The Altador Cup

[antiaircraft]

((A group of amateur Yooyuballers meet each other at the Altador Cup and decide to form their own Yooyuball team in hope of one day competing for the cup itself.

 

Name: Your name

Species: Your species

Position: The position on the team you play (you can also be a reserve)

Strengths: Your strengths

Weaknesses: Your weaknesses (all players are inexperienced)

Background: A little about you

 

Name: Eddy (or Ed)

Species: Grarrl

Position: Goalkeeper

Strengths: Size, Intelligence (can anticipate Yooyu and other players well)

Weaknesses: Speed, Agility, Inexperience

Background: Occasionally played Yooyuball for his school team, obsessed with Yooyuball and has never missed a second of the Altador Cup))

 

Ed cheered with the crowd as the Krawk Island team slipped another goal past Altador's stoic defense. Both teams agreed to a quick time out. The Krawk Islanders patted each other on the back and drank long gulps of water, while the Altador team discussed some quick tactics changes.

 

Okay, five minutes, Ed thought. Setting his watch alarm to ring in exactly four minutes and thirty seconds, he sprinted towards the slushie stand.

[Midtime]

((Name: Firnim

Species: Xweetok

Position: Right forward (I chose this because it is the position of the Altador team sharpshooter)

Strengths: Speed, agility, shooting, making quick (though sometimes silly in hindsight) decisions.

Weaknesses: Tackling, patience, inexperience, interaction (mainly social) with the other players.

Background: Also occasionally played Yooyuball. He began to watch the Altador Cup from peer pressure, then quickly got so absorbed in it he now has an uncanny knowledge of the events in it.))

 

Five minutes? Firnim thought. That's way too long! He went to get a slushie, drank it and then sat down to ensure he had perfect recall of the game.

[antiaircraft]

Ed downed his ice cold slushie, then slid the empty cup back to the waitress and sprinted back to his seat as his alarm rang. As he sat down (with exactly ten seconds to spare), he noticed a Xweetok sitting in the seat beside him, watching intently. The game came back on, and the Krawk Island team quickly moved in to grab the ball, but Winberto Seliz snatched the ball a millisecond before they got to it, darting past them before they could react. As he approached the goalie, he feinted a shot to the right, causing the goalie to dive in that direction, but instead sent the fire Yooyu spinning into the left corner of the goal. The crowd erupted again, and Ed heard several shouts of "Great feint!". "Yes, that was a nice feint, even if it is the oldest trick in the book." he said to nobody in particular.

[Midtime]

Firnim watched the impressive score. Winberto Seliz had used his plated arm to knock the Krawk Islander away for the split second that he needed to grab the ball. He had shot past the other players, at one point almost dropping the yooyu from his no doubt burning hands, leaned to the right, then, as the goalie watched in dismay, frantically trying to get up, to get to the defense, the ace Altador scorer made a mock kiss - and shot the fire yooyu, at approximately... Firnim calculated. Approximately 80 kilometres per hour, into the goal's left corner. It was all over in ten seconds.

He heard a voice beside him say, "Yes, it was a nice feint, even if it is the oldest trick in the book."

"Well, if it was the oldest trick in the book, why did the Krawk Island goalkeeper fall for it? He looked entirely certain Winberto Seliz would shoot in that direction. True, that trick was the first known use of trickery in Yooyuball history, but saying it is "the oldest trick in the book" means that it is well known to the point that only an idiot would do it - let alone fall for it - and an old trick is rather different. Saying that it is "the oldest trick in the book" is insulting the best sharpshooter on the Altador Yooyuball team."

[antiaircraft]

Ed looked closely at the Xweetok beside him, taking time to make sure he had his head wrapped properly around what he had just heard. "Or, on the other hand," he added, "I might be insulting Garven."

[Midtime]

Firnim frowned. Why didn't I think of that? I really do think too quickly... His thinking was interrupted by the shout from the announcer. "Begin!"

Now that the Altador team was on an even par with Krawk Island, they were even more enthusiastic about getting ahead. However, the Darigan Yooyu proved uncooperative. Winberto Seliz grabbed the ball before anyone could react. He headed for the goal, shot the Yooyu. But the moment he let go, it went whizzing in a completely different direction from the one he had intended. The Krawk Islanders somehow knew about this. They were ready. They caught the ball and without hesitation whizzed towards the Altador team's goal.

[The Original Luna]

Name: Yin-Lin

Species: Lutari

Position: Left Wing

Strengths: Scoring, tackling, guile (craftiness)

Weaknesses: Nerves

Background: Yin-Lin started playing because her older brother did. Her brother played on the school team and got escorted off with a broken leg. She was the replacement and helped win the game.

 

Yin-Lin had sat relatively near the front, a row in-front of the two neopets who had argued about the game, her older brother next to her, was supporting Altador and she was supporting Krawk Island.

