Why do you choose to support your AC team?

[jujube159]

I am so stuck on which team to support. Should I support the one who wins most often? Are the prizes for winners really that good? Or should I just go with whatever team looks the most appealing to me? 

[phill]

Go with whatever team takes your fancy, imo.  It's not all about being on the 'winning team' for me, it's about supporting my team and having a good time with my team mates on the chatboards.  Honestly, I wouldnt try too hard to figure out which team will come in first just to be on the winning side because the results are out of my control, shall we say.  

 

I chose the team which most appealed to me my first year and I stick with that team, but some people go with whatever team takes their fancy on a given year.

[Nielo]

The only difference of being on the winning team is a differently shaped trophy. The prizes can be bought with prize points, which are awarded based on the amount of games you play, not on whether or not your team does well. I think even your trophy's colour is based on how well you, personally, did. (At least that's what it's been like in the last few years.)

It's also impossible to predict which team will win, unless you know where the groups of all All-Star players will go, and whether or not TNT will successfully manage to fight the cheating groups off this year.

I'm with @phill; the first time I joined I looked at all the teams and chose the one that appealed to me most, and I've stuck with them ever since. The AC team threads on the site event board on the neoboards are pretty much around all year now, so you could even look at the threads and decide which team seems the most fun to join based on that. Or you can just read the team descriptions and look at the art of the players to see which team appeals to you most.

[kayahtik]

I think I originally joined Darigan Citadel because it's purple xD And I still like it for just that reason! Also...Shaye Fever

[jellysundae]

I'm with @phill and @Nielo Shenkuu has always appealed to me as a place so the first year I played I picked them, and I've stuck with them since. I don't think there's much hope of them ever winning, they seem to be pretty stable middle-rankers, but I'm gonna stay with them.

One of the BIG deciding factors for me though was the fact that there's 3 female team members. Not many of the teams have ANY female players, unfortunately. : /

[feonix4]

I haven't chosen a team before in the AC, and I'm kind of excited to join in this year! My favorite place is the Haunted Woods, and I like the black and orange so I'm leaning that way, but I'm interested to see what the teams' players and adverts are like too.  I have seen a lot of arguments for the purple Darigan team though, so colors work as a deciding factor too

[phill]

10 minutes ago, feonix4 said:

 I have seen a lot of arguments for the purple Darigan team though, so colors work as a deciding factor too

 

and we have shoulder spikes, what's not to like?

[Nielo]

@jellysundae Yup, my choice for Terror Mountain was also influenced by the fact that it's one of the few teams with more than 1 female player. (It's been a few years since I picked a team, but I think Shenkuu was one of the teams I considered joining as well, for that very same reason.)

[Angeló]

i chose Shenkuu because I love that Land and its Culture .. and Mirsha looked very athletic to me .. (she won MVP that year so i was right) 

plus i love their costume (Ninja) and the colours Red and Gold , they match very well 

[belacqua64]

I chose Roo Island because I liked the team colours, and because Blumaroos are one of my favourite pets. I'm not concerned with my team's ultimate ranking, since prize points are only determined by the number of games I play personally. 

It's all about having fun and sticking by my team for me.

[Kute]

I always picked kiko lake. Not sure why, its just something I did. This year I think I'm going to join the masses though. See what everyone says. 

[Angeló]

come on guys let's all join Shenkuu 

it'll be fun  

[jujube159]

Thank you so much, everyone! I'm kinda glad it doesn't really matter who wins. So now I'll just go by the colors and 

18 hours ago, jellysundae said:

I'm with @phill and @Nielo Shenkuu has always appealed to me as a place so the first year I played I picked them, and I've stuck with them since. I don't think there's much hope of them ever winning, they seem to be pretty stable middle-rankers, but I'm gonna stay with them.

One of the BIG deciding factors for me though was the fact that there's 3 female team members. Not many of the teams have ANY female players, unfortunately. : /

11 hours ago, Nielo said:

@jellysundae Yup, my choice for Terror Mountain was also influenced by the fact that it's one of the few teams with more than 1 female player. (It's been a few years since I picked a team, but I think Shenkuu was one of the teams I considered joining as well, for that very same reason.)

