create a situation whereby, if they fail to show up, their opponents will unfairly wind up with less practice matches than the other teams."
"Additionally, waiting for Kiko Lake has required us to hold up ticket sales, since you can imagine what a nightmare it would be to have to give refunds to all those Kiko Lake fans who bought tickets to see a team that failed to arrive. It's quite a shame, since we were really looking forward to having the largest field in the tournament's history. Alas, I'm afraid it was not meant to be..."
Major changes also include the team rosters. New professional players have been introduced to the game. Altador made no changes, which was seen as "baffling" due to their mediocre performances. Brightvale made one change, they introduced goalkeeper Erli Quinnock, a purple Peophin. Erstwhile goalkeeper, Orie Dinelle was fired due to her "inconsistent play". Darigan returned with no changes, thinking that they will achieve their second win with the same level of talent. Faerieland signed Ciona Broan, a faerie Kyrii, hoping it would be the "spark" which they need to get them going. Haunted Woods, like Darigan and Altador, didn't change their roster, as Krell Vitor stated that "there's no reason we shouldn't bounce back now that the spotlight is off us." Returning after a year of absence, Kreludor changed their roster significantly to try and get to the finals, ditching goalkeeper Xila Kitae, and introducing Jurin T, a red Ruki. They also signed Ogrin Coco Metrone, right defender and described as "fleet-footed". Krawk Island made no changes to their roster. However, they did state that after many goals that Garven Hale has faced, his skills may decline. Last year's third place team Shenkuu signed Antola Maeir, a Zafara. They un-signed Turo Rafels, hoping that Maeir's addition to the team could keep them in the top three. The "dune dwellers" of the competition, team Lost Desert exchanged "Dirty" Navers for Lamelle Turow, a Kiko, making Navers the first ever team captain to simply vanish from the cup. Maraqua signed Dorina Hals, an Aisha to try and create better scoring opportunities for other players. Meridellians will be pleased to know that the signing of Yoris Obbles could be a great addition to the Meridell team, although many have stated he will give an "unspectacular" performance. Mystery Island signed new goalkeeper Lor Benneveldt, a Flotsam in order to "consistently give up less goals than they get". Roo Island ceased to make any changes due to their performance last year, as they have "established themselves among the tournament elite". Terror Mountain signed their "fan favourite" Elbin Kroe, a Shoyru after his "aggressive and all-out style". Tyrannia have had endless calls for the roster to be switched, yet their managers have decided against it, a risk which may not pay off. Virtupets have received "lavish praise" for signing Goltron Mk I after their mediocrity with the previous tournaments.
Following up on last week's big story, a messenger from Kiko Lake has arrived in Altador bearing news of the team's fate. According to the courier, Kiko Lake's team was trapped by a rockslide that occurred while they were on their way to the tournament. It seems that, when the boulders started raining down on them, the players rushed to safety in a nearby cave. At some point during the disaster, however, the cave's entrance became blocked by boulders, which weren't cleared away until days later by a team of rescue workers.
Thankfully, the players avoided suffering anything more serious than a couple of scrapes and bruises. However, their time in the less-than-ideal conditions not only left them starving and weakened, but also cost Kiko Lake their chance at participating in this year's tournament. "We'll just have to regroup and give it another shot next year," team captain "Poke" Cellars said. "In the meantime, though, we might want to look into finding another route to Altador, preferably something a little less dangerous."
To the delight of Yooyuball fans across Neopia, the Altador Cup Committee has announced a change to this year's format. Unlike previous years, where the top two teams squared off to determine the tournament champion (and the next two squads fought it out for third place), a seeding process has been put in place so that all four finalists now have a shot at winning the title. Under this new structure, the first and fourth place teams will play for two days to determine one finalist, while the winner between the second and third place squads settles the other. Then, the finalists will face off for another two days to determine the tournament championship.
