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 –

Uncategorized

Biggest Poptropica Appdate — now available!

updatenow

Hey, SR here!

As expected, the biggest and best Poptropica app-date has been released! The update contains the new Shrink Ray Island, the multi-player arcade along with Sky Dive and Star Link; and new costume bundle packs which cost $0.99!

I can say, the arcade is quite awesome. The games are cool, but there’s just one flaw when you’re playing Sky Dive. 😛 The fun never stopped there!

There are a lot of interactive items around the room. There’s a Dance Dance Revolution arcade featuring Bucket Bot from Mocktropica and a ball pit for you to jump on. Also, there are emotes on the app — including new ones! The new emotes are silly (does a silly dance) and faint (faints on the floor). Lastly, when you tap another player, your Poptropican will say, “Hello there, (Poptropican Name)!” Overall, the Creators did a great job. Check out the pictures below!

Moving along, there are new costume bundle packs at the Shop! Here’s the list of the new packs, available for $0.99:

  • Survival pack: Includes Wind Power, Ghillie Suit, & Rhino Costume
  • PoptropiCon pack: Includes Popzilla Costume, Lunar Costume, Game Show Costume Mission
  • Atlantis pack: Includes Diving Suit, Puffer Fish Costume, Drone Follower
  • Knights Pack: Includes Templar Knight, Lightning Knight, & Heart Astro Knight (girls) or Earth Astro Knight (boys)
  • Shrink Ray Pack: Includes Bottle Cap Costume, Milk Box Costume, & Shrink Ray
  • Sweet As Pie Pack: Includes Mud Pie, Lemon Meringue, & Cherry

There’s also an advertisement on every Main Street and advertisement space around Poptropica! 🙂

appdatead

What do you think of the biggest and the best app-date on the Poptropica app? Too awesome? Let us know in the comments!

-Slippery

App

Hold your horses, there are Poptropica English apps!

Hey Poptropicans! Are you smarter than a fifth grader?

Although it doesn’t seem to have been mentioned anywhere, there’s a Poptropica English app out there for iOS devices – and it’s created by Pearson Education, the company that owns Poptropica. It’s targeted to 6-11 year-olds and is free on the App Store, but comes with in-app purchases.

The game is populated with Poptropica characters and contains mini-games such as City Hub, Word Factory, Word Race, and Word Tower. If you’re looking to brush up on elementary-level English vocabulary, or know someone who might want to, check it out!

UPDATE: There’s another one! Thanks to PHB reader Why are you reading my name for the tip. It’s also by Pearson, and it’s called Our Discovery Island: Phonic Tricksters. You can get it on the App Store or Google Play for free, but it does contain in-app purchases.

In Phonic Tricksters, the Tricksters (masked Poptropicans) are stealing English letter-sounds (phonemes) and you can catch them by taking photos with your phone camera. This game is for ages 4 and up. Unlike the other app, this one doesn’t seem to explicitly say the characters are Poptropicans.

In other news, the PHC (Poptropica Help Chat) recently had a (hopefully more eye-pleasing) makeover! If you haven’t already, check out the PHB’s Christmas party 2014 recap, which includes a video introduction to the PHC community and the things we get up to. Think of it as the PHC trailer. 😉

Also, I’ve changed my Poptropican’s look, which you may see around various places, including the new PHB Twitter header. The maroon hair matches my scarf! Rad. 😎

slantedfish toss avatar3

Plus, the PHB recently hit 15 million views! Stay tuned for a special treat… 😀

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Under the sea with the Little Mermaid, Dork Diaries and Desmond Pucket

Deep in the Poptropica sea, you might find some bored-looking fish who couldn’t care less about the diver in the bright blue – at least in this sneak peek. Maybe it’s for Poptropolis Games 2013?

There’s also a few ads currently in place around Poptropica. The Little Mermaid Diamond is on SOS Island and you can play a game to help Ariel find her voice. You’ll transform into a mermaid and swim with Flounder, and a bar at the top shows you how close you are. Avoid obstacles and watch your health in the top-left corner. At the end, you’ll win a Sebastian Follower and Dinglehopper power, which gives you a fork (press spacebar to make your or others’ hair go crazy).

little mermaid

Dork Diaries can be found on Back Lot and you can get the Dork Diaries Power upstairs, which gives you a baton (spacebar to have the DD logo flash onscreen).

dorkdiaries

Desmond Pucket can be found on Zomberry, and your task is to help him pull off a prank by avoiding hall monitors until you reach the cafeteria at the bottom. Desmond will tell you what to do along the way to help you get there safely. At the end, you’ll win a Desmond Costume and Ricky’s Whoopee Cushion (spacebar to plant one on the ground and step over it for the sound effect)!

desmondpucket

Also, remember that Virus Hunter Island has been out for quite a while now! Have you checked your finished ranking on the World Champions Player Map yet? Where did you place? If you haven’t completed the island yet, be sure to check out our Virus Hunter Island Guide!

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Despicable Me 2 and Non-Stop Summer Games!

Get your fart guns ready, because there are two new advertisement buildings on Poptropica!

DM2

First off, there is a new ad on Main Streets for Despicable Me 2, in theaters July 3rd.

Inside the building there are three different games you can play.  The first of which is Bee-Do: The Emergency Minion response game. This game is very similar to the old game Donkey Kong. You have to climb up through Gru’s lab using the arrow keys and put out the fire with a fire extinguisher. Make sure to dodge the falling cups that come at you! Pick up cupcakes, unicorns, and bananas for bonus points. Your prize is your very own Minion Costume!

DM2a

The next game is a training mission from Lucy, an agent of AVL. This game is like a scavenger hunt.  You have to find four items that have been scattered throughout the mall.  They are a lipstick taser, a blue car, a freeze ray, and an AVL badge. You are provided with a radar which shows you where all of the items are located so it isn’t too difficult. Once all four are found you win the Lipstick Taser Power which lets you give other Poptropicans a little shock and the Fart Gun Power which lets you knock over other Poptropicans with that gnarly stink.

The last game is Bop-a-Minion. It is very similar to Wac-a-Mole. You have to hit the minions as they pop up. Hitting minions holding coins will earn you in-game money towards unlocking new minions to bop. Minions holding a 200 sign are worth 200 bonus points. Make sure not to hit minions holding bombs because that will mean game over for you. Your prize for this game is the Freeze Ray Power which lets you freeze other Poptropicans in blocks of ice!

DM2c

Next is a new building for Disney XD’s Non-Stop Summer. Once you enter the building on Steamworks Island you can hop on a bike and make your way to the adventure. Once you have won all of the games, you get a special bonus prize, but that will have to wait until July 8th when the last game is released. (Note: You may find this ad in the transition area between places. Just click to go to the Disney XD ad!)

NSS2
I see, it’s clever because the bike tires make an infinity sign.

The first stop on this summer road trip is at the Kickin’ It: Race the Black Dragons game. This game is a plain old race to the finish. Beat the Red Dragon bike to the finish by hitting green speed boosts and dodging puddles and pot holes. If you win you earn the Kickin’ It High Kick Power!

Next up on our road trip is the Crash and Bernstein Burp Along game. Hit the arrow keys in the correct order to copy Bernstein’s burp pattern. Once you match him burp for burp six times you win the Crash Follower.

The last stop on our road trip as at the Lab Rats: Virus Eddie game. This is a matching game, so you have to find and match both of pictures of each character. Once you have matched all four pairs you win the Adam’s Laser Vision Power which lets you shoot optic blasts where ever you point your mouse.

NSS3

Which mini-game is your favorite to play? I personally enjoyed the Bop-a-Minion.