KLONDIKE, CP Army Headquarters – Over the course of the year, the community bared witness to a plethora of amazing posts. The journalistic scholars of CPAHQ came together to rank the Top Ten Posts of 2021.
10. CPAHQ Special Report: Clovers Crash Doritos-SWAT Practice Battle; Tempers Flaring
Written by: DMT
Biography written by Kingfunks4
One of the bigger special reports this year was of course written by DMT, and focused on the rising tensions between the Doritos and the Army of CP. Once allies in their conflicts with the Black Ice Alliance, tensions had been rising and eventually reached boiling point when Doritos claimed that the ACP had banned ex-ACP and DCP leader Bam from their server. CSY denied this claim, but set into motion a series of events that would eventually lead to war between the two armies. This conflict truly began with the ACP raiding the DCP-SWAT PB, with SWAT being the army they had recently force treatied.
This post was fantastic in covering every aspect of the story, whilst gathering opinions from those involved. Of course, the true reason that this post is in the top ten is due to the interview with Lord Pain, who had released a post chiming in on the controversies. In this interview he said claimed that “hate speech about ACP is running rampant through this community. Just like in the Pain Wars, ACP will fold under pressure and many will army hop from ACP”. What is an ACP special report without Lord Pain anyway?
9. BREAKING NEWS: Max Has “No Regrets” As He Steps Down As ACP Leader
Written by: Kingfunks4
Biography written by DMT
The day Max’s retirement came to fruition, CPAHQ Discord Manager Kingfunks4 stepped up to the plate, hellbent on breaking the news before anyone else. In mere minutes after his retirement, Funks crafted a model report for a retirement, covering everything that was necessary to know. Not only that, but his interview with Max shed much light onto why he decided to retire. Not much was known behind the decision at the time; it came as a shock for many community members- considering Max only earned leadership status two months prior. Funks went above and beyond to determine the cause of this event, receiving exclusive details from Max about his rationale and what was next for the Clovers.
When asked by a reporter to provide an example post, Funks’ coverage of Max’s retirement is always the go to for writers looking to learn. He covered every possible detail in a cohesive manner, and took the extra step of giving the post details that would not be found otherwise, if not for his journalistic ambition. This ambition was sparked by the desire to be the first organization to cover major stories, and to do it in a way that does not damper the post quality. As they say, competition breeds champions.
8. The Morality of ACP’s LCXI Withdrawal
Written by: Rowan Alden
Biography written by DMT
Legends Cup XI created many of the headlines that dominated the summer, and the Army of Club Penguin’s surprise exit from the tournament was no different. The decision to drop out in the first round spearheaded a barrage of insults hurled towards the Clovers and their decision-makers. Because of the magnitude of LCXI, many found it foolish to drop out of the tournament. However, CPAHQ Head Philosopher Rowan Alden took to the stage to discuss both sides of this event. Rowan made a case for those who criticized ACP as well as those who supported them. What resulted was a significant dissection of the decision that shed new light on how the community viewed it overall. The issue transformed from pinning ACP as the butt of the joke, to one that holds legitimate talking points.
Rowan Alden and his ever-persistent dedication to picking apart community issues was put on full display in this post. He took the popular opinion at the time and challenged it, giving the Army of Club Penguin’s decision some merit because of their influence at the time. For many, the positives of this drop out were hard to see, but Rowan illustrated it in a justified manner, reminding everyone of the importance of philosophy in Club Penguin armies.
7. Back to the Dawn: An Interview with Blueswill
Written by: Superhero123 (& Coolster114)
Biography written by Max
CP Army HQ administrator Superhero123 is well known as the army legend that created CP Armies: The Game – the first Club Penguin private server to be used as a common platform for the entire community. This year, he hosted his own series entitled, “Back to the Dawn”, with fellow historian Coolster114. As the name suggests, they made contact with key individuals from the beginning of the Club Penguin army community, in 2006/07, and speaking with them in an exclusive in-depth interview. The second in their series was a fascinating discussion with Blueswill, creator and leader of the small-medium powerhouse – the CP Clones.
Superhero’s charm and friendly nature made him the perfect man for this job. He was able to quickly gain the trust of the people he interviewed, and provides them with interesting questions that allow them to dig-deep and offer fantastic answers that we enjoy reading so much. He dedicated his interview with Blueswill to all the “small-medium armies who have managed to beat giant”, a perfect sentiment that encapsulates his character and passion for our community.
6. CPAHQ Special Report: Fire Warriors Meltdown and Beef with Eclipse in Retrospect
Written by: DMT
Biography written by Kingfunks4
Next on our list at number 6 is one of CPAHQ’s biggest special reports, which focused on the leadership issues that took place at the Fire Warriors. The post contained leaked staff chat discussions that put under the spotlight the tensions that had risen between Sweater, Austin, Ugly and the rest of the leadership team. It was a brilliantly structured post, that separated the events into a remarkable eleven sections, breaking down what had happened into chronological order from their victory in the Challengers Cup, to DMT’s opinions and concluding paragraph.
