We are just hours away from the AUSIA Arena: Summer Edition Final between Help Force and Water Vikings. Let’s meet the five judges who have been chosen to decide the verdict and crown the winning army as the AUSIA Champions.
While preparing for the AUSIA Arena, the CPA admins, along with the members of the Army Board, decided to try a new approach: having the judges personally assigned by the Head Judges. This decision was made to ensure the high quality of the battles’ proceedings and to avoid situations where inexperienced judges oversee the most important matches. We are now excited to introduce you to the five most qualified individuals, who have also agreed to share their thoughts on the upcoming Finals.
Can you introduce yourself and briefly list your army or league history and judging experience?
Ferdthebird: Hello, I am Ferd! I joined armies through RPF, have been a leader in training and ausia leader for Templars and currently I am a PIC leader!!! I joined cpaj as a JIT sometime back and ever since becoming a judge things have been going very well for me lol.
Kally: Hi there, I am Kally. Although now retired on paper, my resumé includes leading the Ice Warriors and the Water Ninjas, heading the media teams of CPA and CPAN, and a fair amount of judging experience from past tournaments (March Madness, Legends Cup, Christmas Chaos).
POPcorny: I have been around since 2013 and I have been a judge for several years and have been a CPAJ Head Judge since it’s inception. I have judged some finals before so it isn’t really new to me.
Spotty: Hello, I am Spotty. I have been in CPA since 2018 and from my experiences, I have lead several armies such as the Help Force and Dark Warriors. My last tenure in an army was during the summer of 2021 as a high command member within the Army of Club Penguin. I have also administrated two community leagues, being Club Penguin Army Headquarters and Club Penguin Armies. This summer marks a proud milestone of 3 years within my role of being a Head Judge to serve the community.
Yvng Baller: Hey hey, I am Yvng Baller but most call me yvng and I am currently a 3ic in RPF and a Head Judge in CPAJ. I been in RPF since May 2020 reaching 2ic at some point and have been judging since November 2020 and been a Head Judge since September 2021. I judged numerous tournaments including LCXI, LCXII, CCXI, CCXII, AA, MMVII and MMVIII.
While judging, do you typically focus on the overall impression of the army’s performance, or do you try to numerically assess factors such as speed, number of tactics, etc.?
Ferdthebird: I mostly look for speed and creativity from armies, and how well they are able to display themselves. For me size has almost never been a factor so yeah. I love to see creativity when armies get it right.
Kally: When judging, I usually like to be surprised. Overall performance is important, but being able to impress me with something fresh or well-practised is always a welcome surprise. I’m a sucker for some well-executed bombs and wipes.
POPcorny: I am more interested in numbers and usually consider size as the most important indicator of how a battle is faring. Other factors of course matter but for me size is the most crucial.
Spotty: I focus on all aspects, size is important to an extent, but if troops are afk then size isn’t the key player. Other factors that I focus on consist of speed, efficiency in terms of bombs and formations, and variety in formations and tactics. An army needs to be faster than their opponents, whilst using creativity with consistency of efficient formations to garner an advantage. This means that an army should not become repetitive or lazy with their tactics, such as spamming big word bubbles as that will negatively impact their scoring in creativity and possibly giving the opponent the upper-hand.
Yvng Baller: While judging I would say I focus on a mix of both including overall impression of the army’s performance and I also look to numerically assess factors speed, penguin to tactic ratio, size etc. If the sizes are similar i especially look into those numerically factors to tell which army is performing better.
Can you provide one weakness and one strength of both Water Vikings and Help Force?
Ferdthebird: Oh I haven’t judged or spectated a WV battle in sometime but from what I have been reading in battle results, Water Vikings’ strength would be mainly their size. They tend to outmax armies quite a bit and still keep it a surprise which is phenomenal. Their size has been very good for sometime now. Don’t misjudge their speed though because on their day they are a serious competitor. I don’t think they have any obvious weakness but they should probably try and be a bit more creative. This doesn’t affect their credibility though and most often they dominate.
As for Help Force, and this has been a constant for a long time is their reputation of being master tacticians and sending tactics together. I have seen it first hand even while judging and to be honest I am surprised they don’t win more tournaments. Because them and RPF are probably the best armies I’ve ever seen in terms of tactics. While Help Force is fairly consistent, one reason for them not emerging as champions a lot more is probably their speed. Help Force tends to take some time in switching between tactics even though they work cohesively and just lose some momentum which is very odd. Like they’ll come across as inactive suddenly and just have to ensure they keep the tempo going because they’re a true powerhouse. I look forward to them winning more tournaments in the future.
Kally: As I cannot think of specific weaknesses right now, a general weakness I’ve witnessed is armies getting stuck in a routine. Armies are constantly changing, and by thinking “whatever worked in the past, must always work,” it’s easy to fade into the background.
For strengths, I’ve definitely witnessed the Viking spirit and perseverance, considering how they don’t shy away from conflict or battle. When needed, they can put together a quite impressive armada. From the Helpers, I’ve seen repeated excellence in battle tactics, often impressing the judges with their performance, which can look choreographed even. Either way, I cannot wait to see what either army brings to the battlefieldPOPcorny: Water Vikings have a lot of experienced hcom with lots of battle experience who can be depended on to perform well in the final. However they could be construed as bottlejobs. Help Force I would argue perhaps has less battle experience as they don’t tend to fight outside of wars very often however do perhaps have more veterans they could call upon to help boost their size.
Spotty: I believe the Water Vikings have more experience with tournament finals up to this point and with that, we should see them make use of their experience. However, the Help Force have a well established AUSIA that will be used to their advantage. Both armies should ensure that they do not drop in sizes upon switching rooms throughout the battle. It has been noticeable from previous tournament battles that this could prove to be a main factor which plays the role in an army’s defeat. For me personally, every battle is different and so I’m not going to focus on battles of the past. However, I am excited to see how this tournament finale pans out, and would like to wish both armies the best of luck for this weekend!
Yvng Baller: One strength from both Water Vikings and Help Force are they can both pull big numbers during tournaments. Water Vikings and Help Force have been dominating this tournament so far with their size difference every battle. As for weaknesses so far this tournament I havent seen any from the armies and I expect this to be a very close battle.
Tournament finals tend to be the toughest, closest battles the community experiences. Considering that the entire battle depends upon the verdict announced by the judges, it is certainly a heavy responsibility that they must fulfill. However, the participants can sleep well at night knowing such capable judges are a part of the team that will preside over the exciting battle that will result in the birth of an AUSIA legend. We at CPA wish the best to both armies.