Books, Contests

#PoptropicaArt Instagram finalists and Mitch Krpata meetup!

Hello, everyone!

It’s Lucky Joker, with more art to showcase. This time, from the Poptropica community!

The #PoptropicaArt contest will soon be ending, but it’s not over yet! The third selection of finalists have been announced – this time, coming from Instagram.

Here we see the pieces of aquaticaquarius (two pieces), ccashew4, copicsandcupcakes, giuli_checkers, ii_tamcat_ii, katyainthemoonlight, neat_comet, smileyfaceorg and the.blue.vulpix! Great job to the artists of Instagram!

If you want to submit art, you still have a little time left. The contest closes Monday, September 5th, 12:00 am (midnight) EST. They’ll be featuring pieces from Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Find out how to enter by reading this post on the Creators’ blog.

Also, check out the first and second group of finalists’ creations!

Further news: Mitch Krpata, author of Poptropica graphic novel The Lost Expedition, will be in Dedham, MA on September 24 from 2:00-3:00 pm, available for meetup! Talk with Mitch at Blue Bunny Books and Toys.

As announced earlier, he’ll also be in Plainville, MA on September 14 at 4pm to promote the Poptropica book. That event will be at Jeff Kinney’s bookstore, An Unlikely Story.

Well, that about wraps everything up for current events! Pop on folks!

– Lucky Joker :luckyjoker~1:

Contests, PHB Parties

Recap: PHB Tribal Tournament 2016!

tribe closing recap

Hey Poptropic-athletes! After a month of solid competition, the Poptropica Help Blog’s first ever Tribal Tournament has now come to a close. Thanks to the tons of Poptropicans who cheered, dressed up, and got involved in one way or another – we hope you had fun!

At the Closing Ceremony, we announced on the PHC the winners of the Tribal Tournament, breaking it down by each category. You can also see a collage of some party pictures above. But don’t worry if you missed it – we’ll be recapping them here as well! Since we’ve broken it down, you’ll need to get to the bottom of this post to see the overall winners.

tribe honor

Without further ado, let’s begin!

Medal Marathon

The first contest we announced was the Medal Marathon, which ran throughout the month, and all one had to do was play Poptropolis Games and show us the resulting scoreboard to earn points! As many times as one could! Higher results earned more points (1st place = 8 points, 2nd place = 7, etc).

Here are the standings for the Medal Marathon:

  1. Seraphim – 1284
  2. Wildfire – 931
  3. Yellowjackets – 902
  4. Pathfinders – 816
  5. Nanobots – 645
  6. Black Flags – 167
  7. Flying Squid – 113
  8. Nightcrawlers – 23

Congratulations to the Seraphim for flying high and proving their merit in medallions!

medal win tribe

Artistic Athletes

For the Artistic Athletes round, we asked you guys to create and send us your best Poptropica art in a number of categories: visual art, written work, fashion, and Realms.

The PHB tribe reps then went through their respective tribes’ entries and picked one for each category, then brought them to the rest of the PHB team to vote, with each rep not voting on their own tribe’s entries to eliminate bias. After our deliberating, we’re ready to present our top selections for each tribe!

To calculate points, the PHB team ranked each chosen piece for every category, except for ones from their own tribe. From there, the placement numbers (first place, second, etc.) were added up and then divided by the number of placements that had been given to form an average.

Then the average scores were ranked within each category from lowest to highest, as lower amounts meant it had received higher placement ranks in the judging. From there, each category awarded points based on the final placements: 80 points for first place, 70 for second, and so on down the line.

You can see the overall placements for the Artistic Athletes after all the art categories below.

Visual Art

Click to view each image at full size.

Congrats to all tribes for participating in this category!

These are the amounts of points earned by each tribe for the category of Visual Art:

  1. Seraphim – 80
  2. Wildfire – 70
  3. Black Flags – 60
  4. Pathfinders – 50
  5. Nanobots – 40
  6. Nightcrawlers – 30
  7. Flying Squid – 20
  8. Yellowjackets – 10

Written Work (Fan Fictions)

  1. Poptropolis Games by Bony Bones (Flying Squid) – click here to read. (+80 points)
  2. The New Tribe by Happy Lobster (Seraphim) – click here to read. (+70 points)
  3. Hurdles by Wanderesa/White Ice (Wildfire) – click here to read. (+60 points)
  4. Chant by Shaky Skunk (Nanobots) – click here to read. (+50 points)

No written work entry received from Black Flags, Nanobots, Nightcrawlers, Pathfinders, and Yellowjackets.