Talk about sibling rivalry Yin-Lin thought, as Salayne Ritad diverted the yooyuball, it bouncing off the post, the yooyuball caught by Timu who tried to send it to Lyvon, but it was intercepted by Ealyn Hawkshanks, Yin-Lin's second favourite player after "Dasher". Her brother groaned as the ball was now sent to the Team- Captain, "Dasher" Soley.

Dodging the attacks of Winberto, "Dasher" speeded towards the Altador goal.

Raucous cheers filled the stadium as the Krawk Island supporters expected a goal.

[antiaircraft]

Hmm, thought Ed, I wonder if Dasher can get the Yooyu past Altador's defense without his teammates close by - he certainly can't wait for them to catch up. On the other hand, goalkeepers are usually rather predictable.

Dasher dodged round the surprised Altador keeper, made a sudden turn and shot the Yooyu straight into the goal. The crowd erupted again, and if he squinted, Ed could just make out a brawl starting on the other side of the stadium. Several security guards were already heading towards it.

[Midtime]

Firnim watched in disbelief. The opponent's scorer had somehow dazed Altador's defence. Salayne Ritad had just stood there as Dasher shot the Yooyu into the goal.

Firnim felt dazed himself. He could dimly hear the shouting that signified a brawl on the other side of the stadium.

If I had been him... the Xweetok began to think, and within the depths of his hyperactive mind, a dream began to form.

[The Original Luna]

Yin Lin cheered with the crowd as the yooyu hit the net. Her brother moaned quietly, "cheater".

"Oh you're just jealous cos Dasher won!" Yin Lin did a high punch, but accidentally sent the popcorn flying over the back-seat onto the Xweeok's head.

[antiaircraft]

Ed was too busy watching & analysing the game to notice, he absentmindedly grabbed a handful of the popcorn and ate it. "This stuff is good." he muttered as one of the brawlers managed to throw his shoe at the referee.

[Midtime]

Firnim glanced irritatedly at the Grarrl beside him, then gave the Lutari in front of him a glare that would turn most pet's blood to ice.

"What do you have against me?" he snarled.

[antiaircraft]

Ed finally noticed that something was going on beside him. "Well, it's kind of hard to punch your fist into the air while holding a box of popcorn without it flying somewhere." he commented. As he spoke, the security guards were breaking up the brawl, and Krawk Island had just scored another goal against Altador, starting three more. "Gee, I feel sorry for those guards."

[The Original Luna]

Yin-Lin apologised to The Xweetok.

"Sorry, about that, I got a bit carried away with the game. I'm Yin-Lin, a Krawk-Island Supporter and I'm at my first match with my brother who supports Altador." then her brother whispered, "We couldn't afford seperate tickets in both stands, so we sit together."

[antiaircraft]

Ed vaguely registered the conversation as the Altador and Krawk Island squads made a series of spectacular saves.

[Midtime]

"O.K." replied Firnim. "I support Altador, by the way." he added without thinking. Darn. he thought.Why am I always saying things like that without thinking?

[The Original Luna]

Yin-Lin's attention was drawn back to the game. Then a foul occured, Krawk Island's Nitri injured by a sliding tackle from Lyvon.

"Foul REF, FOUL!!" she screamed, If only there was a way to get inside the game to get the ref to see the foul

[antiaircraft]

Ed pulled out a heavy rule book from his bag, and flipped through it to the section on fouls. "Technically, that's a foul, but the referee always has the last say." he said to the two neopets beside him.

[The Original Luna]

Yin-Lin looked at the book then the pet. "You carry that book with you? To every match?" she asked.

[antiaircraft]

"Well," Ed replied, "Ever since I got caught in a brawl over whether or not smashing the ball into an opponent was a foul. It wasn't pretty, but this comes in handy for solving the disputes quickly."

[Midtime]

"Hey, where do you get those?" asked Firnim after the round was over. "I'd like one!"

[antiaircraft]

"I had to fill in one of those Altador cup forms - it was half a year before they finally processed the order and delivered it." Ed rolled his eyes. "The only reason I don't send in a complaint is that you have to do it through one of those forms again."

[The Original Luna]

"I reckon someone read it before sending it to you. Then as it got passed along, other people read your book. That'll probably be the reason why it was so late."

[Doctor]

Name: Luvea Trivon

Species: Draik

Position: Left defender

Strengths: Consistency, Passing, Tackling

Weaknesses: Scoring, Inexperience

Background: Replacing some one in the Lost Desrt team, has found a major crush on Terror mountain's captain Prytariel

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From the locker room singing can be heard.

[Lutarist Jake]

Name: Horace Terri

Species: Blumaroo

Position: Right Forward

Strengths: Scoring, "Clutch" Performer

Weaknesses: Defense, Inexperience, Leadership

Background: Born in Neopia Central but was raised on Roo Island. Supports Roo Island because there is no Neopia Central team.

 

Horace, who had been passing by the locker room on his way back from the game heard the singing and banged at the door.

 

" Hey, the game is over," he shouted, " No one should be in the locker rooms 10 minutes after the game except the members of a team that had participated in the last game," he read from the sign outside the locker room entitled: Rules of The Colosseum.