Scheduling & Sign Ups
The Cup will have the usual press tour and sign ups period, each lasting one week. The Press Tour will feature daily trivia questions. Find the answers on our guide.
If you miss the sign up period, you won't be able to join any team, but you can still play for prize shop points. (And of course, once you do join a team, you're locked in to that team.)
There are not many details—and this may actually be incorrect—but one FAQ implies that the Altador Cup team sign up avatars will be temporary and disappear after the Cup ends, which is not how they work today.
This year, the Cup will be much shorter: the game play period will be 9 days long and consist of 3 rounds.
- Round 1 (Jul 6): Each team plays one random other team.
- The 10 winners are placed in the "Upper Mid" bracket.
- The 10 losers are placed in the "Mid" bracket.
- Round 1 "Break" (Jul 7): No team matches, but personal prize points can be earned.
- Round 2 (Jul 8): Each team plays one random other team from the same bracket.
- The 5 Upper Mid winners are placed in the "Top" bracket.
- The 5 Upper Mid losers remain in the "Upper Mid" bracket.
- The 5 Mid winners remain in the "Mid" bracket.
- The 5 Mid losers are placed in the "Lower" bracket.
- Round 2 "Break" (Jul 9): No team matches, but personal prize points can be earned.
- Round 3 (Jul 10–14): Each team plays every other team in their bracket, one per day plus one bye day per team.
The Ranking System is... gone!
Because the Altador Cup has undergone so many changes for 2026, and there has been feedback regarding how stressful it is to achieve the highest rank, in addition to how much players need to grind in order to achieve the highest rank, it was decided that the Ranking system would be omitted. Instead, we brought back Achievements, created an all-new team, and made a new game to play during this year's cup! With the addition of the Challenge Track as well, you can earn more rewards than ever for continuing to play!
Prize Shop Returns
The Prize Shop returns, and will be available from the start of tournament play, so you can gauge how much you want to play to redeem any prizes in the shop.
Playing games will earn you points to spend in the prize shop—no big changes here!
New Game
A new game will debut this year, as previously reported, Obstacle Course Caper, and it will also be available in the Companion App to play on the go!
Achievements Return
Achievements are coming back to the Altador Cup (after being around once during Altador Cup V!)
No specifics on what kinds of prizes achievements will have, other than they will award Prize Shop points.
Staff Tournament
There will be no TNT staff tournament this year.
Because of the extensive changes made to the Altador Cup for 2026, there simply hasn't been enough time for staff to hold a tournament. Instead our focus has gone to trying to improve the Altador Cup experience for players, providing new things to do, and bringing back older features.
If you miss the Staff Tournament though, we'd love to know! It may not be gone forever, so depending on feedback we'll definitely consider bringing it back in future years.
Challenge Track
Similar to the Void Within's Adventure Pass, the Challenge Track is debuting for this year's Altador Cup. As you rack up Prize Shop points, your progress on the Challenge Track will go up as well, earning you extra prizes.
There will be a free track for all to participate in, along with a paid version called the Champion Track. However, the paid track will be free for all Premium subscribers this time! Anyone who isn't a subscriber will be able to purchase the Champion Track in the NC Mall:
With the Press Tour now live, we're busy updating our 2026 Altador Cup guide, notably with the daily trivia answers now available for those who want to double check before answering:
Why have bye days when the tournament is already super short already?? The Cup was what kept me coming back for years as a teenager, and they destroyed it.