This post has been named as one of the Top Ten posts of the year as it truly delved into the spiralling decline of the Fire Warriors’ leadership, whilst gaining statements from those involved such as Cassie, Haley and LEGOMAN. Not only this, but the post put forward the tensions that had arisen with Eclipse and their leader Todoro, who had sparked controversy for not congratulating Fire Warriors in the Challengers Cup results post. This post will go down as one of the best for its unprecedented coverage of a major leadership issue… even if the title of the post did include the word ‘beef’…
5. Legends Cup Drama: Mass Kicking Results in Battle Halt
Written by: Fusion
Biography written by DMT
Though the independent board in charge of Legends Cup XI was a necessary function, one of the downsides of this was the tournament being hosted out of reach of an organization that specializes in tournament coverage. So, when Club Penguin Rewritten moderators began kicking off members of the Help Force and the Ice Warriors during their semifinal battle, then-Editor in Chief Fusion was there to provide the full scoop. The event caused much speculation within the community, with many members not knowing the full story because the board was (rightfully) focused on getting the battle back on track. Seeing this, Fusion swiftly wrote an extremely detailed post that gave everyone the inside track.
During his tenure as CPAHQ Editor in Chief, Fusion demonstrated the ability to quickly break news time and again. In many circumstances, Fusions posts were the only tool community members possessed to formulate opinions on the current events in armies. Though Fusion eventually earned his promotion to the role of Associate Director- and then Vice Director- it is impossible to forget the era of CPAHQ where Fusion was the leader of the reporting corps, and this post is a perfect representation of what he brought to the table.
4. Editorial: Why CP Army Network Is Detrimental for Our Community
Written by: Kingfunks4
Biography written by Max
Kingfunks4’s deep-dive into the into the CP Army Network and their impact on the army community was surprisingly his only editorial of 2021. It began by explaining the circumstances surrounding CPAN’s creation, before delving into the multiple reasons he believed the organisation to be a detriment to the community’s prosperity. This editorial was published in late-November, and was the result of months of tension-building between the two key community organisations. Upon release, it made a significant impact on both sides of our fractured community, with many weighing in on the debate with their opinion. It even incited a response from CPAN board member F6sixer.
Kingfunks4’s talent for penning a cohesive and persuasive editorial is unlike any other in our community, and is just one of the reasons he is my favourite writers in CPA media throughout the years. But his true gift in writing is his ability to produce interesting content that is so easy to read and understand, making it extremely accessible to even the members of our community that would click away when presented with such a large body of text. Instead, Kingfunks4 excels in providing us with top-tier journalism, and this editorial is no exception.
3. Official CPAHQ Organizational Statement
Written by: DMT
Biography written by Spotty
CP Army HQ experienced one of their biggest changes to date back in April, with their organization structure, and even today this topic is still being spoken about. In April, one of the biggest scandals of the year took place when one of HQ’s advisors, Iceyfeet1234 changed the Top Ten without notifying anyone. This led to armies such as the Army of Club Penguin asking why nothing had been done about this incident. This set in motion one of the biggest changes that CP Army HQ has experienced, with DMT announcing that he would be completely re-doing the structure of the HQ team.
This post is significant due to the massive changes that it bought, with DMT announcing that the role of ‘CPAHQ Advisor’ was to be removed. This saw HQ differentiate themselves from their predecessors, and become one of few media sites without such a role. This announcement set the league’s structure with introducing new admin ranks and defining CP Army HQ’s staff hierarchy system. Nearly eight months after the structural overhaul, there has not been any significant changes to the hierarchy system. This complete over-haul of the organizational structure was a key success factor in helping CP Army HQ to become the active and well-known army league that it is today.
2. LIVE COVERAGE: The Contested Crusade
Written by: Max
Biography written by Kingfunks4
At number two we have a very late entry, with Max’s coverage of the Black Ice Alliance (Ice Warriors and Rebel Penguin Federation) declaration of war on the Templars. The declaration post itself was separate, and was rapidly posted about within 30 minutes by Editor-In-Chief Max. Both RPF and IW declared war, but also stated that there could be ‘no allies’ – which the Templars claimed was a violation of their own treaty. Templars subsequently left CP Army Network, which led to a war of words from both sides.
This post was unique, in the sense that it was the only post this year to be a ‘live coverage’ post with rolling updates – something that has not widely been seen since CPA Central. This post was the most viewed post of the year, and did an incredible job in keeping the community up to date, by the hour, on the events that were unfolding. The post heavily contributed to a landmark day for the organisation, as CP Army HQ reached a record high 4122 views for December 19th. Max’s post will go down as one of the most significant in 2021, with statements and quotes from those involved, as he updated us on one of the more significant events for the later stages of 2021.
1. CPAHQ Statement: Review of the March Madness Final Four
Written by: DMT
Biography written by Kingfunks4
Rewind back to March, and the first major tournament in the post-flash era. This tournament was infamously run by CP Army HQ and had full participation from the community, including Ice Warriors, Help Force and the Rebel Penguin Federation. The tournament had reached the Semi-Final, and IW, HF, RPF and ACP had reached this stage. However, the results declared were both under review as both defeated armies (ACP and HF) contested the result. The main issue was lag, causing judges to be severely hampered in being able to see the battle. As many of us know, ACP’s result against RPF was then overturned.
This post was important as it outlined the reasons why the battle between ACP and RPF was overturned (and indeed why the battle between HF and IW was upheld as an IW victory), but sparked the eventual departure of RPF, IW and HF to CP Army Network, who were unhappy with the outcome. While the results were controversial, the statement did put closure on the results and gave a clearly succinct reasoning for this decision. The post is the winner of ‘post of the year’ for its community wide impact, which had ramifications for the rest of the year that followed.