AC VIII

[Pickles]

Well, they addressed "bye" days in the editorial....

Could you please actually explain what "bye" days are and how they will work? I tried the Altador Cup FAQ, but the closest answer is to check the rules page. The rules page doesn't say what they are, though, just that we have them. ~kareesuh
As much as everyone loves the Altador Cup, playing for the better part of a month can get taxing, which creates a problem: how do you take a day off without feeling as though you're hurting your team by not contributing for a day? That's why we came up with bye days -- for one day during each of the first four rounds, players are given a match-free day, which allows them to rest up without having to bail on their team. For those who still want to play on their bye day, the idea is that they will still be able to earn points and make progress on improving their rank, even though the scores they are sending aren't counting toward their teams' totals. Unfortunately, there was a bit of a hiccup with the whole "getting credit for playing" thing on the first bye day that didn't get fixed until late afternoon NST, but we're optimistic that it shouldn't be an issue going forward for future bye days.

...but still didn't address the other issues.

Siniri, I don't get the current bracket standings, either. It makes little to no sense to me. Hopefully it'll shake out by the time they award points?

I know this is unfair to those honest players on the team, but...I hope Tyrannia loses. Having a team with a ton of cheaters really ruins it for those of us who actually try.

But...I will get some sort of trophy either way, I guess - at least I'm hoping they do different trophies like they did last year and year before, regardless of where your team stands. Those two participant medals when I was an All-Star stunk. (On a related note, I just realized that this trophy will spill me down to my 5th line of plot trophies. O.o)


On a completely different yet still AC related topic, the Staff Tournament has started. Siniri, do you have your helpful analysis of previous years still stored somewhere? I mean, I know I'm going to choose Snarkie regardless...

[Blue]

On a completely different yet still AC related topic, the Staff Tournament has started. Siniri, do you have your helpful analysis of previous years still stored somewhere? I mean, I know I'm going to choose Snarkie regardless...

Yay! Staff Tourney

I already selected my team (to make sure I have a team), but I may switch members after Siniri provides her analysis

[Siniri]

I suspect I posted my analysis here. I'll have to dig through and find it (or recreate it). It's served me very well the last two years, placing me in the top 90% + of Neopians, I think. How much time do I have? Tonight's looking busy...

[Daze]

Those two participant medals when I was an All-Star stunk.

Yes, I have to admit, the particpant medal was a downer, it happened to me as well.


Staff Tourney:

I have never done really well, and the glitch that stopped me from getting that really good prize 2 years ago really made me upset.

My picks for round 1:
Comastar
Senormalo
Mr. Insane
Bancha Ninja
Breik

[Siniri]

*sigh* RI is playing LD again. Looks like we won't get to play Altador again, and we'll be schluffed off into second place in our bracket *again* without even getting to prove whether or not we're a better team. Though by the looks of it, HW did prove it's a better team, at least this round, and they're still getting screwed over. I don't want to beat a dead horse, so just... *sigh*

On to the Staff Tourney. First things first, what on earth is Bancha Ninja saying? Google Translate says: "Rivero unrivaled moving around freely in the court within the weapon in its speed. While defender, be involved in goal also often professional. In the art of the ninja arts Utsusemi was learning towards the cup this year, to the mercy of the enemy players to the teleport like a light it would be desperate."

Moving on to more important matters, based off performances in past Staff Tournaments, these are the strongest players in each category (years are AC years, not Neopets years, even for DD):

Forward: Comastar (slow starter, gets stronger, 7000 Y6, 1300 Y7), Señor Malo (slow start Y7, fairly consistent Y6, 3500 Y6, 1500 Y7), Lawyerbot (beat Comastar but lost to Señor Malo Y5, 9th Y1), unknown: Blitzkrieg (7th in Y5 DD w/ 16 Abigail wins, the rest AAA -- ahead of 15th Lawyerbot, 11th DJ Skellington, behind 6th Viola)