Fashion (Costumes)

Click to view each image at full size.

No fashion entry received from Nightcrawlers.

These are the amounts of points earned by each tribe for the category of Fashion:

  1. Wildfire – 80
  2. Seraphim – 70
  3. Yellowjackets – 60
  4. Flying Squid – 50
  5. Black Flags – 40 (tied for 5th)
  6. Nanobots – 40 (tied for 5th)
  7. Pathfinders – 40 (tied for 5th)

Realms

Click to view each image at full size.

No Realms entry received from Nightcrawlers, Pathfinders, and Wildfire.

These are the amounts of points earned by each tribe for the category of Realms:

  1. Nanobots – 80
  2. Black Flags – 70
  3. Flying Squid – 60
  4. Seraphim – 50
  5. Yellowjackets – 40

Honorable Mentions

These entries did not influence the voting process, but we thought they were too good not to be shown here! A few of them are from PHB authors, who did not enter unless their tribe did not make an entry. Click to view full images.

Plus, the Seraphim tribe had so many entries you can check them out in this imgur album.

Placements

These are the amounts of points earned by each tribe for every art category combined:

  1. Seraphim – 270 (80 + 70 + 70 + 50)
  2. *Flying Squid – 210 (20 + 80 + 50 + 60)
  3. *Nanobots – 210 (40 + 50 + 40 + 80)
  4. Black Flags – 170 (60 + 0 + 40 + 70)
  5. Wildfire – 150 (70 + 0 + 80 + 0)
  6. Yellowjackets – 110 (10 + 0 + 60 + 40)
  7. Pathfinders – 90 (50 + 0 + 40 + 0)
  8. Nightcrawlers – 30 (30 + 0 + 0 + 0)

*Flying Squid and Nanobots are tied for second overall in Artistic Athletes.

Congratulations to the Seraphim for their championship in the field of artistic endeavor!

Tribal Thinkers

In the Tribal Thinkers round, we set out some brain-bending puzzles to test your Poptropica knowledge, with trivia questions and Stolen Snapshot challenges abound. Check out how your tribe fared below!

Placements

  1. Pathfinders – 245
  2. Seraphim – 180
  3. Wildfire – 175
  4. Flying Squid – 170 (tied for 4th)
  5. Yellowjackets – 170 (tied for 4th)
  6. Nanobots – 170 (tied for 4th)
  7. Black Flags – 130
  8. Nightcrawlers – 0

Congratulations to the Pathfinders for finding the path to the most answers!

thinkers tribe win

Answers

Now for the answers to each question! How many did you get right?

Questions about Poptropica (5 points each)

  1. When was Poptropica founded? September 2007
  2. What brand of soda does Gamer Guy drink? Valley Rain
  3. What item on Shark Tooth Island isn’t actually needed in the quest? Shark Fin
  4. What is carved on the tree in the Lewis & Clark Expedition on Time Tangled Island? “Clark was here”
  5. What are the names of the B.A.D’s guard dogs on Spy Island? Fang, Slasher, and Fluffy
  6. How much did the Astro-Knights Early Access pass cost? 500 credits
  7. The Tabloid on Reality TV advertises an article about dating who? Black Widow
  8. What Greek letters are on the Drachma coin on Mythology Island? AθE – alpha theta epsilon
  9. What does Sprocket from Steamworks Island want to call his autobiography? I, Robot
  10. For which island did Poptropica first launch its own external website as a promotion for the island and what was the website? Cryptids Island – mewsfoundation.org
  11. Which island’s name is also a possible Poptropica player name? Red Dragon
  12. Which island contains an altered version of the painting American Gothic by Grant Wood? Game Show Island (inside the museum on Main Street)
  13. What does the binary code found on the recycle billboard outside the Game Show Main Street factory translate to? “Robot”
  14. Which island has a common room that has no name, and what is the room? Vampire’s Curse – a barn (also accepted Poptropolis Games room as an answer)
  15. What is the name of the ship in Captain Crawfish’s dream on Super Villain Island? H.M.S Seachicken
  16. Which time period on Time Tangled Island requires an item from another time period to collect the misplaced artifact? Vikings, 831 A.D.
  17. Which island has a character claiming to be from “Time Twisted Island”? Shark Tooth
  18. Where did Dr. Spyglass, from Spy Island, use to work? PASE
  19. Who was the Ice Arrow, seen in Astro-Knights, crafted by? Rime the Wizard
  20. In the trash bin on Mocktropica Island, what is the name of Zeus’s tree character? Spruce

