Pink Poogle Toy Forum

I'm not sure there are minimums, Blue. Every rank earns you... a higher rank. And more prize shop points. Apparently you need to finish 33 1/3 YYB game equivalents (1 YYB = 2 SS = 12 MSN = 12 SoSd). SoSd is probably fastest, since you can send 1 goal and get credit (see my listing above for the other minimums). So if you send 24/day, you'd be into rank 1 by the end, I think. It took me ~2:15 to play 24 SoSd, so it's less than 10 seconds per play.

P.S. That test left me 6 SoSd wins away from rank 2. Guess who just leveled up?

The only minimums I can reference are my own personal experiences from the last two Cups. (I'm referencing those two Cups as I think that's when Trophies were introduced for non-placing Teams... before then, you got a Wooden Medal regardless of how many games you'd played.) *prods* Last year, I finished the Tournament as Rank One (I played 45 games of Yooyuball, and no side games) and claimed a Gold Trophy as Kreludor won the competition. The year before, I only played 25 games of Yooyuball (and a few side games) so finished the Tournament as a Beginner... and despite Kreludor coming Third in the competition, I ended up with another Wooden Medal for my collection.

So... it depends what you want to win. If you don't mind having a Wooden Medal, then I think playing one game of Yooyuball would be enough. If you want an actual Trophy (albeit made out of wood if your Team doesn't place in the Top Three), then you'll have to reach Rank One. That's my plan for this year... although I am expecting some Kreludor-themed Prizes in this year's Prize Shop so I might aim a little higher. It depends on how I feel, I suppose. *shrugs*

Thanks. I will be satisfied with a participant medal. But I am going to give myself a "stretch goal" of Rank One this year. I think I will actually have several "free" hours on Saturday night this week!

@domo_hello_kitty - yeah , it started last Friday.

@Blue - I think? there's an avatar for reaching Level 1. I can't confirm, as I got it the first year it came out, and I'm not sure if they're awarding it anymore or not. But to get to level 1, you need 400 SOSD games, which can be done in a little over an hour if you're just doing that. (I suggest an audio book or a movie to go along with it, though, it gets boring.)


However, on a completely different note... is anyone else confused?

Why is Roo Island playing Shenkuu again? We haven't played Altador yet, and this is the 5th day.
Okay, if each round is 5 days...and it's not going to be the first or last day of a round...this is also not true. We're now on day 5....with no "bye" day.

So, so confused, TNT. I hope they clarify all this soon. I know RI isn't the only team to have played another team twice - it happened days 2-3 (I think) in another bracket as well.

One thing I really haven't appreciated is the way some people/teams are belittling RI and Altador's sweeps, saying that we're in the "lowest bracket" and it's "no big deal". True, we haven't proven ourselves against anyone outside our bracket, but if what Siniri heard about the All Stars having joined RI, Altador, and Tyrannia is true...
(okay, admittedly, I'm hoping we take the teams that are making all these comments, chew 'em up, and spit 'em out when we get to them)

Hmm.. Will the AC still be in play on Saturday? I will have at least an hour to play, I think. 400 SoSD doesn't sound too good, so I'll need to mix it up with alternating YYB and MSN games. Not a fan of SS.

I suppose I should have gone with RI this year, as I still have artwork for it. Meh, I'd have dragged y'all down

I know, Pickles! We've had one year... one... in the bottom half. And that was last year, the year of the horrible bracket system. I know I got demotivated by how royally we got screwed and gave up partway through, and a lot of other Rooligans did, too -- which unfortunately made us sink even lower. Besides, teams are always flying around the rankings. Well, it's good for us if they underestimate us and think they have an easy day -- can't wait 'til they wake up and say "Oops, those Rooligans are to be reckoned with!" -- too late! Havoc, baby!*

Blue, it should be, unless Saturday is a bye day. As Pickles pointed out, the schedule is all messed up. I like to start a game of SS, then play 4 games of MSN (send at 3k) or 4-6 games of SoSd (sending after 1 goal) before going back to SS. I then feed each row of slushies, starting with the short row, as fast as possible, only stopping to grab glasses. I usually have to go back to the short row again, but then I leave Sarah Palin waiting to collect that last row of glasses, and go play more MSN (4 again) or SoSd, then go back and sling some slushies, then play 1-2 SoSd, etc., until I'm not wasting time waiting for people in SS. Then I send at 300+. It's slightly faster than a game of YYB, and I usually get slightly more than 1 YYB game's worth of points (except I also play a quick game of SoSd after each goal in YYB, waiting for the screen to load, so they're now probably about the same). But I like SS more than YYB (if I multitask while playing -- it's boring otherwise). I think SoSd by itself is fastest, but only if it's not lagging -- and I get bored too fast.

