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NavigateIntroductionTeam Info Predictions Standings 
Link Back? Click here for more banners/buttons! CreditsContent:Danny & fellow Neopians Layout and Coding: Tuna Images: Neopets, Inc. 2009
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NEWS
I remember every night people waited anxiously for 12:01 a.m. for the daily results. Wondering what was going to happen, and if any surprises would occur. Almost everyday came with unexpected results. Each team had their share of disappointing losses, and amazing wins over each team. There were so many of those "OMG DID THAT REALLY HAPPEN?!?!?!" moments that I can't recall them all. Oh yes, it was a lovely year, better than the AC3 in my opinion. But it's all over now. But worry not, I will be BACK in the Altador Cup 5 to provide all of you with daily predictions and update latest news stories :) Until then, I have changed my petpage up preparing for AC5. The Teams
ALTADOR AC1: 14th AC2: 13th AC3: 13th AC4: 15th You would expect the Host of a certain game would be the best player. But you can't say this about team ALTADOR of the ALTADOR Cup. They opened the Altador Cup and finished at a disappointing 14th place as a host, only 2 spots above dead-last. Next year didn't bring them much more excitement, improving only 1 standing into 13th place. Unfortunately, I don't see them improving much in the next few years and will remain an underdog for some time.
I just don't understand how Brightvale made it into the second round of the AC1 along with the other 7 teams, but they were the only team out of the 7 that fell into underdog position in the next Altador Cups. Brightvale sat out this Altador Cup and we can't accurately predict what will happen with them next year. When Kreludor came back into the altador cup, they made a large improvement from the year before they sat out. Kiko Lake on the other hand was an underdog before they sat out. The year they came back didn't bring much improvement. Since Brightvale is also an underdog with Kiko Lake, I think they will follow a very much similar path and won't improve. We'll see.
The second team to be the champions and win the Altador Cup. Darigan had a much poorer performance in the next Cup and fell to the well-known "Winner's Curse" in the third Altador Cup, dropped 6 places down to seventh. They started off the Altador Cup 4 strong and surprised everyone with their return performance which was before Haunted Woods who won the Cup before them! They held 1st place for a long time and they had high-hopes of winning the Cup a second time. Unfortunately, they lost a few easier matches and the losing streak began. They were disappointed since they had just missed the first tier by one spot, and they dropped even more when they lost the first round of the finals. Finishing in 7th overall. Their team history is very unpredictable and it will be hard to predict what's gonna happen next year. I feel that they're going to repeat what happened this year, starting off as a powerhouse then losing strength as time passes.
Faerieland unfortunately could not keep up and improve in SLushie Slinger and Tyrannia stole what could have been their title in Slushie Slinger. They did worse that year, only winning 3 times in yooyuball and drawing once, but they still ended up 15th. With Faerieland being well-known for doing poorly, they just might gain a whole ton of supporters from the other underdogs one year and it'll bring them up the standings to a much better position. I witness many people moving to Faerieland because they are such a nice team, and deal with so many losses so well. They have a fairly good chance of improving alot, we'll just have to wait.
Haunted Woods really needs to step up their game or the pattern could keep on going and they will drop even more. HW MIGHT even eventually convert into an underdog one day, replacing Tyrannia who seems to be improving remarkably. Let's see what happens next year. If they don't improve or drop even more I can't see them ever finishing in first tier again.
Kiko Lake returned this year after a season off when the team was injured in a rockslide last year. They entered the competition with strength, but that was eventually lost and Kiko Lake resumed their underdog position, unable to grow much stronger. The only achievement I remember them breaking is ending Virtupet's 25-day winning streak in Shootout Showdown, which was the main highlight for the day and the day after. But another team was eventually able to match up with them and beat Virutpets again in SHSD. Honestly, I don't see much coming out of this team. They've had their chance in the spotlight this year but nothing really happened. I think they'll stay on the same leve next year as they were on this year.
After many years of missing the cup by a few places, Krawk Island finally got their chance this year and claimed the Cup as many people had expected and predicted. This is going to be a team to watch next year. Im specifically watching if they're going to fall into the "Winner's Curse" as the other 3 winners did, and lose many of their supporters who have achieved what they had wanted; winning the cup. Or will their supporters stay tight to Krawk Island and continue supporting them? This might just happen, with so many years of the curse going on, a team is looking to break the curse and win the cup a second time in a row. And this might just be Krawk Island. I can't imagine them placing lower than second tier, with their amazing performances on all 4 previous cups.
