This interview is dedicated to DMT and Videogames, two amazing friends of mine from Army Republic who offered a lot to the army and the community as a whole.
KLONDIKE, CP Army Headquarters – Welcome to another edition of “Back to the Dawn“! Once again, I will be contacting legendary figures of the earliest times of CPA history in order to bring light into some of the less well documented years of armies. Alongside me in this project there is always Coolster114, CPAHQ Head of History! For this edition of the column we decided to go after a more easily “approachable” figure, but one that definitely isn’t any less legendary. He created the 11th greatest army of all time according to CPAC, and for that he has been awarded the title of Army Legend. The name? 122344a, Creator of Army Republic.
According to Army Republic’s history page, the army was created in August 18, 2007 by 122344a and his friend Mr. Geggie. They selected a ghost-like uniform, with their colors being red and blue. Their first wars were against the relatively small armies Sun Clan and Snow Troops on September-October of the same year. Later on that year, AR participated in skirmishes against armies like Watex Warriors in the Tundra Wars, Army of Club Penguin and Rebel Penguin Federation. The same trend continued in 2008, with AR having small skirmishes against ACP in multiple occasions. AR was very small in those first two years though, and the lack of photo, video or website evidence has led many people to question whether AR actually existed before 2009. AR temporarily shut down in early 2009 but returned in the summer and grew a bit stronger, with the addition of many new capable figures in its ranks. In September 2009 though 122344a vanished and the army became just small groups of 3-4 penguins trying to carry on it’s legacy.
122344a came back in July 2010 and created AR‘s official website called bluejaysdontrulejk.wordpress.com, also known as ararmy.net. 122344a stepped down from leader in August, but the army kept growing stronger. It was in November of that year that Buritodaily became AR leader for the first time, and he was set to become one of the greatest leaders in CPA history. In January though, the army died following a defeat in a battle against Ice Warriors. In March 122344a brought the army back, and soon after Vinny joined and became an exceptional leader. Him and Buritodaily formed the mighty “Vindaily” leadership duo, one of the best in army history. In April 2012 Vinny crafted alongside 122344a the famous “122344a Doctrine”, a set of rules that aimed to keep AR alive and strong. The rules were the following:
- We limit what armies you take part in or join.
- Whenever you are on xat, you must be on AR chat or face demotion.
- All leaders must give a 3 day notice before they retire the army.
- Ranks must be tended to daily.
- All troops shall listen to orders
- Leaders are in charge during events, and not the soldiers.
122344a retired on October 2012. The following month AR joined the “White Alliance (WA)“, which then consisted of Army of Club Penguin, Ice Warriors and themselves and saw some success against the “Black Alliance (BA)“, which initially consisted of Dark Warriors, Light Troops, Pirates and Underground Mafias Army in the beginning of World War VI. They kept growing, with the Vindaily duo bringing the army to a golden age in 2013. In January AR was part of the reformed White Alliance after a secret meeting 122344a had alongside other alliance leaders, and so World War VI resumed. White Alliance won the World War, which is one of the greatest achievements of 122344a and the Vindaily duo. The year went on and following two embarrassing defeats in wars from the Dark Warriors and the Light Troops, the Vindaily duo managed to bring Army Republic to the first spot of CPAC Top Ten multiple times and got revenge against the Light Troops in a new war following a plan they called “Operation Destrieux”.
Buritodaily and Vinny retired in September 2013, but AR remained a very powerful force until its closure in 2017, following Club Penguin’s shutdown. For his work in Army Republic, 122344a was declared 2011 Army Legend by CPAC. Buritodaily and Vinny were declared 2013 Legends. Other notable leaders of AR are Burr and Superaalden aka Fluffy Sheep, AR‘s AUSIA Leader during the 2013 golden age who is also a S/M Legend, among others. 122344a is still active on Discord and he is running AR‘s veteran Discord server. I approached him alongside Coolster and he gladly accepted to give an interview to us! We asked questions primarily related to the on the first years of Army Republic since that’s the time period “Back to the Dawn” focuses on.
