I Got Sunshine On A Cloudy Day (It's A Song Reference)

[Midtime]

[A reporter stands outside the Altadorian Colosseum.]

Mea navis volitans anguillis plena est, viewers! Wait - that isn't right.

[He produces a phrasebook and opens it to a bookmarked page.]

Ahem. Salvete, I meant. This is Midtime of The Daily Neopets, welcoming you to another day of results from the Altador Cup. Despite rumblings yesterday it seems that order has not been completely overthrown, as we come back yet again to a scoreboard composed mainly of sweeps. I'll start off with the Alabriss Bracket.

Tyrannia have been having another good day, crushing the Faeries on the field and overwhelming them in the side games. The Faeries have been putting up a fight the entire Cup, but they had little opportunity to display their remarkable synergy this match, as the Fossils' brutal offence kept the Yooyu constantly out of the hands of their defenders. While Faerieland's performance has done little to encourage the players or their fans, captain Kakoni Worrill remains adamant that the team will yet see better days - saying to reporters, "It takes a while to rise above the clouds."

After suffering severe losses over the past few days, the Knights have gotten back on their feet, and ended their match against the Rooligans with a score of 5-4 in their favour, to much celebration. Roo Island, who have recently been making great headway against the teams of their bracket, would no doubt point instead to their victory in the side games, where their enthusiasm and professionalism have given them a clear advantage in everything but the shootouts.

The Haunted Woods' victory over Maraqua, though no surprise, was still a bitter event for the Mermaids, who have not seen a sunny day since their victory over Altador in the second round. The Zombies' scores have risen again just as precipitously as they fell yesterday, leaving their enemies with no opportunity whatsoever to prevent total defeat. While Maraqua are once again contemplating their loss and reconsidering their approach, Zombie supporters already consider their podium position a sure thing.

Next is the Minitheus Bracket, which Matt will outline for you. I'll send you over to him now. Mea navis volitans anguillis plena est!

Oh, that wasn't 'have a nice day' either? Bother me...

[As the reporter leafs through his phrasebook once again, the feed cuts to Matt in the newsroom.]

Thanks, Midtime! I think you should call the exterminator to get rid of those eels. They can get pretty dangerous. Any way, we are severely short-staffed in the newsroom today and even our trusty camera-rock is gone! Now who'll operate the camera? All the reports have gone missing, and the only remnant of Austin that I have left is his trusty mustache. Let me see if I can...please excuse me for a minute...

[Matt gets up and walks out of the view of the camera. Rustling noises can be heard as if he is trying to find something. Moments later he reappears in front of the cameras with a cardboard cutout of Austin. He places the cutout on the seat next to him, presumably where the co-anchor would sit.]

Here we... oh, wait! So silly of me. How could I forget the most important part?

[He takes the shiny black mustache and attaches it to the cardboard cutout of Austin.]

There we go, perfect! My very own personal Austin. I feel much better now. Let's get back to the Altador Cup; the results have just come in, so I'll get straight to work. Let's take a look at the Minitheus Bracket.

Krawk Island wasn't able to stand up against the might of Kiko Lake, whose scores towered over their own today. The Pirates were not so high and mighty this time, posting dismal scores of 3 in both Slushie Slinger and Make Some Noise; the Kikos seized the advantage and dominated in those games, with a margin of up to four points! Kiko Lake must be pleased with their standing in the bracket right now, as they're currently in second, with the Pirates trailing behind in third. The Kikos are doing very well this season - overall they're tied for 5th place with Darigan Citadel. Will they be able to maintain their current level of gameplay?

We also have our guaranteed sweep of the day as we take a look at the match between Virtupets and Lost Desert. Of course, the Mummies were no match for the ferocious Robots as Virtupets takes another sweep under their belts. The Robots are the only undefeated team, a title that many others will be looking to ruin! They are currently first in their bracket, tied with Haunted Woods and Moltara overall. All in all they are poised to become a repeat winner, the first in the Cup's history. Even if they don't come out on top this year, they already have a podium spot with their name on it.