They came in 6th 2 years ago and came back last year with tremendous force, only getting even stronger than before. I still can't get over the fact that they swept the seemingly unsweepable Krawk Island, being the second team to ever do so. They achieved many other great things too, sweeping their many weaker opponents, and preventing a single loss in yooyuball for 24 consecutive days. They won a total of 20 yooyuball games, drew 6 and lost 4, making one of the strongest yooyuball players this season. In addition to that, Kreludor were the 2nd best Slushie Slingers and the 2nd best at Shootout Showdown, showing that they had strengths all across the board. They're coming back next year looking to get stronger and win the cup. But it wont be easy as all the other teams are looking to do the same thing.
They were one of the clear favourites to win the Altador Cup 4, even I predicted Lost Desert would win last year (I was wrong though). It wasn't until the results of the very first day of the cup were released when everyone was shocked that first place favourite Lost Desert actually nearly got swept by a middle-to-lower-class team Mystery Island. But those results for 1 day didn't stop them from going through the rest of the Altador Cup. They successfully went through the rest of the Altador Cup without another single loss, winning almost everyday except for the first and last day(they lost again on the last day before the finals to Mystery Island again). They fought their way for first tier for the second year in a row, but unfortunately missed the Altador cup again, landing in 3rd... again. Lost Desert is a force to be taken seriously, they're gonna enter next year as another 1st place favourite and they're looking to finally win. Lost Desert is NOT going to let a single day pass by without the determination to win the Altador Cup.
What started out as tiny little piranha babies at the beginning of last years cup, later grew into fierce-fighting adult piranhas near the end. Maraqua was considered as one of the underdogs.. kinda, but one of the stronger underdogs. Their team history showing that they were some-what strong, but not really strong enough to get to the top-half of the standings. They hovered above the same standings area for the last 3 cups, and for most of the fourth cup. But nearing the end of the fourth cup, the piranhas came out and attacked viciously, tearing apart their opponents and coming out victorious on every single one of their matches at the end part of the cup. The once shy fishies showed their frightning strength that teams weren't too thrilled to be faced with. Can Maraqua keep it up? It took a whole 3 and 3/4 of Altador Cups to build this power up. I think their power will keep up through the first half of the next cup, but will gradually die down nearing the end, following a very similar path as Darigan Citadel.
Im gonna be honest, the moment when I was typing this out, my mind drew a blank when I thunk of Meridell. I couldn't really remember a single thing about the team in the Altador Cup 4. It's probably because of the fact they dropped a whopping 6 places from Altador Cup 3. I looked back on their team record and was shocked at how their best season yet one year, brought their worst season the next year. Their yooyuball team certainly didn't get enough training they needed to maintain their pace. They lost 14 yooyuball games, drew 6 and won 11 this year. Compared to last year, 17 wins, 9 draws and only 5 losses. I think it's gonna take more than 1 cup to get back to how they were in Altador Cup 3. But for the next cup, they're gonna be about half-way to getting back to where they were, hovering around 7th-10th place.
Mystery Island is byfar one of the most unpredictable teams in the Altador Cup (and Im not being biased). They've had their shares of unexpected wins and unexpected losses. Their biggest achievement this year was pulling off at least one win off 3/5 powerhouses, Krawk Island, Lost Desert (twice, giving LD their only 2 yooyuball losses the entire season), and Darigan Citadel. Also nearly beating Kreludor in the first half. They've had disappointments, including nearly getting swept by Tyrannia with only a draw holding them back, their poor SLushie Slinger performance (losing to Altador in SS once), and drawing in yooyuball with underdogs. Overall, Mystery Island found that they had some powerful potential that helped them over-power the powerhouses. If they can beat the powerhouses, they can beat the other 11 teams too. They just have to stop slacking off so much, and when they stop, Mystery Island will become a first-tier team.
The First place winners of the 3rd Altador Cup, fell to the dreaded Winner's Curse last year and finished a disappointing 8 places lower from the cup before, at 9th. So far, the 3 teams that had to experience the winners curse (including RI) haven't showed much improvement other than Darigan Citadel, who eventually plummeted back to 7th place during the second half of the cup last year. The falling winning teams make room for former middle-tier teams to rise up closer to the first tier. Tyrannia who was once a lower-third-tier team in the first 3 cups, rose to second tier in the last cup. Maraqua and Kreludor were once third-tier teams too. The rise of new teams in the first and second tiers means more members switching to those rising teams, which also means less members in the former first tier teams who are dropping, creating a sort of wave effect. If this continues throughout the next few cups, look out for teams like Terror Mountain to get into the first tier. But before I get too off-topic, Roo Island's gonna follow this "wave-effect" and stay around where they were last year.