Hey 122344a! First of all, how did you come up with your username? Is it totally random or is there a story behind it?
So the account itself actually wasn’t originally mine. I was in elementary school when Club Penguin actually first came out, and by the time it was becoming more and more popular people were talking about it at school. I wanted an account, and my older brother who was a couple of grades ahead of me at the time wanted one to. However for reasons I forget our parents wouldn’t let us make an account (I think they were afraid it’d cost money just to play?) and so my brother actually asked his friend for an account. His friend gave my brother his spare (122344a), and my brother and I shared the account to play all the minigames throughout the summer of 2006, then my brother lost interest and it became fully mine.
Do you still have contact with Mr. Geggie, AR’s less known co-creator?
Sadly not, he disappeared really early on, before we ever had a site or a chatroom setup or anything like that and basically once a club penguin friend left forever they were gone for good. Neither of us had cell phones yet either so we couldn’t even exchange numbers or anything like that lol.
What inspired you to create AR?
So for a good amount of time prior I had seen a lot of new armies/clans rising up and fighting eachother, and I thought it all looked pretty fun. I had actually joined a bunch of them for a day or two (or even sometimes a week or more) and been part of it. I wanted something with a cool uniform, took a lot of inspiration from Star Wars since I have always been really into that, and mostly just made it so I would have an army of my own and could actually have a new experience of leading an army rather than just being in one for a day. And of course, Geggie did help a lot with all of his contributions and thoughts and everything along those lines.
How was it like leading in the early days of snowball fighting? In what ways was it better/worse than leading in later years when armies moved towards emote tactics and formations?
It was definitely harder, especially for a small army like mine. With less organization and a structure it became really hard to accomplish anything. Without a website or a former chat room it became very tedious, because I’d have to constantly check my friends list, and see which people were on, then I’d legit follow them to whatever room they were in and tell them to meet me at a specific place so we could establish an AR presence. I’d say it was worse honestly because it was less structured and very hard to get people to do anything or go anywhere. But it was a bit better in the aspect that it was a little more fun since every day was pretty unpredictable in the sense of what would happen.
What do you remember from AR’s first wars against Sun Clan and Snow Troops?
Bits and pieces honestly, I will say that they weren’t a huge huge thing how army wars might have been towards the end of original CPA/modern CPA. It was primarily just a lot of skirmishes, and if we’d see them on battle servers we’d basically duke it out for as long as we could until basically someone proclaimed themselves as the winner. However I remember it was pretty hard, it seemed like they had a better following and were more organized, whereas I’d exhaust all my effort towards seeing which servers had my friends, and I’d have to remind them to come help me in a battle on some other server lol.
What relations did Army Republic have with the major armies of 2007-2009? (ACP, Nachos, RPF, UMA etc)
So for a lot of AR’s earlier years it was very very small, and I didn’t even make my first wordpress site until 2009, and in between those years there were a lot of deaths and comebacks. Basically whenever I had the time it’d come back since the army basically just wouldn’t exist unless I had the free time haha. However, I do remember being very against ACP during a lot of my early years, mostly because it was kinda just the bandwagon thing everybody did. I’d even advertise myself to Nachos and UMA and some others as being super anti-acp, and I’d even lie and say that AR stood for “Against acp Rights” or whatever haha and I seemed to basically just side with whoever disliked them as much as me.
Did AR have a website before 2010’s bluejaysdontrulejk.wordpress.com? Also what does bluejaysdontrulejk mean?
Yup! However it’s not even a formal website lol. So in 2009 everyone was transitioning towards having a website for their army, and I remember AR didn’t have one. So people would actually argue with me and say my army “wasn’t real” and it made me really mad lol.
So what I did for a little bit was I’d tell people to look up “AR cp” and they’d be redirected to a Ghosts of CP website that had a post titled “AR-eeeba!” and they’d be redirected there and I’d just be like yup that’s my site LOL. However I knew people weren’t buying it so in late 2009 I tried to make a wordpress site and bombed it which is https://122344a.wordpress.com/ and only has like one post and a couple of pages lol. And oh yeah I was really into baseball around that time and I liked the Toronto Blue Jays so the site name was like “bluejays dont rule… jk” lol, I thought that was just gonna be my username but it made it the site name by accident too lol.