Defender: Mr. Insane (slow start Y7, fairly consistent Y6, 3100 Y6, 1050 Y7), Bancha Ninja (slow start Y7, fairly consistent Y6, 3000 Y6, 1000 Y7, 5th Y1), unknown: Subordinate Prime (8th in Y1, but others' positions have moved around a lot since then: Jimmy James 6th, El Picklesaur 4th, Mr. Insane 5th, DJ Skellington 3rd, Snarkie 2nd, Viola 16th), Marketing Maggie (8th in Y5 DD w/ 23 Abigail wins, the rest AAA -- behind 5th Mr. Insane, ahead of 9th Kid Hawk and 10th Bancha Ninja), Kid Hawk (9th in Y5 DD w/ 24 Abigail wins and several uncompleted AAA challenges, behind 5th Mr. Insane and 8th Marketing Maggie, ahead of 10th Bancha Ninja)

Goalie: They all look strong! I have no idea who's going to come out on top: Breik (slow starter, gets stronger, 7000 Y6, 1500 Y7), Jimmy James (slow starter, gets stronger, 6000 Y6, 1000 Y7), Snarkie (slow start Y7, fairly consistent Y6, 4700 Y6, 1100 Y7), Socktastic (slow start Y6, strong in Y7 R1-2 but failed R3, 7500 Y6, 1100 R1-2 but only 200 R3 Y7)

Note that some of the players have switched positions: Señor Malo moved from goalie to forward. Jimmy James moved from forward to goalie. Breik moved from defender to goalie. (Basically, they took the strongest forward and strongest defender and moved them to goalie, making that race so much tighter.)

I decided to bet on those who've been strong the last two tournaments rather than betting on any unknowns, so Comastar, Señor Malo, Mr. Insane, and Bancha Ninja. For goalie, I decided to weight Y7's performance more heavily than Y6, and go with Breik (who was a strong second in Y6, and the only one clearly above the rest in Y7). Even if I didn't pick the absolute best in each category, hopefully these picks will get me close to the maximum possible points.

ETA: I added my analysis in an edit, so I couldn't see Daze's picks until it posted. Great minds think alike, I hope!

[Pickles]

Siniri, you are AWESOME!

I'm so torn on going with Breik over Snarkie, though. I've always kept Snarkie as part of my team.

As for going up against LD again...meh. If we don't get to face off against Altador AGAIN and we get put in 2nd for the tier, I'm going to be pretty miffed.

[Siniri]

Guess who just stayed up an hour past bedtime to do homework (that was due at 1am my time), and has barely played any AC today? *sigh* I don't want to cost the Rooligans the sweep. I'm just one person, I suppose, but if we don't repeat the sweep, I'll feel responsible, since I did play a very little bit earlier.

[Blue]

Guess who just stayed up an hour past bedtime to do homework (that was due at 1am my time), and has barely played any AC today? *sigh* I don't want to cost the Rooligans the sweep. I'm just one person, I suppose, but if we don't repeat the sweep, I'll feel responsible, since I did play a very little bit earlier.

LOL, I'm now finally playing. I am happy to say that today was very productive. Three significant projects completed today, including washing/sanding/masking/priming and painting a bathroom!

I fixed myself some Apple-Jacks and am now playing YYB. I will get to Rank 1

P.S. Yes, Siniri - None of the projects were "real" work related. I barely did any of that today

[Siniri]

Yay, Blue, congrats on taking a day "off" -- if doing 3 significant projects can count as that! I did manage to get 400 SoSd equivalents yesterday, which was half my goal (I realized I was only 13 minutes from another training time, so I stayed up and played).

Today RI faces Maraqua in our 4th match of this round. Tomorrow we should face either Altador or Brightvale; I'm really hoping it's Altador.

[Daze]

Today RI faces Maraqua in our 4th match of this round. Tomorrow we should face either Altador or Brightvale; I'm really hoping it's Altador.

I see we are opponents this time. This will be interesting.

