Monthly Archives: June 2012

Hello my fellow Pottermore enthusiast and welcome to Blog of a Pottermore Beta’s Countdown to the Cup!

WHAT TIME UPDATE (7-4-2012 @ 10:34 pm EST): Seeing a lot of talk on the social networks and on Pottermore about when people think that the cup will be awarded. As you can see I have removed the actual countdown here, it was only meant to countdown to the day. Now that the day is dawning in Time Zones across the world people are trying to pinpoint when the results will be revealed.

THE BOTTOM LINE IS THAT NO ONE KNOWS! Now normally Pottermore seems to operate between the hours of 9:00 am and 5:00 pm BST (British Standard Time). A fair amount of their bigger changes and announcements have happened at 11:00 am BST (6:00 am EST). Regardless we still have a few hours left!

They have not stopped any of the games yet on site, though many of us suspect they will have to at least an hour before awarding the cup.

LAST DAY UPDATE (7-4-2012 @ 12:14 pm EST): Hello! We are in the final day before the cup, and I can tell by the activity I am seeing on site that the students of Pottermore have been out in force today trying to get every last point they can. Still no word on when to expect the games to be shut down and the cup awarded.

Have a twitter? Who do you think will win?

The #PottermoreHouseCup is so close! Who do you want fo win? RT for Slytherin. Fave for Gryffindor.

—
Lauren (ElmBlade43) (@ElmBlade43) July 02, 2012

BACK TO BLIND UPDATE (7-3-2012 @ 7:12 am EST): Pottermore has closed down the glitch we were using to collect point data from Pottermore. Meaning now we are TRULY flying blind. It worries me only slightly, part of the reason I know a lot of us were tracking points is due to a slight fear that the cup is rigged and I think seeing the points made that fear a little less. But two days out they have shut the final door and we now no longer can see the house standings by any means. I want to thank each and every one of you who contributed points to the data sheets. You guys rock!

At last count Slytherin had a pretty decent lead over Gryffindor. The largest lead we’ve seen since the site opened to the public. All we can do now is see what happens in the darkness and hope the conspiracy theories are just that, conspiracy theories.

Less than 48 hours here until July 5th. Many of us are still wondering at what point the site will pull the plug on dueling and potions to stop point accrual in order to do the final tabulations. It will probably be either late on the 4th or very early on the 5th so be prepared for it!

As soon as I see or hear anything new I shall be reporting it here straight away.

If you are on twitter (follow @ElmBlade43) tweet with the hash tag #PottermoreHouseCup to find others tweeting about the cup race.

Now what are you waiting for? Go brew and duel your house needs points I’m sure!!

LESS THAN THREE DAYS UPDATE (7-2-2012 @ 12:51 pm EST): At the moment we are showing quite a lead in Slytherin’s favor. We have parnered with HouseCup.info in helping them track the points using the item collection glitch. If you would like to help by contributing your houses score see the link below to input your houses score.

NOT SO BLIND NOW UPDATE (6-30-2012 @ 7:32 pm EST): Now as we reported yesterday, the points in the Great Hal have been obscured so that we can not see who is in the lead. But as with many things, there is of course a work around we have found to see the point total for your own house. When you collect any item in any moment, the total score for your house will become temporarily unblocked (the one to the right of your house crest). This only tells you your own houses score, but put together with others can give us a good idea of where the points are lying.

So we have began collecting data from users to attempt to track the points. Here are the necessary links if you would like to participate or just see the standings:

• Form To Input Your Houses Total Score
• House Standings
• All Input From Form

Now for those of you who are sitting there thinking “But ELM I collected every object AGES ago” I want to remind you that items regenerate when you give them away. So pick an item, gift it so you don’t have it anymore, and then go recollect it. (I am glad to take Slytherin chocolate frog cards, I’m starting a collection.) If you have any questions about how this works let me know.

FLYING BLIND NOW UPDATE (6-29-2012 @ 7:18 am EST): This morning I woke up to find a comment waiting for me from HawthornQuest16394 telling me to check the site. You know INSTANTLY the moment you hit the Gateway that something special was going on when you see this message:

Upon arriving in the Great Hall you will see that all of the hour glasses have been hidden by curtains:

So we will literally be flying blind from here on out! I actually knew they would do this eventually because I had seen the graphic for the hour glasses covered in curtains when looking in the site’s source code earlier in the week. I had THOUGHT they would wait longer to cover them, but I guess this is more fun!

Finally, a cryptic message in notifications to complete the mystery:

Secret bonus? What could it be? Rumor mills are working in overtime as many people had thought for a long time that whoever wins the house cup would get the second book first. We will have to wait to see if this is true.

 This graph shows the LAST READABLE SCORE from the Great Hall. Slytherin was in the lead by 16,000 points. We will have to find out much later if they managed to keep that up.

ONE WEEK LEFT UPDATE (6-27-2012 @ 6:40pm EST): After a day of up and down changes in lead, Slytherin has managed to scrape back into the lead. But it’s getting more and more difficult each time to take the lead back. We are seeing a LOT of new users on Pottermore, as well as returning users, all picking sides and rapidly struggling to try to secure their house enough points to win the house cup. The Common Rooms are being flooded with information, some is accurate some is not so much. If you are looking for point earning help, check out “Pottermore Help” in the top menu of this blog. There you will find Dueling and Potions 101 and complete item location lists. Remember that each item bags you a point, at least the first time, so it’s worth getting them all as a new users. Also, feel free to leave a comment here asking whatever you like and I will be glad to answer it. Read more »