After crowning a new AUSIA Champion, the judges of AUSIA Arena’s grand finals sit down with Club Penguin Armies Reporter Sweater for an interview. Five judges, three rooms, and one close battle. What did our judges experience during the fight?
Before the grand finals, neither army had dropped a single room. The Help Force started their run by crushing the Penguins of Madagascar, following up by doing the same to Napalm Corps. Finally, they tackled the Army of Club Penguin in the closest battle of the group stages. On the other hand, the Water Vikings began their campaign by defeating the People’s Imperial Confederation. Afterward, they set their sights on the Dark Vikings before beating Special Weapons And Tactics. To say that both armies were gunning for the top spot would be the understatement of the century.
On Saturday, May 27th, both armies logged on to Club Penguin Army Battleground with the same goal: to become the AUSIA Arena: Summer Edition winners. Five judges were sent to inspect every element of the battle – any mistake would surely be noticed and could be the end of either army’s run. With 3 Head Judges, the experience was there. After three exciting rooms, the five crowned Help Force as the AUSIA Arena: Summer Edition winner.
AUSIA Arena: Summer Edition grand finals battle between Help Force and Water Vikings; Help Force crowned victors
Club Penguin Armies approached the judges Spotty, Kally, Ferdthebird1, Yvng Baller, and Popcorny to learn more about their thoughts regarding the battle.
What are your thoughts regarding the battle?
Spotty: Honestly I don’t think I was expecting it to be so close in terms of size and determination. Like every single size check we did throughout the sizes were either the same or extremely close. Without a doubt it was the closest battle that I have judged this year, and I think both armies gave their absolute all and should be extremely proud.
Kally: That was a really fun battle to judge honestly, went differently than I expected. There were many things I would have done differently (if I had led), but it is what it is.
Ferdthebird1: Oh it was very close, right from the start. Room 1 was like the closest room I have seen in ages and it was the perfect beginning for both armies if I can say that. With room 3 while it wasn’t as close as r1 for me it was a case of doing well in halves. While HF started strong, WV carried out their infinity form very well for the majority of the second half. It had to come down to the second room and we happened to like Help Force more in the same. They had slightly better forms as well, but to sum up as a whole this battle was dead close. I loved to see it and brilliant tactics all around.
Yvng Baller: The thoughts I had regarding the battle was as I expected they would be. I knew going into this, this was going to be a close battle as both armies are proven to pull large numbers in tournaments like this and it was just as I expected. It was indeed a close battle with sizes of the armies similar throughout each of the rooms and both putting on an amazing performance. Overall it was indeed a great battle to judge and be able to spectate.
Popcorny: I found it quite mundane, nothing I hadn’t seen before. I’m quite glad it’s over.
Was there any particular moment in the battle that you liked?
Kally: The last room had a really solid X from Help Force at the start, and I might have developed romantic feelings for it. There was also a great-looking infinity from Water Vikings in the second half of the same room.
Ferdthebird1: Apart from the infinity form which proved to be very crucial for WV I loved the wipes near the end, all judges agreed that we needed to see something other than bombs and waterfalls and it came at a right time, from both armies. I loved the forms and tactics mainly, they were very strong and both armies did exceptionally well with word tactics despite BWBs becoming more frequent as the battle progressed. Full marks for word tactics on quality and creativity.
Yvng Baller: I didn’t really have a particular moment that I liked, but during the battle I loved when an army would do one tactic and the other army would respond to it with another one. It’s always clever seeing armies do that during battles and seeing their responses to said tactic.
Popcorny: I enjoyed the use of flickers from both armies in the battle, recently in a large scale battle I judged there wasn’t many used but WV and HF both did a plentiful amount.
Spotty: The three rooms were extremely fast paced and close as you can see with the results. However, one moment did stand out to me, apart from declaring the winner and witnessing the excitement that followed. The particular moment that I liked was the Water Viking’s infinity sign in room 3. I had seen them practise it before the battle begun and it was great to see such creativity during a tournament finals, especially as that formation assisted them in achieving a tie.
What do you have to say about both armies’ tactics, formations, speed, and creativity?
Ferdthebird1: It was really deadlocked, including size most of the time. Strong formations from both armies and as I noted above the tactics were superb. The armies seemed to slow down near the midpoint of the rooms but with such a performance, something had to give and it wasn’t very surprising. I’d say the only thing which could have been better is creativity, we missed one of those moments when an army really um steals the battle by doing something extraordinary. I would have liked to see more in movements because looking back it was only either a bomb or a waterfall. Apart from that, special shoutout to the HF forms as they overpowered the vikings for majority of rooms 2 and 3. While WV’s infinity was good, it worked more as a lifesaver than a winner.
Yvng Baller: I would say both armies were very similar in terms of tactics, formations, speed, and creativity throughout the rooms. Both armies had a good speed throughout the room and their forms were for the most part on point. The tactics too were very interesting especially the classic roast tactics you see in these type battles from the armies. To comment on one thing specific I did find WV’s acute angle in room 3 very interesting though since I never seen that form before.
Popcorny: I thought for the most part both armies had good formations, except for one or two from Water Vikings which were a bit lacking in the Snow Forts. The + especially was quite gruesome. I think both armies held advantages in speed through the battle with no definitive winner in that category.
