Hope, Progress, Etc

Well, we have already made some progress since I last posted. We now have our old banner back, and AltadorCup.net redirects here. Also, Neon found a site that had almost all of the old posts archived. We have managed to save 190 old posts that were thought to have been lost forever. Of course right now they’re just text, so I have to go through all of them and check to see if some of them require HTML, and they all have to be tagged/categorized so it may be a little while before they’re all put back up.

We’re baaaaack [cue creepy music]

You thought you could get rid of us that easily?? Please, we’re here to stay Yes, unfortunately we had some difficulties with our shady hosting site. Basically our hosting provider accidentally deleted our data, and therefore all posts that were made on AltadorCup.net are basically gone. This means we lost all of the Altador Cup IV stuff, the forums, all the data/stats that were made, etc. While this is a huge setback, I’m confident that we will be able to move forward and elevate the “Altador Cup Blog” to the status it deserves. Over the next few weeks and months I will be putting up new posts, tidying up the place, and try to bring back all the Altador Cup writers. This may be a slow process, so I appreciate all of your patience.

Also, it’s unlikely that the Altador Cup forum will be back any time soon, but I will try to work on bringing a comment box to the sidebar. Until then, you can use the comments to chat.

At the current time my first order of business will by trying to get altadorcup.net to redirect to this site. When the Altador Cup 5 rolls around, I may decide to get a new hosting account and put everything up on AC.net, but for right now I’ll stick with having WordPress as a host. They’ve never let me down

AltadorCup.net Exclusivo: TPOSG gone?

As many of you probably already know, the founders of neopets (Adam and Donna) no longer work for neopets. They have recently started up a new MMO of their own called Twin Skies. But it appears more (former) neopets employers have signed on to the Twin Skies team. It appears The Phantom Orange Shirt Guy is now a former employer of neopets, and is now a current employer for Twin Skies. TPOSG is known for putting a hidden image of himself on many games he created on neopets. Well, it seems he has done the same over at Twin Skies. In the mini-game Witchery 101 you can see TPOSG zooming by if you click on the hamster’s right eye. Here’s a screen shot:

After doing a little more digging it appears you can find TPOSG in the Meteor Cam (equivalent of Neocam) archive. Here he is working for Adam and Donna:

And to erase any doubt, the heading of the picture is ‘TPOSG’. But the question is: When did TPOSG leave, and will it have an impact on the Altador Cup IV? TPOSG was clearly around during the most recent Altador Cup, as you can see him by clicking on the Techo’s eye at the end of playing yooyuball (screenie below):

Also, it’s not the same image used in previous Altador Cups, because in the first two versions of the Altador Cup, TPOSG didn’t have a tattoo, and in this version he does. But then again, who knows when he made the new version of yooyuball in December. But it’s more likely that TPOSG’s departure from Neopets is very recent. It’s also interesting to note that TNT still claims that TPOSG still works there. Of course they also claim that Adam and Donna work there, which is clearly untrue (they left back in 2005). Here’s a screenie of the “Who Works Here” page:

And how will this affect next year’s Altador Cup? The Phantom Orange Shirt Guy was the one who created Yooyuball. Will next year’s Yooyuball have a different style to it? Or is it possible that TNT won’t bother to make any changes to yooyuball for the Altador Cup IV?

Follow up:
It appears TPOSG was there for Neopet’s 9th birthday as evident in this neocam screen shot:

In addition, “Evilzug”, who is a former neopets employee also appears to be hanging around the Twin Skies scene. I spotted him on the forums, but it is unclear weather or not he works there.

The preceding has been an AltadorCup.net exclusivo!

Breaking down the prizes…. and the future of this site.

The Prizes: Many people like to wait a few days before deciding which prizes to chose. This allows for the prices to settle and see which prize is the most worth getting. The prize that should be purchased is the one that has the best plot points to neopoint ratio. For example, is Item A is 50 plot points and is worth 10,000 neopoints, and Item B is 100 plot points and is worth 15,000 neopoints, then the better buy would be the Item A as you can get 2 of them worth a total of 20k, as opposed to getting one of item B which is only worth 15k. Here is a “complete” list of all the prizes and their respective ratios (noting that prices are approximate and can fluctuate):