So it’s clear that early AR operated without a website. For the benefit of readers, what made AR an army and not a clan?
Honestly I think it probably would have been technically labeled as a clan, since a clan is kinda unpredictable and loosely organized which is exactly what AR was back then. However I think the only thing that would make it even remotely considered an army was because the name had the word “Army” in it. But in hindsight I would consider it just a clan for many of its early years due to its loose structure and randomness.
What do you remember from the Tundra Wars? Did AR attend them and if yes what sizes did it achieve there?
Mostly from what I remember is a ton of different armies present basically at all times, which I thought was actually way more interesting and fun than the way armies eventually became (1v1 battles a majority of the time). I think around this time many armies and clans were starting to really get in the swing of things, so it was really fun to see just how many people and their armies were in attendance. However around this time I remember seeing a lot of bigger armies rise up and become more structured for the first time, which I also thought was really remarkable to see. AR was in some participation, however it was still in its very early infancy, so we probably contributed no more than a couple of people towards a given cause or side, maybe like 5, 6, or even 7 was considered a hell of a day lol
Are there any pictures/videos of AR from 2007-2008?
None that I have saved sadly. There might be snippets of AR in other army photos from back then, but who knows how many of those there still are. At the time I didn’t have any recording software or screencasting tools or anything like that, plus I also never had the thought of recording or taking pictures of anything since I had no where to post them, plus I hadn’t seen the reason to yet. I think the earliest photos that are public are just snippets of 2009 ones, but that’s mostly because I had just started making a site and wanted to get some pictures up. I sadly didn’t have the foresight of knowing I was in any historical events or anything like that, so I never thought to document anything.
Many people have doubted that AR was actually created in 2007 over the years, claiming 2009 is the actual founding year. Any comments about that?
Oh yeah haha, that was always a pretty common thing people tried to jab at me for, especially in my early time in armies. At first I’d be really offended by it and kind of annoyed, but as I grew up I sort of figured I’d just let them have their doubts. Primarily because I knew there was nothing I could say or do to change their minds, and I knew my experiences happened, and while I did regret never documenting anything, it really just wasn’t a thought that occurred to me. Instead of fighting it I figured I could just let people think what they wanted and save myself the energy of arguing over something like that, it seemed like the more mature and best approach.
Which armies did you mainly battle back in like 2007-2008?
Primarily ACP skirmishes like I mentioned earlier, since hopping on that bandwagon was the most success I could ever have. If there was ever an army I had the most fights with, it’d probably be them lol. Other armies that’d usually be present on those servers would be some various clans, and even SWAT wayyy later on, Nachos, etc.
Did the famous “122344a Doctrine” actually help the army?
In hindsight I am pretty confident it did, it was one of the first formal declarations I was able to give on what was expected of everyone/what I anticipated to happen. Prior to that it sort of seemed like a lot of troops just kind of did whatever they pleased, and that formal declaration did seem like it had a good amount of people fix up their act and allocate more of their time towards AR. However if anyone looks at it today, it’s mainly just declaration that most armies would now consider common sense lol.
The next question is about World War VI. As a Founding Brother of the 2012/13 Black Alliance, I can tell you that we factored in a possible AR-IW intervention in our planning in the build up to our declaration of war on ACP and the subsequent outbreak of WW6. After all, you spent much of 2012 as a close ally of ACP. So my question is this: why did you choose to align with them, and what benefits did this bring to AR?
So AR did actually side against ACP in the first time around in the previous BA that ioio was trying to spearhead (At least I think it was him from what I remember). When that failed we lost a good amount of morale and just the hype was gone a bit.The one that you’re referring to I remember AR being very conflicted on what to do, Vinny was always really hostile towards ACP, and Burr was a bit more passive. However, I sort of tried to consider what would be the best option for the army. A lot of our troops had ties to ACP, so I knew that suddenly going against them wouldn’t be the best for us, because we’d probably lose half our people lol. I weighed the benefits of siding with BA and such, but we had always had our issues with people in LT such as ioio, and we knew that people from LT would only help AR for a time then abandon ship, whereas ACP people would probably have been more likely to stay. At the end of the day it was a matter of just picking between two sides we already had some discontent with, but siding with ACP seemed to be the safest option.
