The Altador Cup has become a farce; all-star groups and automatic score-senders have fixed the cup, and TNT is too stubborn to admit the bracket system is the worst sport schedule system to have ever existed. However, staff and customers alike realise how important the Altador Cup is to Neopets as a business – For some customers, it is the only thing that keeps them returning each year, giving Neopets more revenue from advertisements and the possibility of more NC shop sales. However, nobody wants to compete in a fixed competition. Without some drastic changes, the cup is as good as dead. So without any further ado, five ways the Altador Cup can hopefully be salvaged.
1. Allocate more resources to the Cup.
TNT has a small team to work on the Altador Cup each year, but has it is right now the team seems to be extremely lazy. The infamous belittling editorial implied that TNT only bothers about the cup “when it approaches”, meaning probably the month-and-a-half before the cup begins – When we see spoilers of whatever small roster changes. Of course, an event as important as this should have more time and resources allocated to it than just the two months before it – Especially with the state it is in now. Time should be used to test any future scoring and scheduling solutions, rather than using the public as a guinea pig. Resources should also be allocated to art and other content, which will be explained below.
2. Overhaul Roster and Art.
In the first few years, we had massive roster changes, however since Altador Cup IV, we’ve said good-bye to “Dasher” Soley, Bertie Shurtz, Babolino, Gregorio Maille, Dorina Hals and Wan Dirx. That’s only six players, and of those six, only four were replaced by new characters, the remaining were from “team trades”, meaning no new art needed to be created, apart from an outfit update. The team transfer of Lamelle Turow from Lost Desert to Maraqua was met with anger from both sides of the story, not only was Maraquan fan favourite, Dorina Hals replaced by Lost Desert fans’ least favourite member, Turow was replaced by yet another Kiko – The easiest Neopet to draw, and the only thing needed on the game of the LD team was the change the colour of the kiko. This is just pure laziness.

These kikos look suspiciously familiar…
Furthermore, Kiko Lake’s four kikos have exactly the same scoring sprites, apart from changes to match their colours, and how did they replace Kiko Lake’s original Peophin, fan favourite Helmo Timm? Recoloured her artwork to be purple, rather than using Erli Quinnock’s already present artwork for Brightvale – This here is the definition of pure laziness.

From left to right: Brightvale Erli, Timm recolour Erli, Helmo Timm
The sprites from this year’s new comer Crade Talvos, the updated Derlyn Fonnet sprite and the trades of Coco Metrone and Ealyn “Hunkshanks” Hawkshanks do not run as they are supposed to. In addition, Metrone and Hunkshanks display their former team colours when running towards or away from the player.
Team Kiko Lake is in desperate need of an update, and along with other teams, such as Brightvale, Virtupets and Darigan Citadel.
The team rosters are becoming stale and predictable, sometimes aesthetic differences like roster change ups and art improvement make all the difference, and shows that this is an event that TNT actually cares about – like it used to.
PS. Please don’t ever show Derlyn Fonnet smiling ever again.

OH GOD, IT BURNS!
Changing up the games.
Yooyuball, Slushie Slinger, Make Some Noise, Shootout Showdown – For years, these have been the games of the Altador Cup. And of those games, only Yooyuball, the main game, has received any type of shake up. We can see by the daily scores, no human outside of Tyrannia wants to play the carpel-tunning inducing, keyboard breaking, button mashing Make Some Noise, or tedious and time-consuming Tapper rip-off, Slushie Slinger to earn a fraction of the points Yooyuball can give, in triple-to-ten times the amount of time you can earn the same amount of points in Shootout Showdown. These games need to be done away with and replaced or completely overhauled to make them new and exciting. What can they be replaced by? Well, we’ll have to let TNT’s imagination run wild at the possibilities.

Let’s get this guy in on the action too.
Eliminate Bracket System
The bracket system is perhaps the single most epic failure in the history of Neopets – and the fact that they refuse to change it, and disparaged the public’s response to it is testament to the poor customer service Neopets is renowned for. Winning and losing doesn’t matter with brackets, causing confusion and vast amounts of anger. And I cannot stress enough that if this cumulative bracket system were implemented in any real sports, there would be huge riots. We need to change the format immediately.

Just “The in thing to hate on”, really now?
We could return to the double round robin, plus finals. The problem there is how long it will take, and the reason why we have the awful system we have now, plus there’s a bigger problem, which we’ll deal with later.
We could have an elimination style schedule, but that will leave many players unable to support their team.
Or, we could go to a single round robin system, plus finals – 17 days, plus 4 days of finals makes an even 21 days. Add in break days once a week, plus in between the end of the SRR, and first half of finals, and that creates an extra five days to create 26 days. Add in two extra teams (The MUCH requested Lutari Island and Neopia Central teams for example) will not only add some much needed freshness to the stale teams, but it also makes an even 28 days (or four weeks) of play – Enough to coincide with any four-week NC mall event TNT has planned.
Alternate finals systems could be in place too, to bring freshness to the finals system, such as the finals system that the Australian Football League (AFL) uses, giving even 8th place a shot at the title. The possibilities for better scheduling are endless, and all possibilities are better than the current bracket system.
Eliminate All-Star Groups and Automatic Score Senders

“We at Neopets support the use of bots.”
By far the major issue in any scheduling changes, game changes or anything cup related really is the influence of All-Star Groups and Automatic Score-Senders have. As soon as it is revealed who goes where, the fate of the cup is determined. How can we combat this?
We could take TNT’s current approach – Hunt down and freeze anyone who raises flags, be they legitimate and hard working, or illegitimate – But this is all futile, as cheaters have many different accounts, and can always make new ones when they get frozen.
We could close sign ups after the cup begins, but what happens to the dedicated players who may have been a little late due to real life situations, like school or work?
We could randomise sign ups, but that will infuriate many of those who are loyal to their teams.
What needs to be done is to actively work on fixing flaws in the system that the ASSs are exploiting by constant updating.
My personal idea is the “World Challenge” model – Only the first 3 games of the day count towards high score and Neopets in World Challenge, and any remaining go towards challenges. Similarly, only the first three games could go towards team count, and any remaining go towards personal score and prize points – TNT has the technology to make it happen, and with some tweaks and testing, it could certainly work for Altador Cup (Of course, it would have to be in secret). This would level the playing field regardless of how much or little one plays, and theoretically renders both ASGs and ASS groups ineffective.
The Cup is in need of a drastic overhaul, and if changes are not implemented next year, it is game over for Neopets’ biggest event.
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