Breaking news for this last matchup everyone! I've just been informed that Altador has won not one but TWO, yes, TWO games today. It was finally their chance to shine as they blinded the Brightvale Wizards with their overwhelming vigour and endurance, snagging Make Some Noise and Slushie Slinger. The Wizards retaliated with victories in Yooyuball and Shootout Showdown, however. Overall the Suns are ecstatic with today's performance. This follows another win the day before in Slushie Slinger against Lost Desert. The sun has finally broken through the clouds and its brilliance is shining upon the Altador stadium! We'll see if the Suns can keep this up; they certainly have a lot more confidence and pride walking away from today's match!

Now I turn the report over to Brooke, who'll cover the Vaeolus Bracket for us!

[Brooke runs in breathlessly, hair a mess and still in her pajamas. She yanks the cardboard cutout of Austin out of its spot, and plops down in its place.]

Sorry, Matt, I overslept. I don't know about you, but I sort of lose all sense of schedule once summer gets going! I just- Wait, why do you have a life-size cutout of Austin? Never mind, I don't want to know. Uh... right, the report.

[Brooke pulls a large pile of papers from her backpack and hurriedly digs through them, occasionally giving the camera a nervous grin.]

Ahh, here we are. The results from the Vaeolus Bracket!

[Brooke unceremoniously shoves all the irrelevant papers off the desk, leaving one page remaining.]

Mystery Island faced off against Kreludor today, and while the results for the Natives have been a bit of a mixed bag this year, the Moons have been winning fairly consistently, particularly in Shootout Showdown. Today was certainly no exception, as Kreludor took Mystery Island down in three out of four games. The Natives managed to hold off the Moons enough for a draw in Slushie Slinger, avoiding a sweep.

The results of the match between Darigan Citadel and Terror Mountain were similar today, as Slushie Slinger was again the point of upset. The Minions' recent pattern of a sweep every other day was disrupted as the Chillers rose to the occasion, beating them 6-4 against the jelly Chia.

Our final match of the day proved that the brooms are determined to be a part of this year's Cup, as Moltara swept Shenkuu solidly in all four games. In fact, the Magmas achieved a whopping 18 points in Make Some Noise, their highest score in any game yet! Shenkuu's strong start against the weaker teams seems to have been something of a fluke, but there's plenty of time for them to turn things around. They may yet sneak up on us with some wins!

That wraps up things in the Vaeolus Bracket. I'll turn things back over to my crazy- I mean… er... unique colleague. Matt?

Thanks, Brooke! And no, I'm not crazy, maybe just a little loopy. Keep an eye out for these matches today, as the game between Shenkuu and Terror Mountain will be a close one. Terror Mountain was able to pull off a win in Slushie Slinger against Darigan Citadel yesterday, so we'll see if they can pull that off and maybe even more today! You should also keep an eye on the Roo Island versus Maraqua match - it's definitely going to be a great one! That's all for today's report! Thanks for watching, and we'll see you tomorrow. Matt on behalf of the AC team at TDN, signing off!

Obligatory disclaimer: This news report was written to inform you all of the latest Altador Cup results in as entertaining a manner as possible. The rest of its content is largely fictional, composed from various fan comments and the whims of our imagination in an attempt to inspire a sense of realism through our reporting. While we do our best to keep things reasonably neutral, this report is in no way intended to be a completely bias-free listing of the day's results, nor does it claim to provide critical analysis of past and potential outcomes from qualified Altador Cup experts. Please note that the opinions formulated in this report are from a full team of different reporters, and in no way represent the views of only a single faction. If you're looking for 100% unbiased performance data, take a look at our standings page. If professional analysis tickles your fancy, you want our predictions pages (global/daily).

[Novelista]

"My ship is full of flying eels", Midtime?

 

Oh well. *shrugs and sings along to "My Girl" with you. ;) *

[Midtime]

Close enough. I believe the adjective in this case is attached to the noun it follows, rather than the one it precedes. ;) Nonetheless, it's an imperfect translation to begin with.

 

As much as I'd like to take the credit, I'm afraid the headline was Brooke's - I couldn't come up with two popular culture references in the same day if I tried to.

 

Thank you for reading!