Neopets Altador Cup is a gaming plot that comes once a year to the world of Neopets and it usually begins in the month of June through the month of July. These months are not exact, though, it depends of the year. It does also usually last for approximately a month, unless there is a tie, etc. Neopets Altador Cup is a sport game that is the most popular on Neopets because it is a tournament where it will depend on the quantity of the played games, and less about the score you make.
Gameplay
The game is based on four different games that you can play to increase the amount of points you get, for the final bonus prize and to increase your rank which are going to be described later.
The first game is Yooyuball, which is the most important one. It is the main game of the who Altador cup plot. Depending on the team you have chosen, you will start the game with a Yooyuball where your main objective will be to make a goal on your opponent’s side by throwing it. Many types of Yooyuballs will be seen in the game. Some of them will be of a great help when it comes to making goals, where others will be bad because of the unpredictable path they will take once thrown. For that reason, you will have to make a unique strategy for every Yooyuball you will receive, as they are randomly given. You will have to know the Yooyuballs you will be playing with, which is why they are described below.
Basic Yooyuball. This Yooyuball is a simple and normal Yooyuball that does not have any effect. It will be always given to you during the first round of the game. That Yooyuball was added to the game through the 2007 Altador Cup.
Fire Yooyuball. The fire Yooyuball is what the describes the word: speed. When you will throw it, it will move very fast in a straight line. Remember that it is a fire ball, though, so you will have to throw it on your opponent’s side to make a goal or to change it between your team mates as you will not be able to hold it for a long period of time.
Snow Yooyuball. The now Yooyuball is the contrary of the Fire Yooyuball. It is very slow when you try to throw it. Even if it also move straight when you will throw it, it is very cold that the players are not able to throw it far enough, so you will have to come up with a strategy to make a successful goal with it. This one will not be thrown away if you hold it for a long period of time like the Fire Yooyuball. So you can take your time there while dodging your opponents.
Faerie Yooyuball. This ball can be really annoying simply because it will start floating through the air and make deviations when you try to throw it most of the time. It will be a hard time for you to make a goal with it or to pass it to your team mates. You will require some practice there, because it is unpredictable.
Mutant Yooyuball. The Mutant Yooyuball is even more unpredictable than the Faerie Yooyuball. It will move, when you throw it, through random ways making, a lot of times, a curve movement. Its speed is also not constant, which means that it will be varying depending of the time you throw it and it will almost never go straight, causing you trouble.
Darigan Yooyuball. Unfortunately, a ball like this one had to be implemented in the game. It will fly in a different direction every time you will throw it. It flies in a specific direction depending of the angle you take and it can be really annoying. This is also the cause of the lost matches of many players.
Clockwork Yooyuball. This Yooyuball will explode within approximately 12 seconds. For that reason, you start with it, your main objective will be to score a goal with it as soon as possible. If it explodes, it will not deduct a goal from you or anything, it will simply waste off a round preventing you to achieve a high number of goals at the end of the game.
You will have to know your game modes to be as successful as possible during the game.
The first one is the Mouse Mode, which is not very recommended because it is a little difficult. It is recommended for people who have a broken keyboard, though, so they can still play the game. You will be able to aim at the player of your choice to make it move. When you successfully select a player, you will then be able to move it to the direction of your choice. You will have to press the left button that is located on your mouse to throw the Yooyuball.
The Keyboard Mode is the second possibility that is offered to you and, at the same time, the best choice because of the ease it brings. You will have to use the left, right, up and down arrow keys located on your keyboard to move and control the players. In order to shoot and throw away the ball, you will have to press the space bar.
Teams
The teams that are available during the Altador Cup are, in alphabetical order, Altador, Brightvale, Darigan Citale, Faerieland, Haunted Woods, Jelly World, Kiko Lake, Krawk Island, Kreludor, Lost Desert, Maraqua, Meridell and Moltara. Depending of the year the Altador Cup takes / took place these teams will not always participate all the years. Sometimes they will not and in the past, some of them have never participated until a recent year.
In Altador Cup 2009, Brightvale has not participated in the Altador Cup plot. Jelly World has never played the plot. Kiko lake has not played during the 2008 Altador Cup plot and Kreludor wasn’t there in the plot that took place in 2007. Moltara has recently joined the game, which means from 2010 to this day.
Important Information
When the Altador Cup is about to start, you will not be directly given the choice to choose your team and play. So that everyone knows the Altador Cup is about to start, the teams will be shown in grey and every day, at least two of them will be released. Approximately ten days later, you will be given the opportunity to pick the team of your choice. After some time, the plot will begin and it will be the race to the highest rank and points.
There is a total of 21 ranks during the game, which will start from level 0 all the way up to level 20, which is the All-Star rank. The ranks will be shown as gems on a piece of board. During the earlier rank, it will be located on a wooden block. After that, it will be on a bronze shield, silver shield and finally, gold shield. The more you play, the better your rank will be. Note that you will have to spend a lot of time if you’re going after the All-Star rank. Be prepared to play thousands of games.
You will have to collect points to be able to purchase nice items from the prize shop at the end of the plot. The more you play, the more points you will earn and the better the prize you will be able to purchase, unless you decide to purchase a long range of the smaller items. It opens whenever the Altador Cup ends.
Other games (3)
There is a total of three alternative games that you will be able to play to get additional points since there is a cap for the number of times you will be able to play x game.
