The Final Sweep: Haunted Woods Wins the Cup!

[Nellethiel]

Good morning, sports fans! This is Brooke, proudly welcoming you to the last day of The Daily Neopets' Altador Cup coverage. It's been quite the interesting month, what with the violence and the subterfuge, the rocks and the cardboard cutouts... and the sports, of course! Before we congratulate the winners, let's see how things went for everyone on the last day of play.

Monday's results featured a record number of sweeps: eight out of nine match-ups! The sweeps started in the Alabriss Bracket, where Kiko Lake really gave it their all against the Lost Desert. The Kikos pulled off their highest scores of the season at the last minute, giving them seven- and eight-point wins in Make Some Noise and Shootout Showdown. The Kikos' scores put them in sixth, just shy of the fourth-place tie, and the Mummies' in sixteenth, just short of the thirteenth-place tie.

The Magmas went up against the Minions on Monday, and, unsurprisingly, took their third sweep in as many days. Moltara exhibited a certain weakness in Yooyuball this year, but while this was their closest game with the Darigan Citadel, they still managed to pull ahead by a point. The side events were all taken by quite a few points. The Magmas took us all by surprise this year, rocketing to the podium after several years at the bottom of the heap. They took third place this year by an impressive margin, leaving Darigan Citadel behind them and tied for fourth.

In the last match of the Alabriss Bracket, Meridell took on the Haunted Woods. The Zombies predictably wiped the floor with the Knights, who put up slightly higher-than-average scores, but were ultimately unable to put a dent in the armor of the Altador Cup's new giants. After last year's ninth-place finish, the Zombies improved leaps and bounds to become the first ever repeat-winners of the coveted cup. Meridell landed in ninth place this year, which is a bit of a drop from last year, but still a modest sh-

[A stream of dust pours from the ceiling and onto the desk. Brooke examines the pile, examines the ceiling, shrugs, and brushes the dust from the desk.]

Showing. Next up, the Minitheus Bracket!

Maraqua and Tyrannia kicked things off with a close and heated battle on the Yooyuball field. While the Fossils' scores were a smidge lower on Monday than their average, the Mermaids' were right in line with their average, allowing the Fossils' to take the sweep. It's been a hard year for Maraqua, despite their Centre Forward, Elon Hughlis, being the second best goal scorer overall. Their large size proved to be something of a downfall for them, pulling them into twelfth place in the final standings. Meanwhile, last year's victors, Tyrannia, netted themselves a fourth-place tie, avoiding the embarrassment of failing hard right after winning big.

The Pirates met the Robots in our next match, and bravely faced their second sweeping in as many days. Krawk Island performed as well as could be expected, but were no match for Virtupets' consistently higher scores. The Pirates took eight place this year, which is their lowest position to date, but their Goalkeeper, Garven Hale, assured us that they've learned a lot this year and will be a force to be reckoned with next season. The Robots had us all intimidated from the get-go, pulling off an impressive ten straight matches without so much as a single draw. They weren't swept once, and their consistent strength carried them to a solid second-place victory.

Shenkuu and Mystery Island went head-to-head on Monday in the only matchup that wasn't a complete sweep. The Natives may have bested the Ninjas soundly in Make Some Noise and Shootout Showdown, but Shenkuu crept up on Mystery Island for a very close game on the Yooyuball field, and rallied for a draw in Slushie Slinger. Shenkuu's history in the AC has been a mixed bag of positions, and this year placed them in the second-lowest spot they've held yet. They landed right in the middle of a cushy three-way tie for thirteenth. The Natives experienced a significant drop in ranks last year, and are slowly working their way back up. They climbed four places up from last year's showing to land in eleventh.

Finally, let's look at the results of th-

[Several pieces of debris fall from the ceiling now, along with a significantly larger stream of dust than before. Brooke's notes are covered, and she is temporarily obscured from view by clouds of white dust. She coughs and flutters her papers, dispelling some of the dust. She peers up at the ceiling, irritated, then shakes her head and clears her throat.]

[a bit hoarsely] How rude! I hope the ceiling can keep itself together until I finish the Vaeolus Bracket!