I was originally thinking Maraqua, but they have all male players!

I think I'm going with Faerieland-I love the colors, the land, and there are 3 female players! 

[jellysundae]

6 hours ago, jujube159 said:

Thank you so much, everyone! I'm kinda glad it doesn't really matter who wins. So now I'll just go by the colors and 

I was originally thinking Maraqua, but they have all male players!

I think I'm going with Faerieland-I love the colors, the land, and there are 3 female players! 

If you're not at all bothered about who wins then Faerieland is a fine choice, as they're pretty rubbish players, lol. I've just been through the past results and the highest they've ever ranked is 13th out of 18 for AC X

They were inexplicably 4th for AC XI but I'm not counting that as last year they were back down in 17th place so it was surely not from regular game play that they placed so high.

Was there talk about cheaters playing for Faerieland for the 2016 games, guys? Or the All-Stars groups? I can't remember. That was the year Kiko Lake got lumbered with one bunch of cheaters, wasn't it, but I don't know about teams who ranked further down.

[Nielo]

2 hours ago, jellysundae said:

If you're not at all bothered about who wins then Faerieland is a fine choice, as they're pretty rubbish players, lol. I've just been through the past results and the highest they've ever ranked is 13th out of 18 for AC X

They were inexplicably 4th for AC XI but I'm not counting that as last year they were back down in 17th place so it was surely not from regular game play that they placed so high.

Was there talk about cheaters playing for Faerieland for the 2016 games, guys? Or the All-Stars groups? I can't remember. That was the year Kiko Lake got lumbered with one bunch of cheaters, wasn't it, but I don't know about teams who ranked further down.

I don't really remember either. I know there was a lot of talk about Faerieland doing so well that year, but I can't remember if it was ever proven they had an ASG (All-Star Group) or an ACG (All Cheater Group). I don't think it was. It's always hard to tell, because whenever a team gets saddled with one of those groups, some team members feel the need to defend their team's honour by claiming they've just improved that much, yet I don't think any of the top 5 since I joined were without any kind of group to help them get there. Terror Mountain placed 5th in 2015, our highest rank ever, but one of the smaller ASG's had joined us, so we knew that it wasn't just our regular playing that got us there. (I know ASG's dont cheat, but I still don't like how they influence the outcome. Then again, because I've never played in a cup that didn't have these groups, I've learned not to care about the team standings at all.)

[Kute]

Yo.... what the heck? ! I'm so far out of the loop I didnt know there were cheaters!??!?  So thats why my Kiko lake did good ????? I dont get it. Was there really that much reason to cheat??  A trophy? A few points?  How can you get whole groups to choose to cheat?   Well whatever the majority of TDN'ers  vote for in the poll thats who I am going to represent this year. 

[phill]

It's true. There are whole groups of people that pick which side is going to win and cheat to do it. I know it's weird, but it's a thing. That's why, quite honestly I'm okay with my team not winning rather than being chosen by an ACG (or ASG) and coming first because of it.  Plus it puts you at risk of getting flagged or frozen just for being a normal 'good' player.

[jujube159]

That's all so bizarre!! As you said, there aren't many perks to winning, so why do it? And what does TNT do about it?

[jellysundae]

People cheat just because, I guess it's a mindset thing? Some people will and don't understand why others don't, while some won't and don't understand why others do.

23 hours ago, Nielo said:

I know ASG's dont cheat, but I still don't like how they influence the outcome. Then again, because I've never played in a cup that didn't have these groups, I've learned not to care about the team standings at all.

This pretty much covers it for me. Each year I fervently hope Shenkuu doesn't get picked by the cheaters (which is, of course, wishing them on someone else ) but apart from that I know there's nothing I can do about ANY of it so there's no point letting it bother me, so I should just "enjoy" myself. I say it like that because a lot of frustration is part and parcel of any AC.

 

16 hours ago, Kute said:

How can you get whole groups to choose to cheat?   Well whatever the majority of TDN'ers  vote for in the poll thats who I am going to represent this year. 

