For the first time in 2022, the community witnesses a change in the number one spot on our weekly Top Ten. The Army of Club Penguin took the spot from Templars on Christmas week.
In a shocking turn of events, the Army of Club Penguin was able to clutch last week’s Top Ten number one spot from the Templars. After calculations, the Clovers were a mere 0.54 points ahead of Templars. While initial gossip rumours pointed the blame to the Clovers using too many allies, it turns out that the Army of Club Penguin earned more event points over the Templars due to the ongoing war with Special Weapons and Tactics. This provided not only a boost in numbers due to the use of allies but also extra battle points.
Top Ten calculations for December 24
This is the first time all year that the Templars have not been at the number one spot on our weekly Top Tens while, for the Clovers, this is their first time at the top spot since CSY’s leadership in April 2021. After many months spent floating between major and small/medium status, the Clovers regained their major army status. Since doing so, they have re-solidified themselves as top contenders in the community.
A battle during the Troubled Allies War
Club Penguin Armies reached out to Calgocubs21, the Commander in Chief of the Clovers, to get his perspective on the unexpected results.
How does it feel to be number one after so long?
I have a very mixed bag of feelings regarding us achieving number one (#1) after such a long drought and hardships spanning way before my leadership. I think I am still processing a lot of what happened to some extent. Its quite shocking to say the least. One of my top goals when I took over the Army of Club Penguin (ACP) was to get us to number two, which we achieved in the second week of my leadership, and eventually aiming toward getting us up to #1.
That being said, as many people are probably already aware, the way we achieved #1 was quite controversial since we did it off the support of our allies in war. Personally, I try to hold myself and my army to very high standards when it comes to how we go about doing things and I am heavily against cutting corners. When the news officially broke that we knocked the Templars off their streak, I was quite embarrassed and felt a bit of shame.
I think most of my team including me are celebrating to some extent for being 1 of 2 armies this year to reach #1 despite our reservations regarding it and to be honest I think its okay for us to celebrate this moment whether we did do it the right way or not. We still at the end of the day achieved something that was unthinkable to us this year. Who would have predicted ACP to be #1 this year after struggling to even get itself back onto the top ten and into major army status? Absolutely no one and that I think is worth celebrating for how far we’ve come in this short amount of time. While we are celebrating it this week, my staff team and I are all on the same page that we plan to work our way toward earning #1 legitimately without the aid of others going into this new year and overwrite this controversial achievement with one that we earned through our own hard work and perseverance.
What do you think has helped the army in achieving this?
In a perfect world i’d like to say that we achieved this through our own hard work and all the major improvements and changes that we’ve been making to our army, the reality is this was achieved due to the support from our allies, and I’m not gonna cower away from giving credit where it is rightfully due. While we have been working relentlessly as a team to rise in the rankings and have shown tremendous improvements recently, we are not at the skill level of #1 just yet.
A huge factor that played a major role in us achieving number 1 was due to us making the dynamic of our foreign relations and positioning within the community a high priority. When we first re-entered the map and league back in September, ACP was extremely at risk of being targeted due to our poor positioning in terms of foreign relations. While we are extremely fortunate to have Help Force who have been tremendous allies to us, if an allied force for example were to ever come after us in a gang up war we would be very much exposed. As such we reopened relations with all armies, even those that we were hostile towards in the past such as SWAT and TCP.
I told the leaders that what happened in the past is the past and we should only let our current actions dictate the dynamic of our future relations between our armies. As such we allied with Dark Vikings who have aided us numerous amounts of times such as in our raid on the WV vs. IW practice battle that aimed to mock ACP. We also became friendly toward TCP and worked toward an alliance with SWAT. Not only did we value all of these armies as potential allies but we also saw more than just that as they showed respect to us from the get go which we reciprocated. On the other hand if armies tried to pick a fight with us, we would answer the call and respond accordingly.
What SWAT failed to do is they treated our alliance with them as fully transactional where they only valued us as a boost to their max size. While attending each other’s events is great, alliances should be treated more than just a numbers boost. SWAT also somehow made their positioning worse by not only shit talking all the armies that they burned their bridges with leading up to the last war, but also shit talking their own allies behind their backs. They bit off more than they could chew and as such the whole community rose to put them back in their place and humble them.
Lastly, I think our higher command team did a great job in staying observant leading up to this war. As soon as we caught wind of plans floating around by SWAT, we sent in our SIS team to uncover SWAT’s plans and as such we tipped off Help Force about what was to come. This war was the perfect storm to give ACP’s troops a huge morale boost after 1 year of no wars and gave us a common goal to rally around. Not to mention our max of 56 was achieved due to the high turnout from our own troops and our allies due to it being the first invasion of the war. I would like to thank Templars, Help Force, and Dark Vikings as YOU were the ones who made this possible for us and for that I am grateful.
How does the army plan to move forward after this?
As of right now, our current plans are to wrap up this war as quickly as possible before the start of the new year so that we can pivot our focus toward phase 2 of my plans for ACP starting January 1st. Phase 1 of my plans were set to last from the time I took over as leader to the end of 2022. This Phase was focused around stabilizing ACP as a major army, reaching the #2 spot in the Top Ten, getting our recruiting force back off the ground and running, giving our troops a war, becoming major contenders in tournaments, maxing 40+ on our own, holding events that are thoroughly planned out to improve troop retention, and bringing back a lot of quality of life features within our army that were abandoned after the mass retirements in 2021.
I believe we have successfully achieved every goal that was laid out in phase 1 plus other major achievements that were not initially on our agenda. As such looking forward into phase 2, we will be announcing a sequel to our popular Project: Revival this coming Friday. While Project: Revival set to put us back on the right track and get us to major, this new project will be aimed at raising the skill ceiling of our troops and rising to the top as an army.
Any advice you would like to give to the armies who are striving to be #1?
My best advice to other armies is that it isn’t a sprint, its a marathon. Consistency and troop retention are important if you are aiming to be #1. Also, be humble and know your strengths and limitations within your army and staff team. Push yourself to maintain what you do well, evaluate where you can improve, and be open to change and innovation. Don’t be afraid to have pride and celebrate your achievements and be courageous enough to admit when you make mistakes. True leaders are ones who lead by example by sticking up for what they believe in and being able to admit when they messed up. Troops look up to us as leaders and its up to us to set the right example for them. I think every army has the potential to one day be #1, its just all about mindset, motivation, and big goals.
Despite understanding the reality of the situation, Calgocubs21 seems optimistic that this momentum can only continue to push the Army of Club Penguin to its former heights. Do you think the army will continue to be a competitor for the top spot into the new year?