Altador Cup III
Altador Cup 2008 is the third annual Altador Cup Tournament. It is a flash game-centered plot which began on June 12, 2008. The two previous tournaments started earlier in June and the delay in releasing the 2008 Cup caused some confusion on the Neopets boards.
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 hilighted 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 are also returning.
Changes
Sign-ups to the third annual tournament began on the 12th June, however TNT stated the sign-ups release on June 13th new features. Also, they allowed users to chat among themselves about the cup by bringing back the Altador Cup board. Along with these new things, the tournament changed, with Neovision becoming a major part as users can submit their own videos with Altador Cup issues involved.
The game structure has had a major change, with the news detailing certain aspects of how it is fair for each team. On the news page, TNT published a report of how the new structured tournament would work. They said: "The Altador Cup tournament pits 16 teams, representing the lands of Neopia, against each other. Tournament play is "double round robin," which means that each team will play each of the other fifteen competing teams twice.
Each day, your team faces a new opponent, and it is up to you to contribute as much as you can by playing not only Yooyuball, but also Slushie Slinger and Make Some Noise. Your results in each daily match-up, evaluated separately for each of the three games, contribute to your team's overall standing in the tournament. Please remember to help your team win all 3 daily match-ups.
At the conclusion of the double round robin phase, all 16 teams will move on to take part in the four-day finals phase, which will consist of a playoff match-up and a final match-up. Each finals phase match-up lasts for two days. Within each four-team rank grouping (1-4, 5-8, 9-12, 13-16), the highest and lowest ranked teams will play against each other, while the second and third ranked teams will also pair off, with the winners of each match-up then facing off for first place of that group, and the losers facing off for third place of that group.
The four leading teams overall will still be in contention for a place on the Altador Cup winners' pedestal, but now, a fourth place team could sneak to the top on two wins, and emerge victorious!
A major significance to Yooyuball has also changed, with graphics improved. Each user playing for a team can now see which player scores a goal as their name can be seen along with the player actually looking like a Neopet. This was viewed positively among many users, although it is apparent that it is harder to score.
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 changed, 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. 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.