*If you don't follow college basketball, this makes no sense. Essentially, it was VCU's playing style, whereby they'd press hard, not giving their opponents time to think or plan, and it took them from team 65 (as in they had to play for their spot in the tournament) to the Final Four -- they were underestimated every single round because they were small, had no allstars, and were "just VCU." They didn't let it get them down, though. They didn't care how good the other team was supposed to be; they just made them play VCU's game, acting like they owned the house. And they did it with raucous style.

Aww, we got our first loss yesterday, in MSN.

Also, DRAMA. Rather than post the details, I refer you to JN's post here: http://www.jellyneo.net/index.php?comments=8223

Yeah, what a crock. TNT, I am disappoint. At least RI isn't being as royally screwed as we were last year (assuming we make it into the top bracket for next round -- and get to play the hard teams in the bracket). This is such a stupid system. Why even have brackets at all? Why not just do an SAT-style placement -- you lose, you play the next team down; you win, you play the next team up, slowly shaking teams towards the bottom or top (and yes, you could end up playing the same few teams over and over -- but that way you can really decide which is better). Or have the bracket system actually work where everyone plays everyone else, and then resort the brackets based on how well they did in the bracket (though even this is problematic because it's hard to compare across brackets). Or just go back to RR or DRR. Heck, with that system, you can have all the teams and not worry about even numbers, etc. Or even a round robin to determine approximate ranking with short playoff brackets to break any ties (isn't this how it used to work)?

And great job also on changing whether practice team games count. I tested this morning and discovered they weren't counting. I only found out they were right before I left for trivia, so I just took the day off - not staying up past bedtime to play Neopets, sorry. At least hopefully it'll work right on future bye days.

ETA 6/6: The new brackets make no sense. How are we supposed to prove we're better than Darigan, Tyrannia, KI, or Meridell if none of them are in our bracket? For that matter, how are we supposed to prove our worth against Altador if we never play them? Had we gone head-to-head last round, we might have come out on top (I know they're strong, but Rooligans have a lot of heart -- we could have banded together and maybe beaten them, but we weren't even given a chance) -- and if we had, we'd be the ones with 13 points in the top row. The new scores are also confusing -- are they based on how many losses we've had? Because we've only had a single game loss -- so shouldn't we have like 29 points? (Why is it out of 30, anyway? We played 4 x 5 = 20 games... so 30 seems odd. Unless you get bonus points for sweeping. Regardless Darigan has had 4 losses vs. our 1... *sigh*)

Apparently the "bye" days were supposed to count towards personal ranks, but weren't working until the news went up. I didn't include them in my "needed per day to get All Star" though - and I certainly took yesterday off.

I think the "current" rankings are based off the "temporary" standings within the bracket. Last round, the 1st place was worth 13, second 9, etc. I guess this round, first place will be worth 17, as the two teams that have 30 currently are listed as first in their bracket right now and were first in their bracket last time? With this logic, second place this round will be worth 14, and third worth 11, etc. I guess we'll see what happens at the end of the round.

I'm not sure how I feel about the new brackets. They seem mostly random? At least we're up against mostly different teams -with the exception of Altador but since we hadn't played them...

I'm hoping TNT took out the "will play every team" bit just so the first round wasn't unclear, and will make sure that second round and on, we do play every team. In the mean time, I'm not giving up on RI yet.

On a slightly different note, I read something on the neoboards about All Star Groups (presumably the ones Siniri referred to that joined RI, Tyrannia, and Altador) - something about "exclusive" groups where All Stars are "contacted with invites to join" or something? What is that all about?

There are 2 "all-star" groups. One is called Stealth and the other SOTAC. They basically wanted to show the strength of a coalition and have been helping to decide the Cup for the last several years. One all-star sent invitations to several others a few years ago, inviting them to work together to make sure they'd get the best trophy. They always kept it a secret which team they would join, and their leader would call all the shots, deciding which team they'd join (for instance, one year they wanted to disprove the "small teams can't win" theory, so they joined a small team and brought the cup home).