Great losses bring great success" This statement would apply to Shenkuu. They have a reputation of falling to most teams in the first half, and then pulling off magnificant wins over almost all of the other teams in the second half. This makes Shenkuu more of a powerhouse than an underdog, because it's better to lose everyday in the first half and win everyday the second half, than to win everyday in the first half and lose everyday in the second half. I think the team just tries to saves energy in the first half and rests, saving it for when they need it most in the second half. Also, with conspiracies going on that second place one year always wins first place the next year, Shenkuu would be the one to win in Altador Cup 5 if the conspiracy continues. Let's see what happens ;)
After the end of Altador Cup 1, Terror Mountain didn't seem so terrifying after all. The next year brought a 5-place improvement, hi-lighting the Terror in their Mountain a little bit. But they've dropped in the rankings in Altador Cups 3 & 4. I do however, see potential in this team. All they need is a nice boost of motivation to win. They proved to us that they could prevent getting swept from big teams in the past 3 years, but they tend to let go of the more difficult days. They impressed us last year with 15 wins and 5 draws in Shootout Showdown, which means nearly 1 win or draw against every team. They COULD potentially become a Virutpets-strength Shootout Showdown player, but they're gonna have to focus alot more carefully on what to do on certain days. Terror Mountain was the favourite to sit out last year, but they were given another chance and made it to Altador to play. I imagine they're even MORE likely to sit out this year and that's something they DON'T want to happen to them. Many of the important and loyal Terror Mountain supporters might get hooked onto the team they support if Terror Mountain sits out and decide to not join TM again. Which is a great loss of Terror Mountain players.
Tyrannia became well known last year for their amazing strength in Slushie Slinger, which is a game many people absolutely hate because it takes so long. They escaped ALtador Cup 3 in 11th place, their third time in a row doing so, with 23 wins, 6 draws and a loss in Slushie Slinger. This year, they were able to keep up their SLushie Slinger strength, actually getting even better! This time with 27 wins, 2 draws and a loss. Not only that, Tyrannia gained strength in Make some Noise & Yooyuball, helping them achieve a 3 place improvement to 8th. If you compare Altador Cup 3 to Altador Cup 4, Tyrannia seems to be on the rise. If they could just keep it up and give up some of their mini-game strength to work on yooyuball, they can become a frightning powerhouse.
Nobody really ever expected anything significant out of this team at the beginning of this year's 4th Altador Cup. Having finished dead last in the second cup, then 3rd to last in last year's cup, they've always been considered an underdog that doesn't bring many surprises throughout the year. But this year definitely brought a sign of change in the team. A new game, Shootout Showdown was released and Virtupets won the mini-game against their opponents on the first day. A few wins began turning into a chain of wins, win after win after win. And on the 6th day of the cup, Virtupets shocked everyone by winning their sixth straight Shootout Showdown game in a row, winning against First Place Favourite, Krawk Island. This is when everyone realized that Virutpet's strength in this new mini-game was immense. Many teams decided to drop the game for the day and not even try winning SHSD because they were almost sure they couldn't win. Virtupets continued their winning streak through the half point, then finally, 5 days before the finals, they were met with their first loss in SHSD, ending their 25-day winning streak. Virtupets is looking to get even stronger next year, watch out everyone!
Predictions!
For those of you that didn't use my predictions last year, let me give you a peek at how I lay out my daily predictions. Here's an EXAMPLE:
(Description Here)
Below the team logos will be a fairly-long description of why I predicted that certain team will win. The more obvious matches will have a shorter description, while the more exciting, harder-to-predict matches will have longer descriptions.
( Again, this is an Example, don't take it too seriously :l )
Overall Standings
Here are my thoughts on how the whole Altador Cup this year will turn out:
If Haunted Woods doesn't sit out, my second choice is Terror Mountain, due to getting lost in a Snowstorm.
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Take a deep breath and relax now, because the Altador Cup is now officially OVER! It was an intense year, from the beginning to the end. From Mystery Island's near-sweep over Lost Desert at the beginning to Virtupet's disappointing SOSD loss at the end against Kiko Lake. I'd like to Congratulate all members of the 16 teams that participated for playing as hard as they could, and bringing their team to amazing achievements.
