Altador Cup XIX (2024)

[Pickles]

Failed CAPTCHAs are the worst. I have not played yet today...so we'll see how it goes. Maybe I'll try some more SOSD during my walk.

Whelp. Orion DOES have a side quest on the AC. Since it is clearly tied to the AC (starts on the AC home page in the news section at the bottom) and does not award plot points, I'll put the info here rather than in the plot thread.

Orion AC Side Quest 1
Hello there... sorry I'm not very good at talking to crowds... b-but Sigmir and Sweet have graciously allowed me on today as I have big news. F-for those who don't know me, I am Orion O. Ophiuchus, and I have recently been, let's say gifted, with terrible visions that s-seem to be at their strongest when many Neopians gather together. If I w-wasn't able to make your acquaintance during the Festival of Neggs then this must seem very strange to you, but nevertheless, I am h-here to ask for your assistance once again. M-my visions are still not very strong, but this time I can at least see pieces of them, however, they appear very distorted now. So... as a possible solution I...I thought perhaps the fans of the Altador Cup could help me with this predicament! I will share my visions here as they come to me and, hopefully, some of you may be able to recognise something from them! I'll be doing my best to search too, so if you find any place that seems to match my visions, just wait for me there and I'll make my way over to you soon!


Click on "Offer Help" and "Explore Neopia" and go find the location of the MPIC puzzle.
Solution:

Tyrannian Furniture

Orion: This is most definitely the location from my first vision!
Thank you for leading me here!
I looked around and found this strange stone with writing on it, embedded near the top of the tree this store is built into!

It must have been placed there so long ago that the tree grew around it! How old do you think it must be then?

Orion: It seems to be part of something bigger though... perhaps my other visions will lead us to the missing pieces?
For now, keep cheering on your team at the Colosseum, and keep an eye out for me in the news there!
Oh and here is a reward for helping me find this!

Fluffy Gruslen Rug Wearable
This item is now in your inventory!

[Siniri]

Just realized I haven't chosen my staff tourney team yet. Has anyone looked at past results yet? I can try to get to it sometime tomorrow, but people were saying we should pick our teams by today. Not sure why because there's a clock with 82 hours left.

[Pickles]

Just realized I haven't chosen my staff tourney team yet. Has anyone looked at past results yet? I can try to get to it sometime tomorrow, but people were saying we should pick our teams by today. Not sure why because there's a clock with 82 hours left.

The FAQ still says by "Friday" but the countdown timer suggests otherwise. It's very confusing.
Here's a link to JN's last year's guide. It might help?

[Siniri]

I'll try to look tonight and share the highest known in each category from last year. I'll be home by ten my time. I think JN's staff tourney page has a chart with who's new this year, which of course is just a wild bet. There was a fair amount of turnover.

[Blue]

I chose my team a couple of days ago (so I did not forget!). I actually just chose the team of whom I remember being good. Both the players I chose and my memory of who I remember as being good might turn out to be very poor. But... I showed up and turned something in

ETA: Memory bad. Changed team. Lots of newbies, though. I chose an unknown (but not Unknown), and the rest are the best of what's left...

[Siniri]

I had this ready to post last night but couldn't.

In case you haven't picked your staff tourney team yet:

Here are the top scorers at each position from last year:
Forwards: Fae and Dingo
Defenders: Ivy (didn't return) and Aesop (Kikocat and Unknown were very close to each other in 3rd and 4th places, respectively)
Goalie: Willow (didn't return) and BinarySupagoo, closely followed by third place Ehlo Froyo

(I personally went with the first replacement in each of my lists, and Binary Supagoo as my star player.)

I'm on a bye day and completely locked out via captcha on my PC as of last night. I've tried every single correction recommended, including switching browsers to incognito mode and refreshing the captcha frame before sending. And making sure I'm moving my mouse slowly and less accurately to look more like an average human and not one who has optimized her movements over tens of thousands of plays in two decades.

I sent in a snarky ticket.

But I'm somehow also already at rank 17 despite really only being able to play three of the games on day 1.

Edit Sunday: IT'S BYE DAY FOR EVERYONE! Either TNT can't count, or they took it early because the captcha issue is so awful. Probably just me wishful thinking, though they did ask on Reddit for people to submit tickets sharing operating system, browser, region, etc. so they can try to figure it out.

And I'm going to enjoy my day off being truly off (after making the TVW daily task post as promised). It looks like it will be my only day off for at least a couple more weeks (not counting Wednesday's colonoscopy day because that doesn't count).

[Pickles]

The last several years, the Bye Days have always been on Sundays...I'm guessing that's the case again (despite the FAQ not being up to date). Who knows how that will work out for the rest of the cup...

I am personally glad today is a day off, because we've got enough other things going on that I can't handle AC today.

[Siniri]

I hit allstar today. Sadly, the captcha situation has not been fixed, but the two days off allowed me to get at least a few games in before it hit, and then when I was going for my run (mostly walk), I pivoted and hit the library instead of the ninja playground to get an hour in on their computers. At least YYB was working, though I only got a dozen or so MSN in before it started up again.

Worryingly, I had one failed captcha on my phone in SOSD. Fingers crossed it stays just the one!

Get your staff tourney team submitted TODAY if you haven't already! It's the last day!

EDIT 8/7:
Staff tourney results are in!

Okay... so that's... times 4... carry the 7... ah! Given your chosen team's performance, you've earned yourself 5925 Neopoints!

Oof, Fae, what happened? Dropping her for Weirdough, but otherwise, I had the best team last round, so I'm keeping everyone else. Choosing Kikocat for star player.

(Seriously, Fae, you were so good last year! But 1900 points behind second and 2200 behind first? I hope you regain your gameplay and come back next week, but I'm going to have to wait and see. You're on the bench for now.)

