Gears and Cogs: The Altador Cup

But some of us were not born perfect Altador Cup athletes. I certainly wasn't! But with a little practice, and a few tips, you'll be fit as a fiddle in no time!

The Goal-

To put the Yooyu into the opposing team's goal. Note the word opposing; it's very important. If you kick it into your own goal, you score a point on you. Not conducive to winning, really, is it? So yes, in the opposite goal from yours, the enemies' goal.

Oh, and you have 3 minutes in which to get as many Yooyus in the opposing team's goal as you can.

The Controls-

Mouse- Controls whatever player is toggled. A player's toggle is denoted by a small circle around them... and them following your mouse wherever you point it!

Right Click- Gives you two, count 'em two beautiful options.

Option 1: Make sure no player is toggled and click an area on the field. All players will immediately march to that place. Such nice little soldiers... er... players.

Option 2: Throw the ball! The ball will go whichever direction your toggled player (with the ball) is facing. So if you don't have the ball, this option will not work.

S key or spacebar: allows you to untoggle a player, meaning the player will no longer follow your pretty mouse and you can toggle another player (very handy when you need to get to your goalie quickly).

left and right arrow keys OR A and O keys- allows you to toggle between players. I find using my mouse and the S button much faster, but it does come in handy in a tight spot.

Shift key- moves players back to their starting positions. Note that if you have a player toggled, he/she will NOT move to her/his original spot, but will continue to move with your mouse.

Starting the Game-

You will have two VERY important choices to make right off the bat. These choices can make or break your game.

First, formation. You have a total of 5 players, 1 being the goalie. There are three options for the remaining 4 players to stand in. 3 in front, goalie in back, 3 in back (excluding goalie) 1 in front, 2 in back 2 in front.

Personally, I choose 2 2 Combo. The reason for this is that I like to be able to grab the opposing teams ball as quickly as I can, have 2 up front allows me to choose a player and have them get the ball quickly.

Next: Will your goal be on the right of the screen or on the left?

I choose left, the opposing team's goal right... simply because that is how I read a book. My eyes are just used to going that way.

My official opinion is that you try every single combination of both until you find the one that works for you. Yes, tiring, but ultimately it can make or break your game.

Before the Game Begins-

As the Yooyu comes up, if you have a well trained eye, you can tell which ball it is from the beginning. Each ball does in fact differ very much from the last.

Why does it matter if you know what the ball is right away? It gives you more time to formulate a plan... it only shows itself for a few seconds, but if you know the whole animation, you can plan your game around it.

Fire- You can tell as it comes up by the faint reddish outline. This ball will move FAST and it takes only the blink of an eye for it to be passed from player to player... or in your goal!

Ice- You can tell this by the absence of any of the other signs. It's smooth and plain. This ball is quite slow. It will start out fast and end its journey going more and more slowly.

Mutant: you can tell this by very very slight spikes on its shoulders. The mutant ball goes everywhere. Sometimes it will go straight, sometimes it will curve, sometimes it will go backwards... you just never know with this Yooyu!

Faerie: Easiest to tell off the bat because of the wings. This ball tends to curve a lot. You think it will go straight, but 9 times out of 10, it will not.

Now, before the ball even comes into play, as the animation is going, you can find a player. Hover your mouse over the whole window until it turns into a hand. That means you've found one of your players and can access them much more quickly!

Oh, and as for getting the ball off the bat... I can only do it 1 in 10 times. But, 9 times out of 10, whichever opposing team member gets the ball first will throw it back. So, I usually just go right down the middle and up towards whatever player the first player throws the Yooyu at.

Game Play and Strategy-

As each ball is so different, I believe they merit a whole section each to themselves. The cute wittle fuzzies that cause so much pain. The ittle cutesies that we all adore. The bitty... uhm... *blink* where were we?

Fire: I find this ball the easiest to manipulate. Since it travels fast and true, you always know where it's going and where it will end up.

Go quickly towards the back players to regain the ball, unless you are alas better than me and get the ball off the bat. Once you have it, you have two wonderful scoring options that work almost every time.

