Science and Math (21 May 2013)

As the entry period for ACVIII gradually draws to a close, the last remaining teams continue to slowly trickle into Altador. The first such team to arrive today was Team Brightvale, and they showed up at the Colosseum with a pair of young neopets in tow. "A lot of teams have to hold raffles to make enough neopoints to travel to Altador every year," team captain Montecito told reporters as they watched the Acaras take turns trying to kick a Yooyuball past goalie Orie Dinelle. "Since all of our expenses are covered by King Hagan, we decided to hold a charity auction instead." He went on to talk about the various gifts donated by the team, from signed game jerseys to caps bearing the Brightvale logo, and even a pastoral scene painted by forward Kayn Hireck. "You'd never guess it by looking at him, but he's really quite talented. Anyway," he continued, "All of the winning bids were put into a grand prize drawing, and the winners of that drawing got the opportunity to travel with the team to ACVIII." After the twin Acaras exhausted themselves, the gathered media finally got the chance to ask them how they felt about being with the team for the entire Tournament, and the excited neopets spent the better part of an hour babbling about being in the BV locker rooms and being able to watch every match from the sidelines until an assistant coach showed up and dragged them away, much to the reporters' relief.

It was a rough season for the champs of ACVI last year, and this season hasn't started out much better. "Someone spilled an entire can of Achyfi on our spaceship's control panel just as we were entering an asteroid belt," Virtupets defender Sela Pretore grumbled during the team's press conference. "Thankfully, our ship was outfitted with a manual override, so the captain was able to guide us through without too much damage." However, it became apparent later on that the Xweetok had been downplaying the severity of the situation, once reporters mentioned it to the head coach. "I'd like to say we came out unscathed, but that really wasn't the case," he said. "We did avoid a head-on collision, but the ship suffered several glancing blows, and almost everyone wound up with at least minor bumps and bruises." The biggest problem, though, came from the fact that most of the damage suffered was in the storage area of the ship, which happened to be where the team kept robot players Goltron Mk I and XL Striker 3.8 for the trip down to Altador. "Goltron was mainly okay," the coach said, "With most of the damage being cosmetic. But XL Striker was decimated, and it's going to take our technicians pretty much all of the time remaining before the Cup to fully repair him." In the meantime, the team is reportedly going to practice with a back-up robot brought along from Virtupets with specs similar to that of the downed robot.

Only a few locker rooms still remain empty, and the halls of the Colosseum are beginning to fill with stands holding every kind of AC souvenir imaginable. Eager fans are already lining up outside of the ticket office, hoping to be the first to snag one of the few precious seats right on the edge of the Yooyuball field.

Stone and Sea (22 May 2013)

It's taken nearly a week, but one of the top contenders for this year's Cup finally arrived today. Fans gathered outside the Colosseum eagerly held their breath in anticipation when a bus rolled into view early this afternoon, and once it was confirmed to be the team they'd waited for so long, the entire crowd burst out into cheers and rythmic stomping. The applause started as the bus slowly ground to a halt, and intensified with each new player that disembarked, until the frenzy grew to such an intense level that a few fans had to be revived after fainting with exitement. Team Tyrannia, in gratitude of such an outpouring of emotion, spent a considerable time walking around the crowd, taking care to chat with each adoring fan and even signing the numerous pictures that got thrust their way. Once the furor finally died down, the team made their way into the Colosseum's media room for the traditional pre-season press conference, where they mostly covered standard fare until the coach was asked about longtime goalkeeper Harlis Neyhbol. "I know there's been a lot of rumors going around about Harlis during the off-season," he said, "But since the rosters won't be finalized for a few more days yet, I can't really comment on them one way or another. However," he continued, "I would like to say that he has been a great asset to this team, and no matter what his future holds, we will all be forever greatful for everything he has done for Tyrannia."