There's cheating forum communities out there on the interwubs who participate in the AC every year. All the Neo players on the site will join the same AC team and they use bots to send multiple scores.

I don't think there'll be a majority for the AC, I think the majority of us make a more personal choice for this contest and tend to stick with it though thick and thin. So we're not gonna be much help to you there, lol.

11 hours ago, jujube159 said:

And what does TNT do about it?

They DO do something, many people get frozen every AC, hopefully most of them legitimately even. Ofc the ones shouting the loudest are quite possibly the most guilty because that's humans for you, but there you go. But TNT will be ready and waiting for the cheaters, how successfully they manage to deal with them remains to be seen. There's always going to be collateral damage in situation like this, if they can minimise that that's the best they can hope for, I suppose.

[phill]

4 minutes ago, jellysundae said:

I don't think there'll be a majority for the AC, I think the majority of us make a more personal choice for this contest and tend to stick with it though thick or thin. So we're not gonna be much help to you there, lol.

1

Yeah, I agree. It's more like supporting a sports team than choosing a temporary and everchanging obelisk skirmish side. You support your team because reasons.

[Nielo]

13 hours ago, jujube159 said:

That's all so bizarre!! As you said, there aren't many perks to winning, so why do it? And what does TNT do about it?

 

2 hours ago, jellysundae said:

People cheat just because, I guess it's a mindset thing? Some people will and don't understand why others don't, while some won't and don't understand why others do.

They DO do something, many people get frozen every AC, hopefully most of them legitimately even. Ofc the ones shouting the loudest are quite possibly the most guilty because that's humans for you, but there you go. But TNT will be ready and waiting for the cheaters, how successfully they manage to deal with them remains to be seen. There's always going to be collateral damage in situation like this, if they can minimise that that's the best they can hope for, I suppose.

I think last year they didn't so much freeze any accounts (probably/hopefully because they realised they accidentally hurt a lot of honest players as well), but they'd kind of 'ice' them during the cup. They could still play games, but their total wouldn't move up. The cheating wasn't stopped, and still quite a few innocent players were prevented from playing in the AC, so their solutions so far obviously haven't been ideal. But at least they've been trying these past few years; I'm pretty sure they didn't do much at all before that.

And @Kute, yes, unfortunately that's why Kiko Lake did so well. As for why people cheat (especially on something as silly as this)... I'm assuming they don't have a lot going on in their lives, and they just like upsetting others. It's really pathetic.

[Aquamentis12]

Everyone's right about picking their teams. Just go with whichever land, or team roster you find appealing. I've been a Maraqua supporter since the first AC. Last year, they finally made it to the podium! The games DO get tedious and a bit boring after awhile. So I try to find ways to challenge myself a bit more. In the case of Yooyuball, mainly the game I play. I try to see how many goals I can make in a single game. My best is 17-0. But over the last two ACs, I think I've only gotten that 4 times. So now I'm trying to see if 18 points in a game is possible.

I also have developed a habit of taking a screenshot of the scoreboard of every time I score 10 or more points in a game. Not so I can PROVE my scores, unless it's to TNT for getting some kind of submission error. That was HOW it started, but now I mainly do it for my own records. I may not get in a ton of YYB games played, I've only made All-star ONCE, in these many years. But my Goals and Goals per game average is pretty good.

Also, the more goals I score, the more I help Maraqua's forward, move up in the Goals per game Average. There are NO prizes associated with that ranking, but it's fun to try and get him higher.

The main thing I dislike about YYB, aside from how long it feels when playing, is Maraqua's goalie. Either he tends to miss the Yooyuball entirely, or he fights the controls and misses.

An interesting trick though, to score a goal WITH the GOALIE. Works best to have a Fire Yooyu, and grab the enlarging power-up. If the goalie has the yooyu and if nobody intercepts his shot, the yooyu CAN fly across the field into the opponent's net. This will count toward the point total IN the game.. BUT, it does NOT count in your ranking stats, neither in total goals, nor does the goalie get a bit of text saying he scored a goal. So it's a pretty pointless trick, but it's kind of fun because it isn't something that you'd think was possible. lol

Good luck with deciding on a team. And best of luck in the AC in general!

