This is a quote from the editorial of 10/01/2005 :

TNT, can you make it where you can go back to tournament 1 on cellblock, most game avatars are hard to get, true. but dang this is just crazy, at least on flash games it dosnt just keep getting harder and harder to the point where you cant play it anymore, thats just crazy. it bugs about 30% of the people that play and arnt lucky couse you made the avatar random, i mean why does it have to be "SUPER HARD" AND "random". dosnt make it fair on e bit for us unlucky on es. ~ mystic_fever
We will look into a reset feature, however the avatar is not random. Not random at all. From what we've seen, not on e person has actually figured out the real trick to getting the avatar. It may seem random, but it's not by any means. I think it's the only one we've ever really stumped people with. *cackle*

It can be got from winning, losing or drawing and from any tournament (so far I know of tournaments 7 - 51 getting people the avatar)

Valek told me that on tournament 7, he tried the first 5 setups below, but did not get the avatar.

David thinks this:

I am convinced that it doesn't have to do with how you played the game but the time. So win or lose, it's on e of the following; winning or losing to the minute, the winner having as many moves as the number of the hour/minute, the loser having as many moves as there are in the hour/minute, Something else to do with completing the game at that particular time."

I am currently thinking that there might be a link with the number of letters in your: username and/or active pet and/or np=)

Also, it could be to do with the co-ordinates of on e or more than on e piece=P

Thanks Becky for the neomail, here is part of it:

I tried something, I'm not sure if it's why I got the avatar or not butyea. After starting tournament 10, I deliberately lost on ce on each opponent EXCEPT Clop because I didn't think of it till Barallus. I got the avatar on Number Five. So maybe you have to lose on ce and then beat them and get it randomlyish? Buut they said it's not random. Maybe lose on ce and then beat 4 challengers? Probably after a certain tournament number too. It's probably something else though. x_x Lets seee. Oh, my inventory was empty and I had 0 np on hand."

I quote from a neomail from Manda:

I was just brainstorming on the avvie and thought I'd go to the source... since you collect info on the thing. Maybe you could start asking people to include more info with the screenies... like what items they were carrying, how many neopoints they had on them,what time it was, if they visited anywhere special that day (like rare pages or something). Or maybe it's about patterns over several games...like spelling out Vexed, but it doesn't have to be in order. Oh yeah, and I was wondering if Master Vex was mentioned anywhere else... like in the neopedia or a plot... maybe it's something special about him."

I quote from an extrememly helpful neomail from Kamikaze:

I've been obsessing over the real way to get the cellblock avatar as well...mostly because I've not been lucky enough to get it yet, and I'm well into tourny 12! I had to send this monster of a mail message in 2 neomails...character limits are ebil...

I set up a topic to gather information about when people got it, and was almost immediately directed to Dak's petpage. Since you've probably heard it all, I figured I'd try out a few ideas on you...

I focused on things not shown in screenies, like time and inventory. I don't think it's having a particular item because many people don't get it on their first game of the day. Next I thought about inventory and time...I tried finishing a game at the same number of minutes as items in my inventory, then minutes=items - level and minutes=items - level † round. So far I've got nothing. There are many more possible combos, but now I doubt that any will work. I talked to someone very interesting - a user who's gotten the avatar on multiple accounts, but constantly keeps her inventory EMPTY.

We're probably overcomplicating the whole issue. I tend to think it must be simpler then we're thinking, but if it wasn't so complicated, we would have figured it out by now. What a mess!

Maybe it's like Coltzan's shrine, and you merely need to finish a game on some lucky number of seconds. That's hard to do on purpose...I spoke to someone who got the avatar on ly 7 seconds later than the person who sent you a screenie with the time."

Thanks Kamikaze! I said that:

Actually, I think they removed the Coltzan's Shrine system of working, it might have been in an editorial.. possibly for the reason on the page [shown below]: If you open numerous neo pages, you'll see the times are slightly different. I'm quite interested in the empty inventory thing.. I might try that, but that's a great point that (I at least) didn't get it on the first game of the day (I think)
I've just wondered whether if you had 1 item in your inventory, it could take one game for the av, and if you had ten it would take you ten games for the av. Maybe that'd be ten games since the start of the level, or the day. Who knows?

I got this neomail from Kester:

I was thinking about the cellblock random-imnotrandom avatar solution, and it occurred to me that on Kiquin's petpage it says he on ly got the avatar on tourney 51. Well it might be the av is awarded when you get a sequence of wins and losses, but it is also carried over from the previous match too. So the more consistant better players wont get the losses in the sequence as early as most people, while the "normal" people start losing a lot earlier.

mystralfree sent me this:

I think I have figured out what the Master Vex avie is based off of. I finally got it. I think it is a win/loss ratio, possibly as compared to the level. I got mine after I lost a bunch of time and then won. I am not sure if the ratio is win/loss to a specific character or just over all or for that level but I am pretty darn sure it's a ratio of somesort.
It could be something to do with their name, of course..

Here are some Master Vex Items (If you ask me, the TCG would be most likely to have a hint in it..):

Name : Master Vex Stamp
Weight : 1 lbs.
Rarity : 85
Cost (approx) : 1279 NP

Master Vex is a prison warden who is incredibly bored. Lord Darigan has entrusted him to keep his dungeons safe and secure.

Name : Master Vex
Weight : 1 lbs.
Rarity : 98
Cost (approx) : 12000 NP

Master Vex is a prison warden who is incredibly bored. Lord Darigan has entrusted him to keep his dungeons safe and secure. To pass the time Vex invented the game of Cellblock, oh... did we mention he has never lost a game?

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I know of two techniques for tourmaments 1-9. Here are some guides I know of for cellblock, if you'd like to add or remove yours, all you have to do is tell me :)

Check out a brilliant guide at our sister site here!

The technique I use is shown very simply and nicely here.

I think most detailed two are here and here.

There is also a great guide here.

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Here I will collect screenies of people getting the cellblock avatar:

Many thanks to Kar, Mirri and Matt for helping me find screenies!

And thank you so much Jeli, O_ o, Mad, Skyfox, Converse, Nemorka, Zelda, burakii, Christy, mcon, Nikki ,Lore , Bunny , Cowwy (xD) , Sir Willis, Angie and Cheridy for letting me use your screenies!

If your screenie is up here and not your username, please tell me, and I'll put it up immediately! Alternatively, if you don't want your screenie or username up, the same applies :)

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I got the avatar (the first screenie is mine) at about 8:5- am NST. I think that if it has anything to do with time, it may not have anything to do with seconds, as a page takes a certain amount of seconds to load (then again, I may be wrong).

I don't mind anyone linking to this page in a board or using my username or pet name :-)