Fire Yooyu:
Value: 680,000
PP (Plot Points) to NP (Neopoints) ratio: 68

Noise-Making Practice Manual:
Value: 300,000
PP to NP ratio: 50

Krell Vitor Toy
Value: 100,000
PP to NP ratio: 33.3

Experts Guide to Slushie Slinging Book
Value: 100,000
PP to NP ratio: 40

Faerie Yooyu Plushie
Value: 40,000
PP to NP ratio: 23.5

Slushie Slinger Plushie
Value: 16,000
PP to NP ratio: 16

Vintage Darigan Altador Cup Jersey
Value: 9,500
NP to PP ratio: 19

Vintage Haunted Woods Altador Cup Jersey
Value: 4,750
PP to NP ratio: 19

Slushies and Flying Discs vary by team, but in general the more less-popular teams (like Virtupets/Tyrannia) go for more than the more popular teams (such as Krawk Island).

To infinite and beyond:
I would first off like to thank Jellyneo for being gracious hosts and letting me do my own thing. If you would like to help Jellyneo out with their hosting bills, you can donate here.

Over the next few days/weeks/months the Altador Cup Blog will be going through a transition where we will be transferring to AltadorCup.net. However, it is my intention that it will be expanded into more than just a blog reporting the events of the Altador Cup, but rather an Altador Cup portal containing everything Altador Cup related (Altador Cup history, player information, etc, etc). Of course I will also be doing a daily update recapping the events of the day during the Altador Cup. However, I intend on expanding this portion where there will be multiple reporters… not just me. Every “reporter” will have their own page (possibly a sub-domain) to give even more Altador Cup coverage. “Reporters” would be under no obligation to update every day, but would rather have the opportunity to share their thoughts on Altador Events whenever they please. If you are interested in become an Altador Cup Reporter for the Altador Cup IV, shoot me an e-mail. Of course you don’t have to e-mail right away as the Altador Cup IV is quite a ways a way. Furthermore, if anybody is a talented artist/code, please shoot me an e-mail as you may be able to assist me with setting up the site.

Stay tuned.

Scrounging up my predictions (as promised)

Well, this is the fun part where you, the visitor, get to laugh at me for not predicting everything perfectly. At the beginning of the year I made some predictions on the outcome of this year’s Cup. You can see the post in full by clicking here.
Well, it looks like I didn’t really do that terrible with my predictions. I was correct in saying that Roo Island had the best chance at winning and that both Roo Island and Krawk Island would be in the top 2. Below is what I predicted, and what actually happened.
* Roo Island: Predicted: 1st – 2nd. Actual: 1st
* Krawk Island: Predicted 1st – 2nd. Actual: 2nd
* Shenkuu: Predicted: 3rd. Actual: 4th
* Mystery Island: Predicted: 4th. Actual: 9th
* Darigan: Predicted: 5th. Actual: 7th
* Lost Desert: Predicted: 5th – 6th. Actual: 3rd
* Haunted Woods: Predicted: 7th – 8th. Actual: 8th
* Kreludor: Predicted: 7th – 8th. Actual: 6th
* Maraqua: Predicted: 9th. Actual: 10th
* Meridell: Predicted: 10th. Actual: 5th
* Terror Mountain: Predicted: 11th. Actual: 12th
* Brightvale: Predicted: 12th. Actual: 16th
* Virtupets: Predicted: 13th-14th. Actual: 14th
* Tyrannia: Predicted: 13th-14th. Actual: 11th
* Altador: Predicted: 15th. Actual: 13th
* Faerieland: Predicted: 16th. Actual: 15th

Well, it looks like the one that is most noticeably off is me predicting 10th for Meridell, when they were actually able to finish in 5th place. Lost Desert also exceeded my expectations. Many people had them higher than I predicted, and I got that one wrong. One thing I was right about, was Maraqua’s “less-than-stellar” performance. I took a lot of heat for predicting them to come in 9th, but they actually did one worse. Here are some quotes from the comments:

MI doesn’t have the strength to get to top 4.

- Ghosteh
This seemed to be a common theme, and they turned out to be quite right. But I doubt hardly anybody thought they’d come in 9th.

Maraqua – 9th? Not happening!

- Francineh

WHy is Maraqua so low?

- Maraqua 4Ever

DC is too low, they still have a great fanbase, I predict they’ll be back in the Top 4.
Lost Desert 5th-6th is questionable, but there’s a lot of talent in the Top 6 this year, so it’s a tough pick.
Maraqua 9th. Maraqua has a lot more support this year, I think they’ll gain a few spots. 6th or 7th, maybe.
The Kreludor pick is weird to me. I think they’ll have a strong year, but not that high. 10th, maybe.
And Virtupets. How’d they get all the way up to #12

- samschelfhout2

I think LD will place higher.