The other all-star group has an offsite forum that they're invited to, and they decide together who they will join. At some point, someone defected and revealed which team they would join. Worried about a lot of freeloaders hurting their chances, they picked a different team, but a lot of people split. The rumor was they wanted to disprove the winner's curse -- so maybe this is the team that joined RI (an old winner, that no one would have guessed given our 'weak' performance last year). (Traditionally, they keep the team they joined a secret until the first day results are out.)

I forgot which is which, but supposedly this is the last year for SOTAC (who's playing for RI), so a lot of their members left for STEALTH (who's playing for Altador). But yes, both groups are by invitation only, just by them noticing your results from previous AC's. These groups have decided the top few teams in the Cup for the last several years (I had no idea...).

The third "All-Star" group is formed by Neocodex, that site/forum that helps people figure out how to use programs to play Neopets for them. So allegedly they're cheating to play the Cup games. They supposedly joined Tyrannia (no one actually knows for sure, because they didn't announce it, and no one's going to say "hey I'm part of Neocodex" on Neopets, because just mentioning the name gets you frozen).

Many regular players dislike the groups because it hurts the usually-good teams. People on small-but-loyal teams, when they do win with an All-Star group's help, don't really get any credit for their victory -- and get a lot of animosity, especially if Neocodex is helping them.

Let's see: M has teams from 1-2-3-5-5-6. A has teams from 1-1-2-3-4-5. V has teams from 2-3-4-4-6-6. They made sure two teams from each old bracket ended up in each new bracket, but still... ugh. We'd better get to play some of the other tier 1 and tier 2 teams next time! And Altador this time! Sheesh. Well, I'm motivated to just prove that we swept so much not because our opponents were weak, but because we're strong. Let's go for sweeps again!

(Seriously, TNT, put someone else in charge of picking a bracket/round system for you next time... This guy doesn't get how windmills are supposed to work.)

I've only now started to work towards contributing to Krawk Island. I has other responsibilities. Yeah. Looks like I'll have yet another participant medal, which I'm cool with.

Wow, Siniri. I didn't realize it was that big of a deal. Sheesh. I mean, I remember someone saying "they choose you", but wow, that's a new form of elitism. I guess I could've ended up invited to one of those groups if I posted a whole lot or something - think 5 All Star years would've been enough? Somehow I doubt they'd've liked my last year's rank 5 though...

As is, I am currently on track for All Star this year (not accounting for the "Bye" days). Naps have been just long enough for me to get chores done and the amount of playing per day with SOSD that is needed, so I've felt productive nearly every day by getting things done around the house that are needed, plus I've been able to let my mind rest (which, since Little P has been grumpy due to teething a lot lately, has been wonderful). All around, a nice balance for naps...and keeping my sanity. (And hey, it even got my writing brain going again, having the chance to just think during some of it, so who knows, maybe by the time this cup is over, I'll have figured out some of the stuff that's gotten me on writer's block with my novel!)

Anyways, I really do hope we continue to do well. It would be nice if we could bring home the cup again and break the winner's curse. I still wish we could've gone up against Altador last round, but maybe we'll have our chance this round.

<toddles off to let the mind wander while SOSD'ing>

Wow. Who knew all that was going on. I'm with Jacob on this one

...well, except for the Krawk Island part. Go Brightvale.

I always keep up with the 'gossip' of events...always read the boards, then follow up with Google searches.

I found out about Codex only this year, so I am glad that I have not been loyal to one team, as of now, it no longer matters if you are an honest player or not.

Adding to this, TNT's confusing and glitched bracket system, I no longer care who wins or loses.

The way I see it, I get a trophy whether my team is first or last, so I play just for my prize points. I have made All-Star 3 times (twice in a row, going for my 3rd in a row this year).

I hope my team will place, but it seems doubtful.




I have heard the rumours, and I feel that it is true. I joined Maraqua this year and we were cleaned sweeped by them. Apparently the WaM boards are keeping track of scores (don't know how) and we were beaten thoroughly by scores not seen on other loses.

How is Meridell topping its new bracket when it nearly got swept in the single battle it's had in this bracket? The current bracket standings should be based only on results within that bracket. Right now, HW should be in the lead in that bracket. TNT, change the person in charge -- they don't get it. At all.