CP REWRITTEN, United Media Headquarters – Did you know there wasn’t always an AUSIA community? In this post we look at it’s history, and how one individual began shaping it into what it is today.
AUSIA, an amalgamation of Australia and Asia, covers a wide area of our global community. For the last decade this community thrived, earning armies bonus points for these events despite predominantly being western. However, this division did not always exist when Club Penguin Armies came to fruition.
Sidie9, founder of the People’s Imperial Confederation, earned the title of Small/Medium Legend for their work in the AUSIA community in 2012. Due to not being able to attend any events at her first army, she and a group of friends founded the Army of Darkness, a new army with the intention of hosting events for those in AUSIA time zones. This would mark the start of a rapid chain of events, with Sidie going to lead AUSIA divisions of a variety of armies while others followed her example.
The Army of Darkness in a training event.
The Army of Club Penguin especially capitalised on this, by creating their AUSIA division in 2013. Led by Flipmoo at first, the division would start off with small numbers. This would improve steadily to the point where their “Golden Day” saw a max of 56 penguins. Other armies were subsequently inspired to begin their AUSIA divisions, proving this can be as strong as EU or US divisions.
Army of Club Penguin maxing approximately 50+ in a 2013 AUSIA event.
Since then, throughout the rest of the decade many armies began hosting events for those in the AUSIA community. In order to encourage more of this, the weekly Top Ten formula was adjusted to add an AUSIA curve. This would allow armies to earn more points for hosting events during this time period. Most recently, this was complimented with the first AUSIA tournament – the Aces of AUSIA, followed by this year’s AUSIA Arena.
Help Force vs Army of Club Penguin | AOA Finals
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Interview
To learn what they think of this community now, United Media sat with Sidie9 for an exclusive interview.
Can you remind us again what led to you creating the Army of Darkness?
I had first joined the Ice Warriors in 2011. Armies truly fascinated me and the idea of these penguin battles got me excited, yet I was unable to attend any events due to the US/UK timings. So, I rounded up a bunch of my school friends and some people I’d met in Ice Warriors and I created the Army of Darkness, the first Aus/Asian based army. We were a considerably small army but it was the start of something pretty cool.
I’m going to assume that the majority were supportive of your idea, or is this not the case?
The community reactions to the concept of Aus/Asian divisions were mixed at first. The first army to notice were the small/medium Global Defenders who wrote us off as a bunch of children (because we were lol). Later on in 2012 however, some major armies started to keep an eye on Aus/Asia. Superaalden, a friend I’d met in a later iteration of Army of Darkness, became leader of the Army Republic’s first Aus/Asia division and would later receive the title of small/medium legend. The Light Troops also took interest, fielding their own Aus/Asia division at points, though it was short-lived.
It wouldn’t be until 2013 that the community really started to embrace Aus/Asian divisions as a concept. I helped the Hot Sauce Army establish their own division which was used in wars against the Doritos and Light Troops, which caught the eye of army veteran Slimball2007/Flipmoo. He joined the Army of Club Penguin in mid-2013 and created their famous Aus/Asian division, which soon grew to sizes of 30-50+. CPA graphics designer Monsoon coined the term “AUSIA”, a mixture of the words Australia and Asia, and by then the community embraced AUSIA with open arms. It was a gold rush, every army wanted to create their own AUSIA divisions. If it weren’t for Flipmoo’s success in ACP it would’ve taken longer for that to happen.
Looking back now, how do you think the AUSIA division has improved?
It’s so wild to me that the concept of AUSIA divisions has come this far. It was bound to happen, before AUSIA armies were literally ignoring a third of the globe at their events, but it’s still surreal to me sometimes. We’ve had armies that were mostly AUSIA-based like the Smart Penguins and AoS. On the flip side we’ve seen the strongest major armies such as the Ice Warriors, Rebel Penguin Federation, Templars, and the Army of Club Penguin of course, fielding massive AUSIA divisions to this day. This kind of thing would be beyond 11-year-old me’s wildest dreams.
Going forward, is there anything about the AUSIA community that you think should change?
There’s not much I’d change about the AUSIA community but there are some things. I dislike when some armies try to host AUSIA events at 3:00PM EST, which is when a majority of people in Asian countries would still be sitting in school. It’d be like trying to host a US event while passing it off as a “European” event. I also would like to see more AUSIA tournaments. The general community is still extremely US/UK-centric and AUSIA tends to miss out on big events and such. The AUSIA Arena tournament is definitely a step in the right direction, though.
Is there anything further that you would like to say?
The history of AUSIA is a long and complicated one, in some ways it is still developing to this day. We’re all capable of innovating in this community, so go out and chase some dreams!
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The AUSIA community, since it’s inception, has come a long way to host powerhouses today. No doubt will the community continue to embrace them, with multiple tournaments to host in the near future. The question now is, what’s next for this community, and who will win this year’s AUSIA Arena? United Media will keep you updated of the outcome over the next few weeks. Good luck to all armies participating!
