The Road To Becoming An Altador Cup Star

Altador Cup season is one of the most exciting times of the year for many Neopians. For me, it definitely is. Before last year I had only dipped my toes into the water, but now that I've fully jumped into the pool I am holding my breath all year, just waiting or the Cup to come around! Maybe you have already experienced the Altador Cup to its full potential, or maybe you have been stuck at that beginner rank (and embarrassed that you don't even have a number rank yet!), this guide may have some useful tips for anyone that wishes to be a star! An All Star.

The Basics

So you may know that the Altador Cup consists of four games. Those games are: Yooyuball, Make Some Noise, Slushie Slinger, and Shootout Showdown. In order to rank up, you need to play these games. Technically, you don't have to play all four games, but it's best to try to get a nice mix in to help support your team!

The games all have their own point values, and to rank up you need to reach a certain amount of points. Yooyuball is worth 12 points if you win the game, or 4 points for a draw. Make Some Noise and Shootout Showdown are both equal to 1 point per game, where as Slushie Slinger is 6 points per game. Some days you may see that specific games say that they will give bonus points that day. The bonus points do not go towards your rank and are only for your team's points. For All Star you need 16,000 rank points!

You should also keep in mind that you can only play games a certain amount of times a day to count towards rank. The max for Yooyuball is 301 games, Shootout Showdown and Make Some Noise max at 1201 games, and, well, no one really tends to max out Slushie Slinger.

When playing these games you need to make sure you're sending a score that is high enough to count towards your rank! Slushie Slinger requires a minimum of 285 points, Make Some Noise requires a minimum of 3000 points, and Shootout Showdown requires at least one goal scored. When playing, you have to remember that you are a part of a team! It's better for your team if you score your absolute highest and it is frowned upon in the Altador Cup world if you only do the minimum for all your games. On bye days (days which we get to face the practice team that come between bracket switches) it is completely acceptable to send your low scores, and a wonderful time to catch up by maxing Shootout Showdown! Maxing Shootout Showdown would give 1201 points towards your rank, and with one-goal games on those bye days you could gain all of that in only 2-3 hours of playing.

I'm not going to go through all of the game play here, since there are plenty of great guides that are easy to find on fan sites. Many people have different techniques that they like for each game. I recommend reading at least a couple of guides to find what works best for you.

Pre-Cup

Pick A Team

Picking a team is kind of a huge deal in the Altador Cup. There are a fair amount of teams to decide between, some more popular than others. You want to make sure you are going to be happy with the team you choose, since there is a very patriotic vibe to the Altador Cup. I always pick the same team each year because I feel loyal to my team! If you don't yet feel loyal to a specific team, it's a good idea to take a look around the Altador Cup boards and maybe see if the chats are friendly and calling to you for any specific team. You may also want to consider if you want to be on a team that doesn't normally have many participants, or one that has many. If you decide on a team that doesn't have a large population, you may feel more motivated when your games create more of an impact on your team's outcome.

Decide On A Rank

Once you've picked your team, you should decide on a rank that you think would be obtainable. As much as you want to be realistic, make sure you aren't picking something too low! It's better to make your goals harder, and then if you don't reach them you will have at least gotten further than if you had a low goal and decided to stop there. A good site to help decide (and also to keep track of your goals as you play) can be found at neopets.com/~AbsoluteCorruption. This site will show you how many points you need for each rank, what percent of the way you are to reaching goals, how many games you need to rank up, and how many points you need in order to keep up with your goal per day. In case you don't know, Double All Star and higher are not recognized ranks by Neopets, but are ranks that have been created by those who achieve or hope for much greater than All Star.

Make a Schedule

Now that you know what your goals are, you should try making a schedule! It's good to keep track of your points every day and figure out how many points you will need to gain on average to reach your goal. If you have a predictable schedule, you may want to make specific days on your calendar be days where you aim to have more done than your busy days. If you're like me and have an unpredictable schedule, you may be better off just evenly dividing each day. You may not have the time to play every single day, but just try and keep track of how many points you earn each day and try to go above average on the days you have more time. I also recommend setting it up so that you could reach your goal a day or two early, in case you fall behind. It's up to you how you put this together, but I HIGHLY recommend you make some kind of schedule. I put mine on a petpage, but it could be hand written or even be on a calendar of some sort if you aren't as fluent in coding. :)

Pick Up The Lingo

Now that you've set yourself up for success, you should learn the Altador Cup lingo! If you're going to be participating it can get confusing when you're talking to people and half of what they say is abbreviated.

Here are the most common and useful ones to know:

• AC: Altador Cup
• AS: All Star
• GPG: Goals Per Game
• MSN: Make Some Noise
• ShSh, ShoSho, SoSd: Shootout Showdown (SoSd is most commonly used)
• SS, SlS, SlSl: Slushie Slinger (SlSl is most commonly used)
• YYB: Yooyuball

And the Team Name Abbreviations:

• AL: Altador
• BV: Brightvale
• DC: Darigan Citadel
• FL: Faerieland
• HW: Haunted Woods
• KD: Kreludor
• KI: Krawk Island
• KL: Kiko Lake
• MD: Meridell
• MI: Mystery Island
• MQ: Maraqua
• MT: Moltara
• PT: Practice Team
• RI: Roo Island
• SK: Shenkuu
• TM: Terror Mountain
• TY: Tyrannia
• VP: Virtupets

Let The Games Begin

Record, Record, Record!

Once the games begin, make sure to be recording your points each day. This will help keep you motivated, organized, and well on your way to achieving your goals!

Make Goals

Make yourself some goals as you go along. If you have only an hour or two, try setting a goal for yourself to achieve in that time limit. If you have the day off and no plans (of course you have no plans, you have games to win), try setting a goal for how many points you want to earn that day or a specific amount of games played in any specific game beforehand.

Extra Motivation

It's great to be able to motivate yourself, but way more helpful if others can help also motivate you. Chatting on your team's board, or with fellow guild members who are also playing in the Altador Cup can be a great help. It's great to set group challenges up to reach specific goals as a team. Cheering each other on and being a part of a team is what the Altador Cup is all about!

Go! Go! Go!

If you stay organized, keep motivated, and try your best, you will reach and possibly even surpass your goals. Make sure you always remember to have fun, 'cause you know – it's a game!