- eniment

I think that Kreludor is a little high

- Carly

A lot of people seemed to think I had Kreludor too high… it turned out I had them too low.

oh and Tyrannia should probably be two spaces up

- Rascle
Spot on there Rascle!

I believe that Darigan Citadel still has a big chance of winning in this year’s Altador Cup.

- Jerome

I still think Darigan may not be as bad as haunted woods…

- Briny

I think it will be DC and KI for first or second.

- Steven

I hate the fact that nobody has faith in faerieland

- Halea

Why does everyone think Faerieland will be 16th? It’s not fair! >:(

- faeriestarry901

o-O
Alex, you’re so wrong. -_-

- Terry

Alex your so wrong D=

- Kyky

Ew, I completely disagree with these predictions xD

- samschelfhout2

I wouldn’t be surprised at all if 1st place ended up being between Krawk Island and Roo Island.

- Yvonne

The end: Breaking down the winners and losers

Of course the big winner was Roo Island who managed to once again defeat Krawk Island.  Is this the start of a permanent rivalry between the two teams?  Also, there seems to be an interesting pattern forming.  The 2nd place finishers have always gone on to win the next year, and the winners of the tournament have always gone on to place seventh the following year.  Is this bad news for Roo Island next year?  Well… we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.  For now, a big well done to Roo Island for the being the 2008 champions.  Also surprising in the top bracket was Lost Desert taking third place, which means Shenkuu will get the dreaded “participant medal”.  Also, may I ask what the point of playing the lower brackets were?  Even if you win your bracket, what do you get?… nothing.  Just a participant medal like everybody else.

As predicted, Meridell was able to win the second bracket, finishing in 5th place.  Well done to Meridell, but 6th place isn’t too shabby for Kreludor.

Pretty much everything went as expected in the 3rd bracket.

In the bottom bracket, Faerieland can thankfully claim that they are not the worst after beating, one again, Brightvale and advancing into 15th place.  Brightvale is now in the unfortunate position of being in 16th place.  Also, Altador was able to pull a mini-upset over Virtupets, taking the 13th place spot and the win in the bottom bracket.

FLASH: Results are out… and prizes as well.

Perhaps not surprisingly, Roo Island has won the Altador Cup 2008. Well done to all the Roo Islanders out there. This is the third time they’ve defeated Krawk Island.  A full analysis on the entire results later tonight.

Also, the prize shop is now open, which is a big surprise. But should TNT have waited so they could give out some more quality items? The prizes are not very good this year. There is no Battle Dome weapons, no stamps, and no paint brush (they could’ve given out a Rainbow paint brush). There’s not even an item that recognizes the fact that Roo Island won the darn thing. Not to mention, there’s no expensive item out there. The top item is just a yooyu, which is only 10,000 prize points. If you got 1,000 wins (only half way to all star) you could probably afford this. Seriously, what was TNT thinking? Definitely the worst prizes in the history of the Altador Cup. There is currently an activist movement going on to get TNT to add better prizes by sending in a complaint to the NT. If you would like to write to the Neopian Times about the prizes, you can submit your request by clicking here. But it’s unlikely TNT will do anything.

Prizes today? Don’t bet your life savings.

TNT stated this at the beginning of the tournament (in the rules section):

If you participate in Altador Cup in any way, you will receive points that you can exchange for prizes in the Prize Shop, which opens at the end of the tournament on July 21st. Of course, the more you participate, the more points you’ll earn.

But how likely is it for prizes to come out today? TNT is notoriously known for being late and missing deadlines when it comes to prizes. During the first Altador Cup TNT said, “Prizes will be out early next week”. Well… the next week rolled by and they posted in the news, “And to keep you updated on prizes, we’re still calculating everyone’s individual scores and will hopefully be ready to hand out prizes early next week.” They once again said prizes would be out early next week. Well… early next week passed again and still no prizes or news from TNT. Finally prizes came out at the end of the week, over two weeks later than when they originally said they’d come out. TNT also frequently makes statement like, “Prizes will be out soon”, and then two months later the prize shop opens. And never before have prizes come out the day after the plot. It was several months before the plot prizes came out for the Lost Desert plot. Then again, I don’t recall TNT ever givng an exact date for prizes coming out. Maybe TNT was actually smart and made all the prizes ahead of time… but then why have we only found one unreleased prize in all this time? Bottom line: Prizes could come out today… but I wouldn’t count on it.