[jellysundae]

8 hours ago, Aquamentis12 said:

The main thing I dislike about YYB, aside from how long it feels when playing, is Maraqua's goalie. Either he tends to miss the Yooyuball entirely, or he fights the controls and misses.

I was never able to master controlling the goalie at all, lol. I'd leave them to it.

This year I'm not sure if I even want to attempt YYB, I struggled with it badly last year because of MS stuff worsening since the year before, and while I haven't relapsed again since I'll certainly be just as bad at it as I was last year so yeah I suppose I'll try a game or so, but now it's basically once I lose control of the ball I might as well give up because I can't react quickly enough to get it back. So do I instead send a bunch of low scores? Like instead of 10-2, or 9-0 like I'd previously have done, a whole slew of 3-0 etc. Can't see that being too beneficial to the team.

[Aquamentis12]

11 hours ago, jellysundae said:

I was never able to master controlling the goalie at all, lol. I'd leave them to it.

This year I'm not sure if I even want to attempt YYB, I struggled with it badly last year because of MS stuff worsening since the year before, and while I haven't relapsed again since I'll certainly be just as bad at it as I was last year so yeah I suppose I'll try a game or so, but now it's basically once I lose control of the ball I might as well give up because I can't react quickly enough to get it back. So do I instead send a bunch of low scores? Like instead of 10-2, or 9-0 like I'd previously have done, a whole slew of 3-0 etc. Can't see that being too beneficial to the team.

LOL Yeah, I pretty much give up on the goalie most of the time.

Awwww man! Sorry to hear that! Do you use a mouse or a keyboard to play YYB? You can use either, but I'm much more comfortable with the keyboard controls. Also, changing the direction of play might help too? Like, I prefer going from Right to Left, instead of starting on the left side of the field and going towards the right. NO idea WHY, just, feels better. lol At least, for as long as I can sit before my back or my backside start to complain! LOL
I'm not sure how points work really, but a win for you is a win for your team. I DON'T think TNT counts goal-totals, except for maybe for the team forwards, for the Goals Per Game average section of the standings/rankings. Frankly, I wish that goal scoring had more of, or any, reward for it. Scoring ISN'T easy and even the routes/plays I use things can go wrong FAST. So I think there should be a prize, or at least some extra points for decent scoring in a game. It might also help motivate people to play more YYB. lol I like the game, just, not having to play it for an entire month. lol Good luck with whatever and however you decide to deal with the AC this year.

[jellysundae]

1 hour ago, Aquamentis12 said:

LOL Yeah, I pretty much give up on the goalie most of the time.

Awwww man! Sorry to hear that! Do you use a mouse or a keyboard to play YYB? You can use either, but I'm much more comfortable with the keyboard controls. Also, changing the direction of play might help too? Like, I prefer going from Right to Left, instead of starting on the left side of the field and going towards the right. NO idea WHY, just, feels better. lol At least, for as long as I can sit before my back or my backside start to complain! LOL
I'm not sure how points work really, but a win for you is a win for your team. I DON'T think TNT counts goal-totals, except for maybe for the team forwards, for the Goals Per Game average section of the standings/rankings. Frankly, I wish that goal scoring had more of, or any, reward for it. Scoring ISN'T easy and even the routes/plays I use things can go wrong FAST. So I think there should be a prize, or at least some extra points for decent scoring in a game. It might also help motivate people to play more YYB. lol I like the game, just, not having to play it for an entire month. lol Good luck with whatever and however you decide to deal with the AC this year.

I play using my mouse, I've never ever tried with keyboard controls and I'd not be able to learn to do that now. I'd get in a big horrible mess because I'd be hitting the wrong key all the time. My main issue with YYB is my brain can't keep up with what's going on, and I've got a new laptop now so everything will be faster . . . And switching direction would just confuse the heck out of me before I even started, lol >_<

I have a feeling Rank 1 might be my best aim for this year, lol. Most people's game play gets better as the years go by, I'm totally bucking the trend here.