Welcome back to Philosophy Corner. We’ll be discussing ACP’s withdrawal from Legends Cup XI today and whether their actions were justifiable or just plain callous.
In case you hadn’t heard, in the middle of their round 1 battle versus the People’s Imperial Confederation, the Army of Club Penguin [ACP] announced they would be withdrawing from Legends Cup [LC]. Many were shocked by ACP’s announcement since ACP’s sizes had made them a possible winner of the tournament.
Reactions to the news were mixed. Some members of the community criticized their actions.
Today, we’ll be discussing some of these reactions and other viewpoints on ACP’s decision to withdraw.
As I said in my last post, the real goal here is that you try and consider each argument unbiasedly. It’s about trying to put aside the opinions you already had about ACP’s withdrawal. Ultimately, philosophy is about learning to consider things objectively without allowing yourself to be influenced by your own personal bias. Try and put aside the opinions you have on ACP and their withdrawal before continuing.
With that being said, let’s dig in.
ACP’s Withdrawal Was Not Justified
First, we have Matt, who compares ACP’s withdrawal to Usain Bolt withdrawing from a 100m sprint in the middle of the race just because they don’t like the competition. The point here is that ACP are a major army. They frequently place high on the Top 10. They had a much more credible chance to win than many armies and yet they still pulled out.
I would argue that the analogy is somewhat flawed. Matt compares ACP to Usain Bolt. Many consider Bolt to be the best sprinter of all time. 1st place. ACP are not 1st place on the Top 10, however. Looking at the top 10 rankings, whilst ACP place regularly in the top 4, they are still far off of both RPF and IW and their max sizes. Even Help Force often places ahead of ACP with a slight max size advantage. Because of this, I don’t think it’s a fair analogy.
Secondly, CPAHQ user Potassium highlighted ACP’s seeming lack of interest in Legends Cup, despite it usually being the most important tournament of the year. Legends Cup is widely seen to be a highly prestigious tournament and winning it is a tremendous accomplishment, often worthy of CPA Legend [the highest award you can earn in Armies]. ACP’s lack of interest in the biggest army event of the year can certainly be described as unusual when considered alone.
However, I think there’s more to be considered here.
ACP’s Withdrawal Was Justified
Legends Cup is the most prestigious tournament on the army calendar. But, I was swayed by the argument ACP presented that it’s difficult to be excited about tournaments when they’re always very similar. Because of how the seeding works, RPF is always placed in the opposite bracket to the second place [and often second biggest] army around at the time of the tournament. In the case of the Legends Cup this year, RPF is one side of the bracket, Ice Warriors is on the other side. Here’s the bracket to remind you:
The formula and this format are often the same across tournaments or at least lead to the same results [more on this later]. The constant repetition becomes very boring and repetitive, and ACP cited this as the reason for their withdrawal.
Next, another point to consider about tournaments themselves. Because of the way the bracket seedings work and as RPF and Ice Warriors/Help Force have superior sizes to any other army, RPF will likely make it to the finals and either Ice Warriors or Help Force will face them.
This begs the question:
What’s the point of participating in a tournament if you know you’re going to lose?
This may seem like a very defeatist attitude but try and consider this case realistically from ACP’s perspective.
To make it to the finals, ACP would have to beat RPF in the semi-finals [and this is assuming they beat Templars, who have grown at an insane rate in the last few weeks and could have beaten ACP]. The odds of ACP beating RPF were low because of the size difference. Beating RPF in itself is a huge challenge and not one ACP was likely to pull off at their current sizes.
Add on top of this the challenge of beating the other finalist. We’ll assume, for the sake of argument, this was Ice Warriors. It may be true that Ice Warriors don’t always take the top spot. However, they do boast similar, if not better maxes to RPF, making them a major obstacle in their own right. Again, would ACP realistically have beaten Ice Warriors given ACP and Ice Warriors’ current sizes?
With so many obstacles in the way, is it realistic to say ACP was going to win LC? Not necessarily. Is this a defeatist attitude? Maybe, but it’s also a realistic view.
You could contrarily argue that an army can take part in Legends Cup just for fun. There’s more to a tournament than winning. You could argue it gives members of an army something to focus on. Something to drive towards. Army sizes and engagement often spike during tournaments. Is it really worth not participating just because you might not win?
In my opinion, this is a fair stance to take. Tournaments shouldn’t be all about winning. There’s always been more to armies than winning, and our tournaments reflect that. However, I do still think it’s worth remembering that the point of a tournament is to win, not to lose.
At the end of the day, the realization that you have no hope of winning is highly demoralizing and demotivating and I do wonder if that was what happened here with ACP to some extent.
Conclusions
It’s my conclusion that whilst ACP’s decision may seem nonsensical on the surface, upon further examination, there are potentially some fair justifications for ACP’s choice to focus on itself instead of Legends Cup. Tournaments should be enjoyable experiences. Doing the same tournament format time and time again throughout the year is exhausting.
There is one other justification for skipping Legends Cup this year which I’ve intentionally not discussed. Next time, we’ll be discussing Monopolies in Armies.
Anyone who followed Lord Pain’s CP Armies Politics and Philosophy [CPAPP] site at the end of last year may remember I did a post on this subject. Next time, we’ll be re-examining the topic and relating it to the goings-on of today, including participating in tournaments.
What do YOU think? Are ACP’s actions justifiable? Is having fun the most important part of a tournament? Is it all about winning?
Rowan Alden
Philosopher