Questions about the PHB team (5 points each)

  1. What is Brave Tomato’s favorite island? Mythology
  2. What was Slanted Fish’s first Poptropica account? Scary Tomato
  3. Spotted Dragon made a fansite about Poptropica and _? Adventure Time
  4. How did Slippery Raptor discover Poptropica? A magazine called K-Zone
  5. Which island did Ultimate iPad Expert play first? Super Power
  6. Who is HPuterpop’s character designed to resemble? His dad (a younger version)
  7. What was the name of Koi (Spencer)’s second Poptropica account? Friendly Gamer
  8. What place did Ylimegirl win on the Reality TV Island Champions Map? 4th place

Bonus question (10 points): What’s the name of Skinny Moon’s puppy? Toby

Stolen Snapshots (10 points each)

These were the Stolen Snapshot challenges given by Slippery Raptor in the Tribal Thinkers round. Below, you’ll find the answers for where each snapshot can be found in-game.

  1. SOS Island
  2. Lunar Colony
  3. Arabian Nights Episode 2
  4. Wild West
  5. Poptropolis Games
  6. Game Show
  7. Counterfeit
  8. Ghost Story
  9. Poptropolis Games
  10. Mythology

Shout-out to Creepy Goose of the Pathfinders tribe for getting all of them right! 🌟

Overall Standings

And the winner is…

Well, to keep the suspense going, we’re going to work from the bottom. In 8th place, we have – lean and mean, but not too keen – the Nightcrawlers! Better seize the day next time, ‘Crawlers.

nightcrawlers

Waving their mighty dark banner above the sea where the squids dwell, in 7th place we have the Black Flags! Arrr, at least they weren’t dead last.

black flags

Swimming in at 6th place are the Flying Squid, who, for a small tribe, still played a decent share in the tournament! Not bad, Squiddies. Just keep swimming!

flyingsquid

Who’s won 5th place? According to our heavy data-crunching calculations, it’s the Nanobots! At least their processing power got a workout.

nanobots

Following their GPS, the Pathfinders have found their way to 4th place. A fine finish to their journey, and nobody got lost on the way!

pathfinders

Swarming in at 3rd place, we have the Yellowjackets, with not even a little sting in their pride. These buzzers were pretty close to the sweet taste of victory with winning the bronze!

yellowjackets

The intensity is heating up for 2nd place – and it’s Wildfire who nabbed the silver! Feel the burn, because this team isn’t going to be extinguished without a fight. And the crowd goes… WILD!

wildfire

Which leaves, in 1st placeSeraphim! Congratulations to our champions who reign from on high! (cue angelic choir) Spread those wings proudly, because the glory is yours! Gold jerseys get the gold!

seraphim

Thanks to Slippery Raptor for these awesome animated tribe gifs!

Here’s a look at the overall standings for each tribe, with the total amount of points won:

  1. Seraphim – 1734 (1284 + 270 + 180)
  2. Wildfire – 1256 (931 + 150 + 175)
  3. Yellowjackets – 1182 (902 + 110 + 170)
  4. Pathfinders – 1151 (816 + 90 + 245)
  5. Nanobots – 1025 (645 + 210 + 170)
  6. Flying Squid – 493 (113 + 210 + 170)
  7. Black Flags – 467 (167 + 170 + 130)
  8. Nightcrawlers – 53 (23 + 30 + 0)

overall seraphim

Before we wrap up, there’s one more award we want to give out… the Most Valuable Player!

This Poptropican pulled more than his weight in the Tribal Tournament, making up the majority of the Pathfinders’ tribe’s score and bringing more spirit on their PHC tribe channel than the PHB rep of the team. According to this player’s profile, he’s played through the Poptropolis Games almost sixty times!

So from all of us at the PHB… Lucky Joker, you da real MVP.

mvp tribe luckyjoker

Shout-outs also to Messy Thunder of Seraphim and Perfect Sky of Yellowjackets for also playing a ton of Poptropolis Games enough to rival LJ’s score – however, it was Lucky Joker who carried his team even when no one else did. Congrats to all three!