By the way, this is the unreleased prize that was found:

It was actually found over a month ago before the Altador Cup even started.

TIME

It is officially past 12:00:00, and no more scores can be sent. TNT has not yet released the results, but we will be anxiously awaiting them. Congratulations to everybody ahead of time on their personal numbers, and feel free to post your stats in the comments

Also, keep in mind that TNT may hold on to the results for a little while to build up suspense. Or it’s possible that it’ll be up any moment. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Edit:Who Will Win?! ~Artorius was here

Edit: It looks like they’ll drag this out. TNT may wait until they release the news to give out the results.  And did anybody else notice the feature game?  Here’s what it looks like:

Round 2 of the finals: Down the final stretch!

Before getting into the results and the match-ups, it should be noted first that Slushie Slinger and Make Some Noise are absolutely useless. Do not play Make Some Noise OR Slushie Slinger during the finals as it will not help your team one bit. If you win yooyuball, you advance. There are no ties in the finals, and you really have to question why TNT is even leaving the mini-games up there. If you recall, the previous year the mini-games were unplayable during the finals since they didn’t serve a purpose.

Recap of Round 1:
Going by seeding, there were no upsets in the first round of play, with the exception of Maraqua who defeated Tyrannia. However, seeing as it’s the finals, it wasn’t much of an upset since Maraqua had historically done better in yooyuball. Of course Tyrannia won Slushie Slinger in their match, but it doesn’t really make any difference. Krawk Island can now breathe a big sigh of relief after being able to put on a nice show against Shenkuu. Roo Island was also able to coast by Lost Desert, so now there’s only two teams that can win it all: Krawk Island and Roo Island. Looking into the second bracket we can see that the highest position the former champs can place is 7th place. It’d be pretty interesting if they finished in 7th place as that’s the exact position Haunted Woods placed the year after they won the championship.

Down the Stretch:
This is it. The big one is about to take place. I’m talking of course about the big finale’ between Roo Island and Krawk Island. The winner will take home a shiny gold trophy, and earn bragging rights for a year. Despite what the seeding may indicate, Roo Island is the favorite in this game if you look at the history of these two teams. Both times they’ve faced each other, Krawk Island has lost. Will the third time be a charm? We’ll have to see, but ones thing’s for certain; Both teams will be working at full capacity and the better team will end up winning.

Lost Desert and Shenkuu will be heads up to get 3rd place. Somehow playing for 1st and playing for 3rd is completely different. I’m sure you’ll have some players on both teams who will just give up since first place is now out of sight. The last time these teams faced off, Shenkuu got a win in yooyuball*. Of course the first time they faced each other, it was Lost Desert who got the win*, but that was before the team had improved. I think once again the lower seed is the favorite to win, but it’ll still be close.
*Note: I’m pretty sure that’s accurate, but for some reason TNT won’t let you look at previous results.

I’ve touched on earlier how Meridell could potentially win their bracket. They are now in good position to do so, but have to get by Kreludor first. In the lower portion of the bracket, Haunted Woods will take on the defending champions. The game is really winnable by either team, but if Darigan ends up taking 7th, it’ll send an interesting precedence for how teams perform after winning the championship.

In the third bracket, Mystery Island is the clear favorite to defeat Maraqua and take 9th place. However, if Mystery Island completely gives up and Maraqua plays to their full potential, this could very easily end up being an upset. In the lower half of the bracket, Tyrannia will face Terror Mountain. Despite the fact that Tyrannia specializes in Slushie Slinger, they still have a better Yooyuball track record. And going by memory I believe Tyrannia swept Terror Mountain the last time they faced off.

Looking at the bottom bracket, Virtupets is now the clear favorite to come in 13th place. The real match will be for who gets last. Or rather; Who won’t come in last place? Nobody wants the dishonor of getting last place, and Faerieland certainly doesn’t want to come in last place twice. So far no team has come in last place two times, and I don’t expect it to happen this year either. Faerieland, despite not being able to do much this season, was able to pull of two win in yooyuball against Brightvale. Once again, the lower seed is the apparent favorite in this match.

It’s also (un)important to note that I predicted the last match-ups 100% correctly.