Go high, shoot low or go low, shoot high.

I mean this literally. High or low on the actual screen itself. If the goalie is towards the top, they leave the bottom open. Almost all my goals are actually made this way. The corners are always the hardest to block, so go for the corners. You can shoot from any distance, the ball always goes the same speed.

With this ball, if the other team steps even one toe onto my side I switch to goalie. They will try to score really quickly, but if you are focused on goalie, they have a hard time. If you touch the ball with your goalie they CAN NOT score. It's like magnets, you two just stick together!

Ice: For some reason, the other team will almost always use their backmost player and try to shoot it. But, as the ball slows as it goes, it doesn't even always make it to the other side. I suggest just waiting until they practically throw it to you.

Again, low/high or high/low is a good tactic, but you need to make sure you are fairly close to the goal; otherwise, it lacks the momentum to get past the goalie.

For this ball, I will allow the opposing team about halfway onto my side of the field before resorting to my goalie. But, with the goalie, sooner is generally better than later. With the ice ball though, sometimes you can catch the ball with a player, rather than the goalie. Don't count on it though.

Mutant: This ball will generally curve a lot. So don't really count on this ball always going straight. Sometimes it will, sometimes it won't. I try to get the ball as fast as I can and go in for a close diagonal shot.

Many times the ball that you think will go in the corner will go straight to the goalie. It's a little crazy. Just keep going and try to persevere. With a little diligence and a bit of practice, you get a feel for where these little buggers like to go.

My advice: just keep shooting at the goal until it goes in. Keep an eye on the patterns. Also, get as close to the goal as you can before shooting. This ensures that even on a curve, the ball will somehow make it in the goal.

Faerie: *shudder* I will never think of faeries as cute and fluffy after this little Yooyu! It is the bane of all Altador Cup athletes' very existence.

Just when you think this ball will go the way you want it... it won't. When you think it will go the way you don't want it... it'll go the way you wanted it to go in the first place. And sometimes you wonder if there's any point to having this Yooyu in the game at all.

So, I try to get the ball and just shoot it, as close as possible to the other team's goal, as I can. I score with it half the time, and the other team scores on me half the time.

(Special Note: Kicking, Hitting, or otherwise maiming your computer will not help your chances of getting the Faerie Yooyu in the opposite team's goal. Not... er... not that I've tried... heh.)

General Tips and Strategies:

When you have more than 2 players on the opposite side of the field, press the shift button to return players to their starting position. If you have too many players on the opposite side, it's very hard to shoot a goal, since you have to go around not only the other team's players, but your own players. It's also good to help defend your goal.

Don't use the keyboard toggles; they will only confuse you. I do keep a finger on shift and a finger on S. Only press the S button if you are finding it difficult to switch to your goalie in an emergency situation.

The goalie is generally best left alone. Adopt the phrase, "the best defence is a good offense," and play that way. Your ultimate goal should be to put that Yooyu in the other team's goal, no matter what. Still, it's good to try to stop the ball from entering your goal.

If you are losing very badly and know you can't make it up, just stop playing and let the game run its course. Better to mentally prepare for payback in the next game!

Only send winning scores. This should be obvious, but I know a lot of people haven't been. Scoring for the tournament is based on number of wins and individual scores. Even if you only beat them by 1, that's 1 more for the individual scores, and 1 more win!

Go around opponents. If they are going to catch you on one side, go around them. You don't have to go a straight course to the next goal. If you have the ball, do anything you can to make sure the opposing team doesn't steal it!

Don't focus on the other team scoring. That will only lead to you letting them score on you once again. Remember the fact that on many games, you will get scored against, but you will most likely triumph in the end!

Practice! I can not say this enough. Until your fingers are little finger stubs and you've sweat yourself silly... play! The only way to get better is to play as many times as you can!

Now you have the know how to become and Altador Cup champion! So go out there, and do your home team proud! And as you stand in the winner's circle, surrounded by family, friends, and strangers who either want to collect on debt or get your autograph (we hope it's the latter) remember this little guide!