Rather than just sticking to the finals, though, this new format will also be in play for the rest of the tournament's participants. Teams five through eight, nine through twelve, and thirteen through sixteen will now be seeded within their own brackets. "Under the old system," one committee member stated, "once the double round-robin ended, supporters were faced with a choice: they could either jump ship and choose one of the finalists to root for, or stay loyal to their team and go home. Doing things this way will now enable loyal fans to stick by their squad to the very end."
Plot participation
The gameplay is similar to Altador Cup II, where players choose and contribute points to their selected team. Players are not allowed to change their team after the registration period.
Altador Cup III still uses the "double round robin" tournament play, introduced in Altador Cup II. Each team will play with the other fifteen teams twice, after which all teams will take part in the four days finals phase. The finals consist of a playoff match-up and a final match-up, each lasts for two days. The 16 teams will split into four groups according to their ranking. In the playoff match-up, the highest and lowest ranked teams for each group will play against each other, while the second and third ranked teams for each group play against each other. The two winning teams of each group will play against each other for the first place within their group, while the two losing teams fight for the third place.
Players can contribute points to their team by scoring goals in Yooyuball, and also by playing Slushie Slinger and Make Some Noise. The results for all three games will be evaluated separately and contribute to the player's team overall standing in the tournament.
Other than playing for their teams, players can submit their own videos on how their Neopets get ready for Altador Cup.
Following up on last week's big story, a messenger from Kiko Lake has arrived in Altador bearing news of the team's fate. According to the courier, Kiko Lake's team was trapped by a rockslide that occurred while they were on their way to the tournament. It seems that, when the boulders started raining down on them, the players rushed to safety in a nearby cave. At some point during the disaster, however, the cave's entrance became blocked by boulders, which weren't cleared away until days later by a team of rescue workers.
Thankfully, the players avoided suffering anything more serious than a couple of scrapes and bruises. However, their time in the less-than-ideal conditions not only left them starving and weakened, but also cost Kiko Lake their chance at participating in this year's tournament. "We'll just have to regroup and give it another shot next year," team captain "Poke" Cellars said. "In the meantime, though, we might want to look into finding another route to Altador, preferably something a little less dangerous." This was released in 20th June.
To the delight of Yooyuball fans across Neopia, the Altador Cup Committee has announced a change to this year's format. Unlike previous years, where the top two teams squared off to determine the tournament champion (and the next two squads fought it out for third place), a seeding process has been put in place so that all four finalists now have a shot at winning the title. Under this new structure, the first and fourth place teams will play for two days to determine one finalist, while the winner between the second and third place squads settles the other. Then, the finalists will face off for another two days to determine the tournament championship.
Rather than just sticking to the finals, though, this new format will also be in play for the rest of the tournament's participants. Teams five through eight, nine through twelve, and thirteen through sixteen will now be seeded within their own brackets. "Under the old system," one committee member stated, "once the double round-robin ended, supporters were faced with a choice: they could either jump ship and choose one of the finalists to root for, or stay loyal to their team and go home. Doing things this way will now enable loyal fans to stick by their squad to the very end." This was realeased in 18th June.
Neovision Altador Cup III Contest: "Ready for Fun"
Players can submit a video on how their Neopets get ready for the Altador Cup. The video must be 30 seconds to 2 minutes long before the credits start, and the credits should not be longer than the actual video. All the other Neovision rules still applies.
The top three winner will get a trophy, 20,000 neopoints and an unknown amount of points to spend at the prize shop after Altador Cup ends.
Prizes
After signing up for a team, users automatically reaceived an Altador Cup Background for the team they joined which they could use for Neopet Customisation. Also when a user achieved rank 1, they were given the "Altador Cup Player" avatar. At the end of the cup, when visiting the Prize Shop, users who did not have the Altador Cup Site Theme received it.
The official Prize Shop opened on July 21st, the same day the results were released. Prizes and their price were:
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Trivia
- The Altador Cup for 2008 opened for registration 12 days later than usual, on the 12 June, 2008.
- The graphics within the match is significantly improved, allowing players to recognise each member on both teams.