In what could be called an ominous sign, (For the other teams, at least) TY apparently brought a tempest along with them, as the skies over Altador swiftly went from a brilliant blue to overcast, then to an ominous black shortly after the team finished their press conference. Within minutes, the heavens opened and the crowd outside scattered in all directions, while the Colosseum's grounds team frantically rushed to cover the grass of the stadium's main Yooyuball field. It was in this scene of chaos that Team Maraqua made their first appearance. "It's a little surreal for us, seeing everyone try to avoid getting wet," center Oten Runeu laughed while watching one reporter attempt to wring the water out of her fur. While most teams were forced to turn in for the day, Maraqua was encouraged rather than dissuaded by the inclement weather, and the entire team took to the empty greens outside of the Colosseum to conduct their first official practice of ACVIII. After running some speed and agility drills, goalie Tonie Plessix rounded up the few remaining fans which had chosen to ride out the storm, and the small group used the last bit of daylight to conduct a mock scrimmage, with plenty of sliding and full-on faceplants to keep the match from getting too serious.

Only two locker rooms still remain empty, and it is all but certain that the entire roster of teams is soon to be completed. Even though the Colosseum won't officially open to the public until the start of June, the main atrium is scheduled to open to the public in two short days' time, where fans will get to browse displays of past Yooyuball tournaments, sign up for Fantasy Yooyuball leagues, and purchase tickets to every one of this season's exciting matchups.

M & M (23 May 2013)

The skies above Altador continue to rain down water upon the earth, but for fans of Yooyuball everything is bright and sunny. With the arrival of the last two teams today, the Colosseum now boasts a full complement of talent from around the globe, ranging from Magma players hailing from deep within Neopia to robots assembled in a futuristic space station high above the clouds. As the weather was still poor enough to prohibit any kind of on-field practice, most of the teams spent the day going over game film or discussing various YYB strategies until Moltara captain Aldric Beign initiated an impromptu Geos tournament. "We just got here, so there's really nothing for us to do until the crew finishes setting up," the Kougra commented later. "I like to play Geos in my spare time as a way of unwinding, so I'd brought along a set with me from Moltara. I wasn't really intending to play or anything, but I'd just finished setting it up for down the road when Valtonous Rea happened to walk by." The goalie for Faerieland, apparently a bit of a Geos enthusiast herself, challenged Aldric to a game to pass the time. Within a few minutes players from other teams, bored from the lack of action, began to drift into MT's locker room to watch the game. "It was really exciting," forward Tulah Kisner commented. "Both Aldric and Valtonous were in the lead numerous times, and no one knew who would win until the very end." Once the match had concluded, so many other players indicated a desire to try their hand at the game that various staffers were sent on a mad scramble to rustle up as many Geos sets as they could find. "Things kind of snowballed from there," Aldric Beign laughed. "Players began teaming up together to take on other players, so we instituted a scoring system to keep track of who had won the most games. I'm not going to say who wound up on top, but I will tell you that there are some surprisingly talented Geos players on the Yooyuball field."

The final team to arrive at the Colosseum was Team Meridell, and if they were looking to make an entrance they certainly did so, though perhaps not quite the entrance they were hoping for. Thanks to a break in the weather, most of the crowds had returned to the Colosseum in anticipation of the final team to arrive, but their enthusiasm turned to confusion when they saw a bus bearing Brightvale's logo roll up to the stadium. Once Meridell's players disembarked, it became evident that someone from Brightvale had somehow managed to paste their logo over MD's in the brief period of time the bus had been parked down at Altador's docks. The angry coach quickly set low-level staffers to removing the offending image, but the indignity to MD had yet to be fully uncovered. While part of the crew hastily scraped off the new paint, the rest of them began unloading the team gear. Much to their horror, every single piece of equipment in the bus had been painted either green or yellow, and their practice Yooyuballs had even been marked with the image of King Hagan's royal crest. "If that's how Brightvale wishes to conduct themselves in the Altador Cup, that's their business," defender Ilsa Ellits said of the prank, calmly. "However, there will be a time and place for us to repay them in full for this little scheme they have concocted."

Now that all eighteen teams are in the Colosseum, the countdown to Altador Cup VIII can finally begin in earnest. The souvenir stalls have been packed to the brim, and the slushie machines are running at full speed in anticipation of the eager fans set to flood into the Colosseum in less than 24 hours' time.