Spotty: For once it was nice to witness a battle that didn’t spam tactics such as “@@@@“ or “WMWMWM” as it proved to not only myself, but to the other judges and to the community how much effort both armies had put into the battle, due to their creativity and variety of tactics. It was also interesting to see both armies use less commonly used formations such as the triangle, acute angle, and the infinity sign.
Kally: One overall issue was armies not moving. First room had barely any movement for a veeery long time, which made both armies look bad. It got slightly better later on. Formations were how they always are, sometimes great, sometimes you could barely make out what they were. Speed and creativity were good in my opinion, and both sides had some funny tactics that had the judges kicking their feet and giggling. I was missing some wipes and creative bombs, which only really came to shine at the very end of the battle.
Did any tactic stand out to you?
Yvng Baller: I don’t have any specific tactics that stood out to me, but like I mentioned earlier I loved the roast tactics and I also liked the puns that were thrown during the battle as well.
Popcorny: No.
Spotty: I’m not gonna lie, it was a very intense battle so I didn’t particularly focus overly much on if any tactics were my favourite or not. However, I do recall seeing various pun related tactics which tend to always be the ones I prefer as it’s great to witness an army’s creativity.
Kally: My favourite tactic came from the vikings: “Why does watermelon sugar start with taste like strawberries?”
Ferdthebird1: Yeah definitely! Firstly the exchanges in room 1 were immensely quick and close. But the WV tactic where they chanted something along the lines of “Can you guys help us win, since you are the help force?” really caught my attention. Good job to whoever thought of that. The “Shake The Room” bomb to start room 3 was also a decent execution to make me nostalgic, I don’t remember correctly but it was probably WV?
What do you feel that either army could have done differently to have a better chance of winning?
Popcorny: Well considering WV lost Room 2 they could have done better there, they got outformed by HF. The + they hung around too long in. Overall in the Docks both armies could have been a bit better, but due to the sizes it was inevitable there would be bunching and some scrapiness.
Spotty: So room two was definitely the most noticeable in terms of ‘mistakes’, as the one which all judges pointed out was WV’s lack of movement in the room. During the room HF were able to cover the Vikings quite a lot, and it was noted a lot by judges that if WV moved into different formations then this room may have ended up in a tie. For HF in this battle the judges additionally spotted that some formations tended to be gappy or that it took their troops a while to form. Furthermore, for both armies it’s advised to move earlier in the rooms, as in some rooms we didn’t witness any movement until 4 or so minutes in which is quite late.
Kally: Well both could have definitely done better! Both should work on cleaning up their formations with their troops, and have their leaders brainstorm some creative bombs/wipes (which I love so dearly). Also MOVE! Don’t keep sitting in the same spot even if you look great, because eventually your great will just look lazy and safe. The acute angle WV pulled was quite funny to witness, but I think it proved something important: Leaders need to be willing to step out of their comfort zone for big battles such as these. Doing something out of the box, something risky, like an acute angle or even the infinity form, will catch the judges’ attention. In that moment of us trying to decipher that form, Help Force didn’t exist.
Ferdthebird1: WV could really have had more solid formations, they let HF take control almost all of room 2 even though WV was quicker into forms. To be fair HF’s forms were also wider and neat. There was a moment in room 2 where WV made a plus with a very messy horizontal line, that didn’t even span across the room. In the next movement HF made a plus and this was way better than the vikings’. I’d also say WV could be faster which would have helped a lot. They could have covered a lot more if they kept up the momentum.
Yvng Baller: I think both armies performed very well during the battle though ofc there was some hiccups from both armies throughout. Room 1 both armies had some ups and downs with forms especially where one could have won the room based off of that i feel along with keeping a consistent speed. Room 2 I would say WV could have done better with their form choice as they were being covered due to that and also made HF look larger than WV at times as well even though the sizes were similar. Room 3 I would say form choice once again because of HF covering WV due to WV’s form choice and HF being covered by WV especially from their infinity in the second half.. Overall forms played a big big role in this battle and if one had a better form than the other, it determined who could have won the room I feel.
Do you have any final comments that you would like to add?
Spotty: Like I mentioned in the results, both armies should be immensely proud of themselves for the performance that they gave today. Both armies managed to achieve and hold around 40 troops for the entirety of the 30 minute battle, they gave their all in hyping, in tactics and in formations, helping to make this battle probably the greatest battle of 2023 so far.
Kally: Watermelon Sugar starts with “tastes like strawberries” because watermelon tastes like strawberries.
Ferdthebird1: Thank you to both armies for the battle, it was awesome to see! While HF took the win today, both of them have been very consistent and this was a powerful performance worthy of a final.
Yvng Baller: This was a very great battle overall and extremely competitive. I had fun being able to judge this intense battle along with my fellow head judges Pop and Spotty as well as Kally and Ferd (who did a great job judging his first major battle!!). And ofc would like to congratulate HF on getting the W in Ausia Arena!
Popcorny: Congrats to both armies and regards to CPA for another amazing tournament.
From the interview with the judges, it is clear both armies could have slightly improved their performance. Kally highlighted that neither army moved around all that much – is that the trend armies are heading towards, bombing less? The judges unanimously agree that the creativity displayed in some areas, namely the Water Vikings’ infinity formation and the Help Force’s firework tactic, was downright excellent. There is certainly wisdom to be passed on in their responses.
AUSIA Arena: Summer Edition was indeed a great tournament all around. From the exhilarating battles to the stunning showcase of how dominant an AUSIA division can be. Hopefully, everybody that partakes in the division is left feeling satisfied with their performance, and here’s to the next one!