AR aligned itself with several different armies over the years. Who would you regard as AR’s greatest ally?
So that’s actually a pretty complicated answer, because I don’t really recall AR having a consistent ally throughout its entire lifetime, it always seemed like we were at war with one army, then we’d be friends the next year, then at war once again. IW we didn’t have many ties with, I hardly remember them and AR ever interacting that much outside of a few PB’s, even when AR was really big and 1st in the top 10 we didn’t talk to them much. ACP was a complicated relationship, we hated them for a very very long time, but by the end we were basically best friends. UMA we had a good relationship, me and Wg and Notru were all really good friends, and as a result of that AR and them were fairly close for a good amount of time. Nachos we also had a strong relationship with while Puckley was leading, but then it kinda fell apart after he left. RPF we were always kinda neutral with until their big comeback with Elmikey at the helm, for one reason or another we just didn’t get along, their arrogance we found pretty annoying and we were pretty much always at war or threatening war with eachother. So to summarize, it’s hard to pinpoint that, I guess it depends on which years you refer to, because the greatest ally was always a very fluid term with us.
Who would you consider to be AR’s greatest enemy or rival?
I’d say for the first half of AR’s existence it was probably ACP, for the last half it was definitely RPF.
What do you regard as AR’s greatest ever achievement?
I think the summer where AR beat ACP in a war then beat RPF in a war immediately after that. It was during then that AR was able to get first in the top 10 a couple of times, gain a lot of new troops, and it seemed like AR had finally asserted itself as a world power. I think it’s because of those wars that people started taking it seriously and remembering it, so much so that like even today in some CPA headers AR is still there despite it having been dead for years lol. But it was also a really remarkable thing for me, mostly because for so much of AR’s early existence I would be thrilled if I could even get one person on Mammoth or Tundra to say “AR” and actually remember what it was, then to transition into defeating both of those titan armies was huge.
So I take it you consider that to be the turning point in AR’s history?
Oh yeah definitely, I think it was a huge turning point for the army as a whole, it was definitely a completely different course than we had been adjusted to. I think it was at summer 2013.
Were there any early community figures who influenced your way of leading?
Yes, a big one for me was actually Blueswill, not sure if many people remember him, but he was a huge influence on me and helped me a lot. He even ended up joining AR later on.
In what ways did you evolve as a leader over the years?
I think I mostly evolved as a leader due to my age, so in the ways that you’d expect someone to progress as they age from being 8 years old to 19 years old. I grew up with armies and AR, so originally I was pretty hot-headed, immature, and I sort of just did whatever my heart desired and whatever I thought was the right move to make. I didn’t think about consequences, I just did what I wanted. However as the years went onward, with both myself and AR becoming more organized, I did learn strategy, try to think ahead and be careful with everything I did and said. In the very beginning I was really bold and I basically just always wanted to fight. For the last couple of years of my leading and advising I was very diplomatic. I came to realize that every army and every leader will have their own points of view and thoughts, and their feelings and inputs were things I should always consider, and rather than trying to push my own agenda I should try to see everyone else’s point of view and try to make everyone happy.
AR were caught up in several multilogging scandals over the years, one of the most famous being in January 2014. AR leaders at the time denied partaking in multilogging. Do you still maintain that position?
Haha all good I don’t mind answering questions like that. And so basically, I can confidently say that if there was, it was tucked away from me pretty well, which is totally possible. I say this because when it came out, I immediately ran to Shab, Bluesockwa, etc. to try to explain my own position, which was actually where I had access to the Elitesof account, but rather than using it myself I did pay my brother for each event to go on it lol, which I guess might be considered to be just as bad? But not sure lol. However, as for the others, the truth is I don’t really know. If they did it was probably hidden from me, because I did immediately go to the press to explain things, and that might have caused people to distrust me and not admit squat to me. Probably because they were afraid I’d rat them out or whatever lol. Wheelo actually I did catch red-handed multilogging but I didn’t have the proof until after I fired him lol, but that was way later on like near the end of armies.
