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Need To Know About Yooyuball And The Altador Cup


by 0o_lionheart_o0

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As the third annual Altador Cup arrives, Neopians from all over Neopia will join a team and compete against each other for the Altador Cup. Many Neopians have never played in the tournament, which features the game of Yooyuball. If you’re one of them, then this is the perfect guide for you.

The Controls:

The first step is to know the controls. There are many controls in this game, but I will start with the easiest. You use your mouse, (or if you are afraid of mice, then just refer that mouse as the cursor-guiding-thing-that-you-put-your-hand-on) to control the players. To select a player, move your mouse over it. Drag your mouse in front of the players to lead them. To gain control of the ball, lead the player towards the yooyu, and touch the player to the ball. You must click to pass or shoot the yooyu. If you press the spacebar, your players will run back to their regular positions. It is also recommended that you press the spacebar during transitions, as they eat up time.

Joining a Team:

You have to join a team in order to play, so I recommend joining a team on the first day of sign-ups (or as soon as possible). You can then practice your Yooyuball skills against Jelly World, a world that is thought to exist, but REALLY it doesn’t.... (Right?) As any Yooyuball aficionado will tell you, the game is sort of like soccer, or lacrosse. Soccer and lacrosse both take teamwork to win, but in Yooyuball, I have a different strategy. Passing to other players eats up your time and is very risky because your opponent can steal the yooyu from one of your players. The easiest and fastest way to play is to get one of your players to grab the Yooyu, then just run all the way towards your opponent's goal and shoot.

The Yooyus:

There are several types of yooyus, and they won't all go straight into the goal. I will explain each yooyu so you know what path each yooyu takes when you shoot it.

Fire Yooyu: My personal favourite, this fiery yooyu goes straight at where you shoot it! It is the fastest of all the seven yooyus. This yooyu looks like a fireball when rolled up. A good way to shoot this yooyu is to run straight at the goal and then aim for the corners of the goal.

Snow Yooyu: This ball is similar to the fire yooyu, but it goes extremely slow, so the goalie for your opponent's side will be more likely to catch this yooyu. This yooyu looks like a snowball when rolled up, and leaves a trail of ice in its wake. When scoring with this yooyu, you should get really close to the goal but not so close that the goalie can get the ball, then aim for the corners and shoot.

Normal Yooyu: This ball is very similar to the fire yooyu, but goes just a little slower. This yooyu has a brown exterior. An idea for shooting this yooyu in the goal is to go close to the goal, and shoot for the corners.

Clockwork Yooyu: This yooyu is very similar to the snow yooyu, only it goes a bit faster. This yooyu will explode, sending the players spinning in different directions. The clockwork yooyu will turn red when it is nearing an explosion. This halo of red light grows darker and darker as time ticks by, finally resulting in an explosion. So if the clockwork yooyu is turning red, sling it into a group of your opponents, so they can be sent flying after the explosion, not you (this isn’t really going to help you score more goals, but it is very entertaining). This yooyu looks like a metal ball when rolled up. A scoring tip is do the same thing with the Snow Yooyu, get really close to the goal and then shoot.

Darigan Yooyu: This yooyu is different from all of the other yooyus in that it will go the opposite direction when you shoot. This means that when you shoot the yooyu forward, it will move backwards. This yooyu looks like a purple ball with little bat-like wings when rolled up. Its speed is normal just like the normal yooyu. A very helpful tactic on scoring with this yooyu is to get close to the goal and shoot at one corner; since this yooyu goes the opposite way when you shoot, the yooyu will go into the goal.

Faerie Yooyu: This yooyu will either curve upwards or downwards when you shoot it, making it a very hard yooyu to sling into the goal successfully. However, once you learn the strategy to shooting with it, the faerie yooyu can become one of the easier yooyus to play with. Simply go straight at the goalie, releasing the yooyu when there’s still a decent amount of space between you (this takes practice, but soon you’ll learn to judge the distance) and sufficient room for a nice curve. Its speed is again just like the speed of the normal yooyu. This yooyu looks like a colorful ball of purple and pink with faerie wings when rolled up. As it travels through the air, it leaves behind a trail of sparkles. A tip that works almost every time is that when you shoot this yooyu, make sure the goalie is in the center of the goal, run straight at him, and shoot. The yooyu will curve around the goalie and fly right into the goal.

Mutant Yooyu: This yooyu can act like any of the other six yooyus. It can roll at the speed of the fire yooyu, but it could also go as slow as the snow yooyu. The mutant yooyu can't act like the clockwork yooyu, though—it can’t explode. It’s got a vicious curve too, although it’s a lot less predictable. This yooyu looks like a green ball with spikes when rolled up. Use all the scoring tactics of all the yooyus, and eventually, the yooyu will go into the goal.

That's all of the seven yooyus. Now I’ll provide you with some more information about the Altador Cup...

Sixteen worlds from around Neopia will send in their best Yooyuball players to the Altador Coliseum, in hopes of winning the most precious prize: the Altador Cup. As for this year’s Altador Cup, well, nobody can really be sure as to how it will be set up.

Though the Altador Cup is a competition, one can make many friends. In Year 8, when the Cup first started, I was just a lonely Neopian wandering around playing games in order to make neopoints, but when the Altador Cup came, I made a lot of new neofriends both on my team and from other teams too. Don’t join a team because it’s got a good reputation—choose which team you think best represents who you are or what you love. For example, plenty of new Neopians that are going to participate in this year’s Altador Cup will probably join Darigan Citadel, because they won last year. You shouldn't join a team that won the previous year, because that team just might get overconfident and lose. Once again, join the team that you love and want to play for during the Cup.

The Altador Cup's format changes every year. In Year 8, it was a process of elimination in which the teams with the most points of their match would move on to the next round. If your team was eliminated, you could join another team and help support them.

In Year 9, TNT created two more new games—Make Some Noise, and Slushie Slinger. These games were side games that Neopians could play. They allowed them to cheer on their team by making noise and serving slushies to their supporters. Yooyuball was still the main game Neopians wanted to play, as it was thought that a win in Yooyuball was worth more points. TNT also created a schedule outlining which teams we were playing against. There were results that told us which games we had won and which games we had lost. There was also a Double Round Robin which enabled teams to play each other twice. At the end, the final four were chosen based on how many wins they got on each game. Third place played against fourth place, while first place played against second place. The finals lasted four days and the winners were then announced.

This year, Year 10, all Yooyuball participants from the past look forward to what TNT has in store for them. The Altador Cup neoboards become incredibly active during the Altador Cup as well. Neopians from the same team get together and set up boards and petpages, flaunting their teams and outlining their strategies. Occasionally, Neopians talk at boards hosted by other teams too.

One of the most exciting parts of the Altador Cup is when the scores come out—seeing if your team beat the team you were playing against. The air is supercharged with energy, and tensions run high. However, the results aren’t necessarily fun. The reason I play the Altador Cup is to get prize points and spend them on fabulous prizes that come out after the Altador Cup has ended. Though my team might not win, I always look forward to spending my hard-earned points in the prize shop.

The Altador Cup is a major part of Neopets. Many Neopians participate every year, and it provides something to do for those bored during the long summer. I hope to see you during the Altador Cup!

 
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