[Pickles]

100% with the Fae issue. Sheesh! Dead last. Weirdough definitely replaced her.

The failed CAPTCHAs were awful yesterday, and don't seem to be any better today. I think I played at least an extra 40 SOSD's yesterday. It was ridiculous. I've already had 11 failed to go along with the 41 that have successfully gone through. At this rate, it's worse than yesterday. Ugh. BLP was upset that in an hour, only 4 of his scores last night went through. Very discouraging.

Orion AC Side Quest 2
H-hello again! I am back to share another of my distorted visions! For those of you watching from home, p-please if you recognise anything I would greatly appreciate your help! And for those who may have missed my earlier announcement, feel free to go back and catch up on what you missed at any time! Th-thank you all for your help! *off screen* Did... did that sound okay? Did I come off announcery enough?


Click on "Offer Help" and "Explore Neopia" and go find the location of the MPIC puzzle.
Solution:

Lost City of Geraptiku
Orion:This is most definitely the location from my second vision!
Thank you for leading me here!
Once I arrived I was immediately drawn to the Deserted Tomb, but didn't even need to enter as I found this strange stone as one of the many used to build it. Hidden in plain sight I suppose...but based on the erosion of it being the same as the others from the tomb, this must have been here from the beginning. Who even knows how long ago that must have been...who could have placed it there?

Orion: It seems to be part of something bigger though... perhaps my other visions will lead us to the missing pieces?
For now, keep cheering on your team at the Colosseum, and keep an eye out for me in the news there!
Skull Punch Handheld
This item is now in your inventory!

All in spoilers because the text definitely reveals where it's found.

[Siniri]

I was so proud of myself for solving Orion's puzzle on my own. Mystery pics were never my forte. I think I solved maybe one or two on my own.

The only way I can beat the captchas is to play on a library computer (YYB and MSN) or my phone (SOSD and SlSl) at this point. (Well, I also managed a few YYB and MSN on my laptop at my friend's place, but that was before they got really bad for me.)

I highly recommend playing what you can on a tablet or phone if it's possible. I've only had one captcha on mobile.

It's so frustrating. They should just deactivate the captchas and let the cheaters do what they will... I'm just so sick of the real humans suffering. So much for this Cup respecting our time, effort, and mental health.

[Pickles]

I've been playing SOSD on my phone and getting the number of fails as I mentioned. It was fine until yesterday, but now it's a headache. Maybe I'll try my old phone, see if it's any better...

I, too, wish they would deactivate the captchas. They've proven ineffective against the cheaters anyways. Bleh.

[Blue]

Ughh...

Okay... so that's... times 4... carry the 7... ah! Given your chosen team's performance, you've earned yourself 4860 Neopoints!

Only 9720 team points. Dropped new girl for Kikocat and dropped Fae for Weirdogh. Sadly, this 2nd week's team was my first instinct team last week. But, "give the new person a shot". "Fae was amazing"... Yeah. But, it is better than the year I forgot to choose a team...

[Pickles]

I definitely took an extra "bye" day yesterday and did not do any games. I hit All-Star sometime last week and with the prize shop being as bad as it is, I find myself totally unmotivated to do a lot more. If I knew they'd be adding anything, I'd probably try harder, but it appears that they will not be. I'm very disappointed that there's not even a year stamp (despite one being found). I suspect it'll be just given away for completing the Orion Side Quests, which is disappointing, as in the past, it's been my sole motivation to bother to try past All-Star.

Speaking of...

Orion AC Side Quest 3
W-welcome back! I am here once more to ask you all... S-sorry, I was trying to remain chipper and fun as Sigmir and Sweet recommended, but I am simply too drained from the visions. I don't want to scare off any potential help. So, I am doing my best to remain optimistic but I must admit this one seems very difficult compared to the rest! O-on happier news, though. There has been some real headway from my last two visions! I don't want to cause any preconceived notions to get in the way, so I won't share too many details. However, if you want to help with those please feel free to go check out my last two announcements to see if you can glean anything from them as well!


Click on "Offer Help" and "Explore Neopia" and go find the location of the MPIC puzzle.
Solution:

Ice Crystal Shop
Orion: This is most definitely the location from my third vision!
Thank you for leading me here!
It took some work, but I found this strange stone deep inside the ice of the chasm next to this shop. I...I'm not sure how it got there. Due to the distance in the ice, it must have been there when this cave formed. Which must have been long before... well, I don't even know! Probably before recorded history!

Orion: It seems to be part of something bigger though... perhaps my other visions will lead us to the missing pieces?
For now, keep cheering on your team at the Colosseum, and keep an eye out for me in the news there!
Here is a reward for helping me find this!
Frozen Pendant
This item is now in your inventory!

All in spoilers because the text definitely reveals where it's found again.

[Siniri]

I did not solve that mystery pic on my own this time! Thanks, Pickles!

New staff tourney round has started:
Okay... so that's... times 4... carry the 7... ah! Given your chosen team's performance, you've earned yourself 6401 Neopoints!

Fae tanked again this week. Glad I dropped her. Aesop dropped 710 points from last week, barely coming in fourth among defenders. Second best was Unknown (who's also RI and has cat ears!). Kikocat, Binary Supagoo, and Dingo continued to dominate, while Weirdough hung on to second place among offense.

I'll be swapping out Aesop for Unknown and keeping Kikocat as my star player since she's gotten the highest score every round so far.

[Pickles]

I'm actually keeping my team. Aesop has proven that he CAN get a really high score. I think he just had a bad week...or too many captchas or something. ;p At any rate, I've already selected them again so that I don't forget in the course of the next week.