Well, that concludes the first ever Poptropica Help Blog Tribal Tournament! We hope you had fun competing and participating in our various competitions, cheering on your tribe, and enjoying the tribal colors on the PHC (Poptropica Help Chat)!

Remember, the PHC on Discord is always open for Poptropicans of all ages to hang out and have fun in a safely moderated chat environment, and you’ll often see PHB staff around too. We hope you’ll stick around and get to know this great community!

tribepop

🏅 faster, higher, stronger 🏅

– the Poptropica Help Blog team –

Contests

To the finish line: coming up, Closing Ceremony!

poptribe closing

Hey Poptropic-athletes, it’s been an energetic month of friendly competition for the PHB Tribal Tournament, but we’re almost to the finish line. This Friday, August 26th, we’ll be wrapping up our Games with a Closing Ceremony where we’ll be announcing the winning tribes for each category and the overall reigning champions, so don’t miss it! Here are the details:

  • 7pm Eastern time (that’s 6pm Central, 5pm Mountain, 4pm Pacific, and for all other time zones, check a time converter). In some parts of the world, it may be Saturday (26th) morning.
  • The party will be on the PHC at discord.me/thePHC – a completely safe chatroom environment where PHB staff and other Poptropicans regularly hang out – with Multiverse, games, and more!
  • Feel free to pop in and out as your schedule permits – you’ll usually find Poptropicans online at this time! Cheer on your tribe, battle against players in Multiverse rooms, and have fun!

As the tournament draws near its end, keep in mind the final day you can compete in our various competitions: Wednesday, August 24! (Some posts originally said the 21st but it’s been extended.)

Be sure to check out how you might like to participate: for example, there’s the Artistic Athletes round, where you can submit Poptropica fan art, written works, fashion, and Realms. Click here for more info.

poptribe art

The Tribal Thinkers round also ends this Wednesday, August 24. If you haven’t already, check out your tribe’s channel on the PHC and help out your fellow team members with the trivia questions and stolen snapshots we posted earlier! Double-check for mistakes and you could help win more points!

poptribe thinkers

Finally, there’s the Medal Marathon, where you can earn points for your tribe just by playing through Poptropolis Games Island and sending us your scoreboard – the better your rank, the more points you earn, and you can play as many times as you like! Check out this post for all the details.

poptribe medal

We hope you’ve had a blast competing in these Games and chatting with tribemates and competitors alike on the PHC this month! We hope you can make it to the final party this weekend (see details above), where we’ll be announcing all the winners on the chat. (Don’t worry, we’ll also have a recap of the results here on the PHB – but the best excitement comes live!)

May the best tribe win the glory!

– the PHB tribe reps –

Contests

PHB Tribal Tournament: Tribal Thinkers!

poptribe thinkers

As the philosopher René Descartes declared, “I think, therefore I am.” If you can think – as you are doing now – then you must exist, because a thought has to come from a thinking thing. And here you are, thinking and existing here in the midst of the PHB’s Tribal Tournament! So are you ready?!

This final competition in the PHB’s Tribal Tournament is called Tribal Thinkers, and it tests your knowledge of Poptropica and its extending community. If you haven’t caught up with how to get involved with the Tribal Tournament yet, you’ll want to read this post first.

Anyway, onto the round of contemplation! We’re going to give you a bunch of trivia questions, and to earn points for your tribe, you must give the correct answers in your tribe’s channel on the PHC. Each correct answer given by anyone in the tribe will net the tribe five points.

Note: All answers can be found somewhere on our website (the Poptropica Help Blog). Please do not comment answers anywhere outside of your tribe’s channel, or else other tribes may benefit from your mistake! Without further ado, here are the questions…

Trivia about Poptropica!

  1. When was Poptropica founded?
  2. What brand of soda does Gamer Guy drink?
  3. What item on Shark Tooth Island isn’t actually needed in the quest?
  4. What is carved on the tree in the Lewis & Clark Expedition on Time Tangled Island?
  5. What are the names of the B.A.D’s guard dogs on Spy Island?
  6. How much did the Astro-Knights Early Access pass cost?
  7. The Tabloid on Reality TV advertises an article about dating who?
  8. What Greek letters are on the Drachma coin on Mythology Island?
  9. What does Sprocket from Steamworks Island want to call his autobiography?
  10. For which island did Poptropica first launch its own external website as a promotion for the island and what was the website?
  11. Which island’s name is also a possible Poptropica player name?
  12. Which island contains an altered version of the painting American Gothic by Grant Wood?
  13. What does the binary code found on the recycle billboard outside the Game Show Main Street factory translate to?
  14. Which island has a common room that has no name, and what is the room?
  15. What is the name of the ship in Captain Crawfish’s dream on Super Villain Island?
  16. Which time period on Time Tangled Island requires an item from another time period to collect the misplaced artifact?
  17. Which island has a character claiming to be from “Time Twisted Island”?
  18. Where did Dr. Spyglass, from Spy Island, use to work?
  19. Who was the Ice Arrow, seen in Astro-Knights, crafted by?
  20. In the trash bin on Mocktropica Island, what is the name of Zeus’s tree character?