Altador Cup VIII Begins (31 May 2013)

After a long eleven months, the top players in the ancient sport of Yooyuball have once again gathered in Altador to do battle against one another in the Colosseum. The stadium's massive double doors were officially thrown open to the public early this morning, and thousands of fans eagerly flooded through the halls, snatching up souvenirs as fast as the stalls could be restocked while making their way into the main Yooyuball arena. The best seats were quickly claimed by fans who had been sleeping outside of the Colosseum for the better part of two days, and within an hour it was standing room only as the crowd awaited the long-anticipated opening ceremony of Altador Cup VIII. After a short delay, King Altador emerged from the tunnels beneath the stands, and a hush fell over the stadium as he made his way to a dais set up in the middle of the field. "Citizens and visitors from around the world," he began, "Allow me to officially welcome you to the great city of Altador for the start of Altador Cup VIII." His opening statement was followed by a lengthy session of cheering and applause, and once the noise finally died down he continued; "The best teams from around Neopia have been invited to participate in this test of valor and skill, and I would like to thank each and every one for choosing to put aside their lives for a time in order to travel to Altador so we may crown a champion from among them." After another session of applause, he gestured back to the tunnels and began to introduce each team one by one. New to the ceremony this year was the inclusion of a cultural representative from each land, and every team came out onto the field along with one of their staffers dressed in the traditional garb of their people. Some of the highlights included Roo Island with a jester costume, Lost Desert with a recreation of King Jazan's royal garb, Tyrannia with full war regalia, and Haunted Woods with..... nothing, at least at first glance. Some people mentioned later that they thought they made out the faint outline of a ghost neopet, but it was difficult to say for sure, given the late-morning sunlight that was streaming into the Colosseum. Once every team was gathered on the field, King Altador charged each of them to play with nothing less than the utmost in sportsmanship, and reminded them to conduct themselves as though each player was an ambassador from their land to the rest of the world. Each player nodded in solemn agreement, then turned and waved to the cheering crowd as they made their way off of the field.

Following the closing statement from King Altador, an official from the ACPC rolled a massive blackboard onto the field, and the entire crowd waited with bated breath to see what the first matchups of ACVIII were going to be. As the sheet was pulled from the blackboard, the wave of excitement from the assembled fans was followed by a short bout of confusion, then by a low murmur of fevered discussion. Apparently, the ACPC had heard the myriad complaints regarding last season's bracket matchups and chose to arrange the first brackets this season according to how each team finished in ACVII. The top six got placed in the Alabriss bracket, and middle six in the Minitheus bracket and the bottom six in the Vaeolus bracket. As of yet, no one knows how this arrangement will ultimately affect the final standings, but for many of last year's lower-ranked teams it is no doubt a small amount of relief to know they will have at least one round to get their bearings before they have to go up against some of the league's heavy hitters.

Sweeps (1 Jun 2013)

Altador Cup VIII started out strong for most of yesterday's winners, as over half of the matches were total sweeps. In the Alabriss bracket, KD shocked the Yooyuball world by winning all four games against last year's second-place finisher MI, though the Islanders did manage to stay in every single game right up until the very end. KL also put the smackdown on their opponant, losing only MSN to the Pharoahs. MD vs DC was much closer, with both teams taking two games apiece, but it was ultimately MD who prevailed thanks to a strong finish in their YYB match-up. The Vaeolus bracket was even more one-sided, with all three winning teams scoring complete sweeps. RI vs VP was a tense affair, with the first three games all coming down to the final seconds before the Roos scored the deciding points. The SK vs MT match was also close, but decidedly less exciting, as all of the games were fought defensively with plenty of errors on both sides. Perhaps the biggest surprise in the bracket came in the final match of the day, when long-time bottom-feeders AD posted an epic crushing victory of FL, earning at least twice the points of the Faeries in all four games and coming in a whopping ten points higher than FL in MSN. "It's about time our fans got to have a good experience on the first day of the Cup," team captain "Trapper" Remis said after the match. "They've stuck with us through everything, and we feel as though this win was more for them than us."

