The Water Vikings have grown to become a preeminent army in the community, surpassing many others in their pursuit of dominion. Most recently they’ve shown considerable growth in their AUSIA division.
Jed Pen and Zak created the Water Vikings on December 23rd, 2010, through a merge of Masked Vikings and Water Troops. The army continued to grow and achieved several accolades despite multiple shutdowns and obstacles over the past decade. Ever since 2012, the Vikings established themselves as a powerhouse of the community. They often dominated top tens and took on bigger armies in wars. The Water Vikings began their CPPS era with a revival in May 2020, and continue to expand since then.
In 2021, Water Vikings won the Champions Cup under the leadership of Kingfunks and Aaronstone. They continued strong into the next year, reaching the Legends Cup finals in 2022 and AUSIA Arena: Summer Edition finals in 2023. Their most recent conquest is the World War IX, where they continue to dominate the Sapphire Concordat on the battlefield. This success is in no doubt partially thanks to their strong AUSIA division, which has grown considerably in recent months. The recruiting incentives announced by Dino in April played a major role in contributing to their rise.
Dino’s announcement in the Water Vikings Discord server
This increase in recruiting, which also led to a recruiting-strong staff team, undoubtedly led to WV’s stellar AUSIA Arena performance. WV and the Help Force both defeated three armies each to reach the finals. Two out of three rooms were tied in the finals battle, making the battle an extraordinarily close one. Although the Vikings lost the room, the army proved that they had a strong AUSIA division by almost winning against the AUSIA centered Help Force. During the AUSIA Arena tournament, the Vikings maintained a decent average max throughout their rounds. They maxed 36, 38 and 46 in their last three battles of the tournament.
Furthermore, their AUSIA power bolstered their attack in the ongoing World War IX as well. The Vikings consistently maxed 30+ in not just their AUSIA, but other time zone battles too. In addition to the recruiting boost, Water Vikings received support from a few former Ice Warriors members who found a new home in their server after IW’s shutdown. All of these efforts combined have seen a dramatic increase in WV’s AUSIA performance as compared to the past year.
Water Vikings vs Help Force in the AUSIA Arena: Summer Edition Finals
Club Penguin Armies interviewed Dino and Mabel regarding the success of their AUSIA division.
According to you, what led to the Water Vikings AUSIA rise?
Dino: Just doing what they’ve been doing for every other division — we’ve been offering incentives, recruiting at specific hours, and slowly building a community. WV hasn’t done anything extreme; we have just done what we’ve done for every division and clearly the growth is noticeable in our AUSIA.
Mabel: When we got a massive rise of staff in March after the Ice Warriors controversy. If it wasn’t obvious enough, most of those staff have left, but even adding in mass recruiting, especially during the AUSIA hours helped a lot too when it came to helping our AUSIA numbers rise up.
How do you feel about your performance and final round defeat during the AUSIA Arena?
Dino: We outperformed ourselves if I’m being honest. Did I see us going to the finals from the start? I saw it as possible sure but I never expected us to max 30+ before a finals round nor for us to sweep all of our opponents. I actually thought SWAT would be a challenge, and of course it was going to be an uphill challenge to fight HF and ACP. I think the reason why we were defeated has nothing to do with us underperforming. I think we did pretty good for ourselves given the odds stacked against ourselves. I just think there could’ve been maybe a better form choice in room 3 or something. But otherwise just minor faults; I don’t think we truly bottled it.
Mabel: I feel extremely proud with our performance during AA. It was something me and Dino both wanted to do for a bit once we realized how much our AUSIA numbers were rising. And honestly, what led to our defeat, I won’t really know myself lol. I feel like both Water Vikings and Help Force pulled really hard in that last battle, and we have nothing against Help Force because of their win. Both armies have really strong AUSIA divisions, so necessarily there isn’t anything that led to our defeat.
Is the war helping or hindering your AUSIA performance?
Dino: It is helping although obviously you gotta keep in mind allies are in attendance too. Seeing us smash our all-time AUSIA record again just a week later was nice but doesn’t hit the same as with AA since AA was genuinely all WV. Kinda disappointed that a genuine record (46) was replaced not even more than a week later by one with a mixture of genuine and allies (53). Makes it extremely hard to be proud of yourself for all of that hard-work in AA when a World War with allies just makes it seem like it was nothing.Mabel: It’s helping for sure. We’ve been pulling off really good maxes for AUSIA during this war, especially that max 53 from last week. That was a big deal for us.
What made you decide to uplift the AUSIA division? How did you overcome the challenges caused by the current leadership not being in the AUSIA time zone?
Despite the measures over the past few years to uplift AUSIA divisions, the Club Penguin Armies community remains heavily EU and US based. That makes it truly refreshing to see an army invest equally in all three of their divisions and grow as a whole. The Water Vikings have proven that their rise is not going to stop any time soon. What do you think? Will the Water Vikings become the best AUSIA out there soon? Let us know in the comments.
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