Trivia about the PHB team!

  1. What is Brave Tomato’s favorite island?
  2. What was Slanted Fish’s first Poptropica account?
  3. Spotted Dragon made a fansite about Poptropica and ___?
  4. How did Slippery Raptor discover Poptropica?
  5. Which island did Ultimate iPad Expert play first?
  6. Who is HPuterpop’s character designed to resemble?
  7. What was the name of Koi (Spencer)’s second Poptropica account?
  8. What place did Ylimegirl win on the Reality TV Island Champions Map?

Bonus question! (Worth 10 points to any tribe that gets it right!)

  • What’s the name of Skinny Moon’s puppy?

Stolen Snapshots!

In addition to the trivia questions, we also have another round of Slippery Raptor’s Stolen Snapshots here to stump even the most seasoned Poptropican. Can you guess where these are taken? Each correct answer from within a tribe will earn a tribe ten points!

Get those thinking caps on, because there’s a lot to ponder for this round! This round ends on Sunday, August 21, Wednesday, August 24, so be sure to submit answers to your tribe’s channel on the PHC before then.

Remember, you can still earn points for your tribe via the Artistic Athletes competition AND the Medal Marathon all throughout August 24!

Again, if you’re new to this tournament, please read over the details in our first Tribal Tournament post to get caught up. If you have any questions, you can ask your tribe rep on the PHC!

Think hard, and good luck!

– the PHB tribe reps –

Contests, Web Development

#PoptropicaArt Facebook finalists and PHB happenings!

Hey Poptropicans!

The #PoptropicaArt contest (details here!) continues on in full swing, and just recently on the Creators’ Blog, Skinny Moon posted the second round of finalists, this time pulling entries from Facebook. (The first round of finalists can be viewed here.)

Among the entries, we see works by Orange Monster, Mia G., Yuan V., Kayla V., three pieces by Maryann P., and three more by Tiger35767. Congratulations to the artists! Check out the art below!

Don’t worry if your art hasn’t been featured yet – Poptropica promises to feature lots more art over the upcoming weeks. For the next round of finalists, they’ll be looking to Instagram!

There’s still plenty of time left to create something for the contest, which ends September 5th. To enter, just post your art on either Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram with the hashtag #PoptropicaArt (or ask an adult or another Poptropican if you don’t have access to any). Full contest rules are here.

I’d also like to mention a quick site update – you may recall earlier when we implemented some fun updates to the PHB. Unfortunately, some of these have had to go – but perhaps not completely!

While the new features were generally well received, there were unfortunately a few technical difficulties regarding the change that have led to us recently switching back to WordPress.com, our original server. As a result, we’ve had to let go of a few features (such as the Art gallery and Forums) because they’re not supported on WP.com.

Although we’re sad to see them go, we hope you enjoyed them while they lasted. If you did, then we have a couple of recommendations for you: the We-Love-Poptropica DeviantArt group is where the art comes from, and it’s a community full of Poptropica fan artists, including many of the PHB staff!

Also, if you liked the forums, we hope you’ll check out and participate in our PoptropicaHelp subreddit, where you can submit all sorts of Poptropica things (art, theories, stories, the list goes on!) and share your thoughts on topics started by other Poptropicans. We even recently added flairs for you to show off your tribe allegiance! It’s quick and easy to get started with a Reddit account.

Speaking of art, here at the PHB we’re also doing a little art contest of our own as part of the Tribal Tournament we have going on this month! Check out this post for more information about the Artistic Athletes round. There’s still time to enter (until August 21), so compete while you have the chance!

poptribe art

Plus, keep an eye out next week for our final Tribal Tournament challenge. 😉

Stay popping, Poptropicans!