You might want to rethink your wish. Altador has Stealth on their team (an ASG - All-Star group)playing. We went down with 4 loses (with some big margins).
~~~~
I tried not to be drawn in to a debate over Codex and ASG's but couldn't help myself, so got a warning from the monitors. LOL. Amazing. TNT let cheaters stay on the site, but heaven forbid we actually complain about them.

ETA: I added my analysis in an edit, so I couldn't see Daze's picks until it posted. Great minds think alike, I hope!

LOL....I just looked up the old data to see who had the best scores. But yes, I agree, great minds!!

[Pickles]

ASkdljlakhfasf. We're NOT going up against Altador again. This means they'll "automatically" get the first place for the bracket, and we're stuck with second AGAIN without the chance to prove ourselves "less worthy" than them. And I could care less if they've got an ASG on their team, I'd rather at least have the chance to prove whether or not they deserve the first place or if we do....even if it means we take a loss. At least then I'd feel better about what we keep getting stuck with.
TNT's system is ridiculous. If we were guaranteed a chance to play all teams, maybe it wouldn't be so bad, but...since they screwed that up first bracket and then conveniently removed it from the rules without saying anything....ugh. I'm not, however, willing to risk my account by sending them a blistering comment ticket or joining the complainers on the neoboards, so I guess I'll just have to vent here. Honestly, I kind hope there is no AC IX. There's too many problems with cheaters, and the system TNT is using. I mean, heck, they KNOW it's bad - why else would they have mentioned it in the Neopies "Never mention this again"?
\endrant

[Siniri]

I know, Pickles! We'd better not be in Altador's bracket again next round! I hope we're in a bracket with Darigan, and Tyrannia and Altador can be in their own brackets. Or something.

By the way, Terror Mountain has been posting some monster YYB scores -- we need to work extra hard today to continue the sweep. Do fewer-but-higher scores or more-but-lower scores help a team more?

[Pickles]

I have no idea on the scoring, Siniri. I did more than I usually do today, as I got a little behind over the weekend (real life projects definitely come first). I've got the feeling tomorrow is a bye day, and I might play a little just to get ahead in preparation for next weekend.

I kinda can't wait to see Altador vs. Tyrannia. ASG vs. cheaters. (and of course,the non-ASG Altador people and the honest Tyrannian team players whom I feel sorry for). Gah, wish TNT would do something about this mess!

Anyways, I'm done with AC for the day, so I guess now all I can do is wait to see the scores tomorrow. In the meantime, I'm going to go snuggle up on the couch with Mr P, a bowl of popcorn, and a DS9 episode or two. Much more enjoyable than the AC!

[Siniri]

I put in 36 YYB games today (my average before today was 11.75/day). If all the Rooligans are doing extra, hopefully we can knock down the monster TM -- especially since YYB is today's bonus. Only 53 SoSd's from Rank 10 -- I'm on track for All Star.

I suppose ASG vs. cheater would come down to who has more "players" (since cheaters can play on multiple accounts, especially since it's really just letting scripts run -- they can have multiple computers, multiple browsers per computer, and run them back-to-back -- and I heard that one of their cheating methods is to shorten a game of YYB, so they can rack up victories faster than humanly possible) compared to the rest of the size of the team, unless the cheaters have figured out a way around the caps -- though that seems too likely for someone else to catch and report them for.

[Pickles]

Awww, we lost some to TM. Strangely, that makes me feel better. At least now we *deserve* the 2nd place to Altador. Will be interesting to see what the next brackets are.

In terms of SOSD (or MSN) games, if you're aiming for All Star (total of 16,000 SOSD games):
If you're NOT counting the Bye days, there are 25 game days. At the end of day 10 (yesterday), you would need to be to 6400 SOSD games (which is exactly Rank 11)
If you ARE counting the Bye days, there are 29 game days. At the end of day 12 (today), you would need to be to 6620 SOSD games. (Which is part way through Rank 11).

I'm not including the possibility of the playoffs game day, as IIRC, not everyone was able to earn points last year? Someone correct me if I'm wrong on that - I wasn't paying a whole lot of attention to the AC at all last year.

I can make a chart for this if anyone wants it for quick reference - just let me know and I'll put it in the first post.