Of all the brackets, the Minitheus was probably the most evenly matched, with only one team earning a sweep yesterday. The Dinos, perhaps wanting to avoid a repeat of last year's weak start, fought their way to victory against a tough HW team also hoping to return to their former glory. In the YYB match, it at first looked as though the Haunties were cruising to an easy win until TY defender "Scrap" Taggert executed a cunning steal against HW's Krell Vitor. The half-second of confusion from HW after losing the ball was just enough for the Moehog to pass to team captain Loryche, who managed to score before HW was able to reset to defensive positions. From then on it was all Dinos, who eventually won the game 6-5 then went on to take all three sidegames from the dispirited Haunties. The other two Minitheus matches saw each team winning two games and losing two, with winners MQ and BV taking YYB and MSN and losing teams KI and TM winning SS and SOSD.

More Sweeps (2 Jun 2013)

The domination of the Cup by a few select teams continues, as once again over half of all of yesterday's matches were sweeps. In the Alabriss bracket, defending champions KD were unable to follow up their day one sweep with a victory, and ended up losing three out of four games in a hard-fought battle against ACVII bronze holders MD. Things were even worse for the two other losing teams in that bracket, as LD was unable to muster more than four points in any game and MI wound up being swept for the second day in a row. It was very much the same in the Vaeolus bracket, where RI scored their second sweep of ACVIII against FL and AD continued their unlikely run for the cup with another dominating performance, this time against SK. MT vs VP provided a little excitement, with both YYB and SS being won by a single point. At first, it looked as though the YYB match was going to be a high-scoring affair, with both teams bumping the tally up to 4-3 within a minute of the start of play. A quick time-out from VP gave both defenses time to regroup, however, and once the clock was restarted the game transformed from an offensive battle to a defensive match. Neither team was able to score more than once in the remaining two minutes, and when a last-second desperation shot from MT's Tulah Kisner was denied by VP's Goltron Mk I, it became obvious that VP was going to earn their first victory of ACVIII. The Moltarans did come away with two consolation wins, one in SS and one in SOSD, though they were unable to earn even half the points that VP did in MSN.

The only bracket not to feature two sweeps was the Minitheus bracket, thanks to HW's come-from-behind win in MSN. MQ vs BV was perhaps the most evenly matched battle of the day, where both teams won two games and every event other than SOSD was decided by a single point. The lone sweep came from the unexpectedly surging Dinos, who not only won all four games against TM but also took the Mountaineer's best game, SOSD, in a convincing 8-5 fashion.

Upsets (3 Jun 2013)

While for the most part yesterday's matches featured more lopsided wins, day three marked the first appearance of the dreaded upset in Altador Cup VIII. Perhaps the least surprising of those upsets came in the Vaeolus bracket, where FL finally earned their first YYB victory against MT after going winless for the entirety of ACVII. The score was essentially tied for most of the battle, with one side or the other briefly in the lead until the other team answered with a point of their own, but in the end it was the Faeries who managed to mount a furious final drive to win the game 5-4. FL put up a noble fight in the other three games, but their energy had been entirely spent winning YYB and MT wound up pulling a sidegame sweep. "Queen Fyora herself must have been smiling down on us today," a grinning Delma Harrence told reporters afterward. "We're a little disappointed we couldn't win any of the sidegames, but this win is huge for us. We'll take it."

The second upset came earlier in the day, where TM shocked MQ by winning a 6-5 YYB game that wasn't as close as the final score might indicate. MQ looked uncharacteristically sluggish for the first half of the match, and TM took advantage by quickly running up the score to 4-0 before MQ even had a chance to respond. There was less than one minute left to go when MQ finally woke up, and despite their best efforts TM's early lead proved to be insurmountable. "Everyone was doubting us today," Osielle Lidel said of the win later. "Seeing how no one believed we even had a chance against MQ really lit a fire in the team."

The final upset came in one of the earliest matches of the day, where the up-till-now dominant Kikos faced off against a surging DC squad. Both teams looked to be evenly matched throughout the course of the game, but it was DC's experience in the Cup which ultimately gave them the edge, and they were able to score the go-ahead point when KL began to tire under their unrelenting onslought_ KL did their best to pull out some sidegame wins, but DC proved to be too tough for the Kikos, who only managed to earn a single win in SS.

The rest of the day's games went pretty much as expected, with RI, TY and AD all racking up their third day in a row of sweeps, MD repeating their triple victory over KD and KI improving to a sweep over HW, and LD taking every game except SOSD from the beleagured Islanders.