Round 3 Sign-ups (20 Jun 2006)
With the Quarterfinals having come to a close, the Altador Cup is now down to its last four teams. To the surprise of nearly everyone, the squad representing tiny Roo Island is among the final four teams that remain in contention to bring home the cup. They shocked the Neopian sporting public by following their upset of Tyrannia with an equally impressive win over the Lost Desert, as Fenny Vail stepped in to provide the firepower needed to overcome the Lost Desert's relentless hounding of star forward Lilo Blumario. Despite being double and triple-teamed for the entire game, Blumario was still able to create enough offensive opportunities for his teammates to give Roo Island a lead and move on to the Semifinals.
Taking a closer look at the inter-island match between the pirates of Krawk Island and the natives of Mystery Island, the key to this pairing was the phenomenal goaltending provided by Krawk Island's Garven Hale. The star netminder had a spectacular game (even by his lofty standards), pulling down a flurry of point-blank shots from Mystery Island's dynamic duo of Volgoth and Nix to preserve the win.
Fans who showed up to see Brightvale take on the Haunted Woods arrived with the expectation that they'd get a rugged, low-scoring defensive battle. Well, they turned out to be half right, as the Haunted Woods clamped down on the Brightvale offense and never let go. On the other side of the ball, however, Brightvale's underhanded tactics were no match for the Haunted Woods' crisp-passing and extremely well prepared offense, which carved up the Brightvale D like a heavenly roast turkey.
Rounding out the Quarterfinal's victors is the team from the Darigan Citadel, which gave King Skarl's squad a royal thumping on its way to the semifinals. Putting to rest any talk of their previous tendency to wilt in the face of a worthy opponent, the Citadel's Yooyuballers were led to victory by slippery forward Layton Vickles, who swerved and dodged through the Meridell defence to rack up a trio of goals (referred to in some circles as a "hat trick").
So, with the Altador Cup's Semifinals set to begin in a few days, talk of post-tournament awards has Lilo Blumario running away with the MVP voting (and Garven Hale coming in a distant second). As long as underdog Roo Island continues to win matches, Blumario will likely remain the odds-on favourite to be named Most Valuable Player. As far as selections for the All-Tournament Team go, Blumario would most likely be joined by Darigan's Layton Vickles and Krawk Island's "Dasher" Soley at forward, the Haunted Woods' Krell Vitor at defender, and Krawk Island's Hale at goalkeeper if the voting were held today. Honourable mentions would most likely be bestowed upon Mystery Island's Volgoth and the Haunted Wood's Zo Junior at forward, plus the Lost Desert's "Dirty" Navers at defender.