One of the alternative games is Shootout Showdown. This game was implemented to the Altador Cup in 2009 and it is about making goals with a Yooyuball, against your opponent, which is the Jelly Chia Keeper. After a total of 5 goals, the game will end. You will have 60 seconds to score them all. A perfect score of 1,200 can be obtained if you manage to score five times in a row without letting the Jelly Chia Keeper to block your ball. At first, the game is not easy. Play it at least 10 times and you will be able to score in no times. Usually, people play this game to “farm” their points all the way up to the All-Star rank because it is the easiest, as you will be able to simply score a single goal, end game, send score and repeat. For the two next game, though, there will be a minimum score that you will have to achieve, otherwise the game will not count. Every sent score will give you a total of 1 bonus point.
The second alternative game is Make Some Noise. This game was implemented in the Altador Cup event during the year of 2007. When playing this game, prepare to break your keyboard (not if you go easily). You will have to make the crowd to cheer as loud as it can by pressing very fast the two keys that will be shown to you when you start the game. Let’s say they ask you to press “H” and “I”, you will have to press both of these letters as fast as you can during 30 seconds. When you will be making noise, random keys will pop up for you to press to earn extra points. However, if you stop pressing the keys, your score will go back to zero. The faster you press, the better your score. It is actually hard to get above the 7,000 score on the faster computers because it will require a lot of energy. A minimum score of 3,000 will be required when you send your score so that your game counts towards your total number of played games. If you score less than 3,000 points, not only you will not receive a bonus point to use in the prize shop at the end of the event, but the game will simply not count toward your ranking progress. Every time you will achieve the minimum score, you will be given a total of 1 bonus point.
The third and last alternative game is called Slushie Slinger, which was implemented during the year of 2007. This game comes directly after Yooyuball in terms of points, but it will take you some time for every score you will be sended as the minimum amount of points you can send that are “valid” are 285 and more. There are fans that are impatient to get their slushie so you will have to hurry up by sending it to them. If you send the corresponding slushie of their wish, you will be granted with a total of 5 points. Sending another, for example, if they’re asking for a strawberry smoothie and you send them the blueberry one, you will be granted with a total of 2 points only. The more the game progress, the more in number they will be. Your objective is to send them slushie before they come at the end of the row. At some point, though, during the later game some of them, on few occasions, will even run to the end giving you almost no time to serve them. If you’re looking forward completing the game, you will be able to achieve a score of approximately 700 points. Each score of 285 or more will contribute to 5 bonus points.
Schedules
Considering the recent years, the game divided all the teams into brackets. A total of three brackets were containing the teams. Every day, each team faced another team. Then, the total points that were achieved during Yooyuball, Shootout Showdown, Make Some Noise and Slushie Slinger were calculated and transformed into a number that determined the effort of the team for that specific game. If both of the teams has the same number for a game, it would result in a tie. Less points than the opposite team would result in a loss, and more points, a win. If, for example, Mystery Island played against Roo Island and the first team managed to achieve a score of 4, 5, 5, 6 at the end of the day while Roo Island got 7, 2, 5, 2, the results for Mystery Island would have been: Loss, Win, Draw, Win and Roo Island: Win, Loss, Draw, Loss. Since Mystery Island would have had more points, then it would have won that specific day. Unfortunately, the wins did not matter much. The team that was doing the best, meaning earning the most points was placed at the top of its bracket. Every 6 days, after almost all teams would have fought each other in their specific bracket, there would be a break day and then the teams would be randomly replaced in another bracket. There bracket system was not fair, however, as if a team did not do well when the Altador Cup started, they would have had almost no chance to earn a top place at the end of the plot. Points that determined the position of the teams were awarded with the in-bracket ranking, where the top team got most points, and the lower team, the lowest.
Ties
Ties do not happen often, but when they do, it is between the first, second or third ranked team. If, for example, a team is ranked number 22 and another one has the same rank, no tie will be made. At the end of the plot, if two of these teams that are top ranked have the same amount of points, the plot will be extended by one day and these teams will play against each other. This is the only time where the number of wins, losses, and draws will matter. If the winning team will then get the spot it deserves. If two teams are fighting for the number two spot, the winning one will get it and the other team will get bronze.
Trophies
Trophies are based about your personal rank and about your team rank. All the trophies will look the same, with different logos on them for their respective team. The only exception is for the first team, the team that came as number two and the third one. They will get a “special looking” trophy simply because they have won. Your effort put on your personal ranking will determine if your trophy will be wooden, bronze, silver or gold. The look of the trophy will be determined of the position of your team. Fourth place and lower ranked teams will all get the same trophy look and their ranks will be somewhat, useless.
Past winners
A total of 10 altador cup teams have won during the previous year. The first Altador Cup was taken by the Haunted Woods, which was then taken by the Darigan Citadel during the second Altador Cup. Roo Island was the third team to win it, then comes Krawk Island on fourth place, Lost Desert on fifth place, Virtupets on sixth place, Kreludor on seventh, Tyrannia on eighth, Haunted Woods on ninth and finally, Kiko Lake on the tenth year.
Neopets Altador Cup Cheats
During Neopets Altador Cup, the best thing you will be able to do is to play with the size of your window to be “split” in half so that you can open up another window of the same size on its right or on its left. This way, you will not get bored. You will be able to play Yooyuball or the alternative games as you watch a movie, a video, etc. You can also choose to play these games near your TV, so that you can watch as you play. So what are you still reading this? Go earn your All-Star rank.