Wait, you paid your brother to attend events?
Ya lol $5 per event. Dalton (Elitesof) had given me his account, so I told my brother to log on it, and so during events I’d shout to him to change rooms, do tactics, etc. I think it was probably around 2012 or so.
What are your views on the widespread multilogging and corruption that was rampant in community during the final years before the shutdown of the original Club Penguin?
So my views were that it was kind of predictable, with the way armies were headed as a whole it seems like more and more people were becoming desperate just to get their numbers up, and with things like botting, autotyping, and all of that stuff becoming super common and becoming the norm, it just seemed inevitable. I truthfully didn’t approve of it, I feel like those things (along with all of the scandals, cheating, etc.) kind of just killed the spirit of everything, and it was sad that I saw people just leaving autotypers on and bots on for days on end, and when I saw that people were getting 200 penguins banned a day for that it was clear to me that this just wasn’t even fun for anyone anymore. I’d say I wish I could have changed things more than I did, I wasn’t too active during the last few years, I mostly played a political role and just an advisement role, and I did what I could, but all of the corruption and scandals going on was too much for even me to handle. I think armies dying back then were sort of a blessing in disguise, it allowed them to renew themselves and become what they are now which seems to be much better than before.
AR narrowly missed out on a spot in CPAC’s Top Ten Armies of All Time. Any thoughts?
I mean I just was flattered to even be close, I do know that some people had strong thoughts about it, such as Iceyfeet and Shab and Puck telling me it should have been 9th or 10th. They wanted me to fight it but I truthfully didn’t care, armies were ending by that time, and I was mostly just glad that I had fun with them, and I never cared much for statuses or awards.
Would you consider an new Army Republic CPPS generation?
Nah sadly not, I have a lot going on in my life, and everyone on the AR server does have their own lives as well, lots of us are getting married, some even having kids, moving out, full-time jobs, etc. So it’d be very difficult to get many people (if any) on board with something like that, even if I really wanted to.
If you were to return to armies today – hypothetically speaking – how would you adjust your style of leading to adapt to current times?
To be fair I’m not really sure, if I’m gonna be honest I keep very very little contact with current armies. I’m not in any CPA related servers, so I don’t really have much of a clue as to what they are like or how they operate now. I suppose I’d attempt to get accustomed to what the new norms were, and figure out ways I could do things similarly to what other successful armies were doing.
What advice would you give to current S/M army leaders to raise their army to Major status like you did with AR?
I guess mostly just to try not to take things too seriously, still dedicate time to other interests and hobbies and have fun with it. Making friends within armies is honestly the most important thing you’ll gain from it, even more than having a title of legend or 1st in a top 10.
As you can see, 122344 provided some really interesting and analytic answers. We now know that his mentor was Blueswill, a very interesting figure of early armies that we will talk about in the upcoming week. We also learned more about the effect of “122344a Doctrine” in the army and how it impacted CPA as a whole, and also the reason why AR aligned with the White Alliance in WW6. Sadly the question about whether AR was actually created in 2007 still remains, since 122344 doesn’t have any pictures/videos of the army that old in his possession. If anyone has such media of AR from 2007-2008 please reach out to me. We also now know that 122344a paid his brother 5$ per each event he attended! I would definitely attend every event for that much money. Not sure if that makes 122344a more or less of a legend, I suppose it’s up for debate. His message to current S/M army leaders was also very interesting, I agree that what matters the most is the friends we make along the way.
But those are the main points I took out of this interview. What do YOU think? Are there any extra questions about 122344a/AR you would like to see answered? Please let us know in the comments below!
Superhero123
CPA Headquarters Website Manager
Coolster114
CPA Headquarters Head of History
Poppa A