Altador Cup: Choosing the Team On Historical Basis

Will Tyrannia repeat itself in an outstanding back-to-back double winning? Or will some other of the previous winners conquer a second title? But maybe the tradition will carry on, and a new team will taste the joy of being champion for the first time. But which one?

This article aims to help the players to choose their team according to their AC history. In fact, a deep analysis of the past editions' standings tells many important facts, and shows that some teams tend to have a better ranking than others, making them a more reliable choice for a good position at the end of the competition.

We had eight different winners in eight editions, and, although all the teams that can exhibit a gold cup in their showcase have the obvious right to feel kind of nobler than the ones that never won, as far as number of winnings is concerned, no team can be defined the best. Therefore, a rank system must be introduced, taking into account every placement recorded in all the editions; here three different criteria will be used to sort the teams, and three different standings will be presented accordingly. An analysis of these results will then lead to a definite indication of the teams that are more likely, on historical basis, to fight for the championship.

Criterion 1: Medals

This first criterion takes into account only the placements on the podium, so only teams that came first, second or third get some credit. Like in the Olympic games standings, the bunch will be sorted according to number of gold medals, then silver, then bronze, so that 8 silvers will be ranked lower than 1 single gold.

According to this choice, the standings are the following:

Pos	Team	1st	2nd	3rd
1	Krawk Island	1	2	1
2	Darigan Citadel	1	1	1
2	Kreludor	1	1	1
2	Roo Island	1	1	1
5	Lost Desert	1	0	2
6	Haunted Woods	1	0	0
6	Tyrannia	1	0	0
6	Virtupets	1	0	0
9	Shenkuu	0	1	1
10	Altador	0	1	0
10	Mystery Island	0	1	0
12	Meridell	0	0	1

Being proudly able to exhibit a title and two runner-up positions, Krawk Island proves to be the the long-term best team. Darigan Citadel, Kreludor and Roo Island tie at the second place with a nice 1-1-1 set, while Lost Desert follows shortly after. Only 12 teams appear in the list according to this classification, since Brightvale, Faerieland, Kiko Lake, Maraqua, Moltara and Terror Mountain never managed to achieve a top-3 rank (and are therefore good candidates for a first-time victory).

Criterion 2: Points

Like in many motor sports, a balanced point system can be introduced, and the final standing is determined after summing the points coming from the result of every competition for each team.

Points are given with this algorithm:

• 1st place: 25 pts
• 2nd place: 20 pts
• 3rd place: 16 pts
• 4th place: 13 pts
• 5th place: 11 pts
• 6th place: 10 pts
• 7th place: 9 pts
• 8th place: 8 pts
• 9th place: 7 pts
• 10th place: 6 pts
• 11th place: 5 pts
• 12th place: 4 pts
• 13th place: 3 pts
• 14th place: 2 pts
• 15th place: 1 pt

After doing some math, here are the standings:

Pos	Team	Pts
1	Krawk Island	125
2	Darigan Citadel	112
3	Roo Island	103
4	Kreludor	100
5	Lost Desert	97
6	Meridell	78
7	Haunted Woods	71
8	Tyrannia	70
9	Maraqua	69
10	Shenkuu	64
11	Mystery Island	62
12	Virtupets	48
13	Terror Mountain	43
14	Altador	29
14	Brightvale	29
16	Kiko Lake	19
17	Faerieland	4
18	Moltara	1

Krawk Island still hits the top spot: in addition to the 4 medals that granted the Pirates the first place according to the previous algorithm, a constant presence in the upper positions of the lot (a seventh place being their worst result) allows many points to be summed up for an undisputed victory. The runner-up position is definitely taken by the Darigan Citadel, while a great battle for the third place enrages among Lost Desert, Kreludor and Roo Island, the latter being the one conquering the bronze trophy (also thanks to the brilliant third place achieved in the last edition). It must be noticed though that Kreludor did not take part in Altador Cup II, because if they did they would most likely be on the podium (theoretically competing even for the first place).

The lower part of the standings shows that Yooyuball has never been a popular sport among the clouds (or in the crater Faerieland fell into) or the lava pits, although Moltara has been rediscovered only in recent times and its team had only four occasions to play in the Cup.

Criterion 3: Average

Both the previous methods have the disadvantage of not considering the times when, for a reason or another, a team did not participate in the Cup. This happened to Shenkuu in the first edition (the land was still to be discovered), Kreludor in the second (cut off from the tournament), Kiko Lake in the third (cut off from the tournament), Brightvale in the fourth (cut off from the tournament) and Moltara before the fifth (late discovery of the land). Therefore, a criterion looking only at the results of the times when a team entered the Cup may be developed, and the simplest one consists in calculating the average position obtained by the teams when they played.

The standings with this algorithm are the following:

Pos	Team	Average
1	Krawk Island	3.750
2	Darigan Citadel	4.500
3	Kreludor	4.571
4	Roo Island	5.750
5	Lost Desert	5.875
6	Meridell	6.625
7	Maraqua	7.500
8	Shenkuu	8.286
9	Haunted Woods	8.375
10	Tyrannia	8.500
11	Mystery Island	9.000
12	Terror Mountain	10.625
13	Virtupets	11.250
14	Brightvale	11.857
15	Kiko Lake	13.286
16	Altador	13.500
17	Faerieland	15.625
18	Moltara	17.250

Even according to this third criterion, Krawk Island reigns above all the other teams, followed by Darigan Citadel. Kreludor, not having the disadvantage of a missed participation anymore, manages to complete the podium. Roo Island and Lost Desert follow, burdened by a 14th (AC 7) and 13th+12th (AC7 and AC8) place respectively.

Moltara and Faerieland confirm even with this algorithm that their teams still have to master the sport.

The outcome of the classifications, taken with the criteria shown above, tells a consistent story: Krawk Island, on the long term, has proven to be the most constant top-player in the Altador Cup, followed shortly by the Darigan Citadel. The bronze trophy of this academic podium would go either to Roo Island or Kreludor, who would probably occupy the higher position between the two if the team participated in every edition. Lost Desert is not so far from the podium; so, rooting for one of these teams could probably be a good choice for earning a high-rank trophy.

On the other hand, if also this year a first-time victory will come, according to the stats the bets are on Meridell and Maraqua (the highest ranked among the non-winners).

Of course, this is only a math exercise - and probably a pointless one: the best team is the one that holds the Cup, and for now Tyrannia still rules. But it is interesting to know the average behaviour of the teams during a longer time span, because evidence shows that some teams are consistently present in the uppermost positions, and most likely it will be one of them to be the first to proudly display a second title in its showcase.

Anyway - either if you choose Krawk Island Pirates for their amazing record, or Faerieland creatures because they are the perfect underdogs, be sure to do your best for your team in the upcoming AC!