The Moons swept the Chillers in a series of rather close events, though by smaller margins than last time the teams met. Terror Mountain closed out the season with three sweeps in a row, but managed to get in on the three-way tie for thirteenth with Shenkuu and Roo Island. Both Terror Mountain and Kreludor tied with their own record-lowest positions, as Kreludor cruised in at seventh place, just as they did last year.

The Rooligans bounced all over the Faeries in their second and last meeting. Roo Island started things off with a hat-trick of losses against some very powerful teams, but their consistency paid off in Monday's match against Faerieland. Overall the Roos wound up in a three-way tie for thirteenth place, a bit disappointing after last year's spot on the podium. The Faeries managed, once again, to avoid placing dead last, edging out the Suns by just a few points for seventeenth place.

And last but not least, (except... technically they are...) Altador came up against Brightvale. Brightvale lucked out with three sweeps this bracket, after only one other sweep in the rest of the season. Over the last few years, the Wizards have been slowly making their way up from their last-place finish, and finished off this year in tenth place. The Suns experienced a startling plummet to the bottom of the pile after their astonishing second-place finish last year. They've definitely proven they can surprise us, so who knows what will happen next year?

In both summary and conclusion, we would like to congratulate the winners: the Haunted Woods Zombies have won Altador Cup IX! This officially makes them the only team to win the Cup more than once. The Virtupets Robots took second place, and the Moltaran Magmas took third. Congratulations to all the teams on their hard work, and congratulations to each and every one of you who supported your team with your own time and effort!

[Orange and black confetti bursts from offscreen, as the rest of the TDN AC coverage team, minus Austin, joins Brooke in front of the camera, brooms in hand.]

On behalf of myself, Lydia, Midtime, Matt, Hanna, Livvy, LivCat, Nadia, the camerapeople, the interns, our savagely underpaid maintenance staff, and the whole crew here at The Daily Neopets, we would like to thank you for choosing us for your Altador Cup IX coverage. It's been an honour to bring you complete, up-to-date, and interesting news! Thanking you again, this is Brooke, signi-

[There is a great rumbling from above, and the staff look up as one. The ceiling collapses down onto their heads, filling the room with heavy dust. The camera recalibrates, and the smoke begins to clear. In the middle of the room, in the very center of the devastation, stands a familiar, mustachioed figure.]

"Hey guys, what did I miss?"

[There is a collective groan. "AUSTIN!"]

[The screen fades to black.]

To view the official standings, claim your trophy, and browse the prize shop, click here!

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).

 

[AgJu]

congrats, HW! love you guys! once it was HW, MT, and VP in the same bracket with HW on top, it was a done deal. :)

 

anyway, the trophies this year are really cool but the prizes stink. :/

[Breaziecat]

I agree. I don't like any of these prizes - glad I didn't work too hard racking up points.

[Lady Lyuba]

I just wish there was a really good BD weapon this year...but at least there's plenty of wearables. Hate that no matter how much I play, it's never truly rewarding. But there are upsides:

 

And how about that, a new record. First, we have the first team to win the AC TWICE, second, Tyrannia did not take a nosedive despite winning last year. This year, they come out 4th as opposed to 7th or 9th or lower. Wow!

 

I'm also impressed how my own team, who had been on the bottom ranks for most of the tourney, rose up to take 12th place. Improvement! Hooray!

 

As well as the fact that trophies are based off of rank this year, so if you got All-Star, you get gold! Yay!

[leverhelven]

Wow, it seems there's a massive agreement on how the prizes suck this year - even the Brazilian community is saying the same thing. I'm glad I barely played this year, otherwise I'd be joining the frustration bandwagon too! :P

 

 

And how about that, a new record. First, we have the first team to win the AC TWICE, second, Tyrannia did not take a nosedive despite winning last year. This year, they come out 4th as opposed to 7th or 9th or lower. Wow!

 

I have to admit that, even though we only won because of ACGs, I'm very happy to see my beloved HW winning. I wasn't around when they first won, so I'm super excited! :)