Many members of the community have expressed their dissatisfaction over the way the events of World War IX transpired. While some tend to only focus on the supposedly undesirable aspects of the war, others go as far as entirely dismissing it as a World War, or calling it a failure. However, it could be possible that we, as a community, are failing to see the silver lining hiding behind the perceived insurmountable clouds of negativity that envelop World War IX.
Designed by Scorp
I. The Treaty
The treaty signed at the end of the World War IX became one of the biggest points of dissatisfaction in the community. According to the treaty, both the Blue Sunset Alliance and the Sapphire Concordat agree to wipe the war score entirely. Obviously, this did not sit well with a lot of the Blue Alliance’s troops and even leaders. Many members argued how the treaty invalidates their immense efforts and investment into ensuring the alliance’s victories on the battlefield. Moreover, unaffiliated members question the authenticity of the term in its attempt to alter the history books of the community. The term gets in the way of preserving history as it occurred.
Several members have gone far enough to call it one of the worst diplomatic efforts of all time. However, the treaty might just have a much brighter silver lining than anyone has realized. Try to envision this war from the perspective of an outsider within the community. Throughout this war, the Sapphire Concordat lost every single battle they engaged in, despite their best efforts and numerous outstanding performances. With the return of armies to normalcy from the covid-19 era, it is not that easy to lead an army as it was during the golden year of 2020. The immensely demoralizing effect of this war had the potential to cause significant setbacks for the Sapphire Concordat armies. However, wiping the score clean allowed them to retain at least some level of their pride.
The treaty imposed upon the Napalm Corps
The third term from the above treaty throws some light upon the reason behind declaring “no winners”. We cannot claim that a small army like the Napalm Corps stood a chance of winning the war against the much bigger alliance. However, not getting constantly humiliated for it is definitely something they can be happy about. Moreover, the Napalm Corps did not lose their entire empire to their enemies. This effectively helped the S/M army to continue thriving on the CPA map. Unlike several former cases, it is refreshing to see major armies not selfishly taking over the S/M part of the map hiding behind the excuse of flimsy war provocations.
Literally any war in the community is bound to exhaust the troops. After all, if you are not burned out by the end of the war, did you even participate in it? However, the unique style of diplomacy surrounding the war makes it stand out from the usual. Typically, armies tend to focus on themselves when rebuilding and countering the post-war activity drop. However, the treaty provides a platform for the armies to possibly collaborate with each other. It is an opportunity to not act entirely in their own self interest but to consider the community as well. After all, armies only thrive when the community does. While this may seem contrary to the norm set by previous wars, it just happens to be an ideal envisioned by Army Legend Bluesockwa1.
For the unaware readers, Bluesockwa1 is one of the most impactful individuals of the original Club Penguin Armies era. In his editorial “The Last Lecture”, B1 called for armies to set aside their petty differences. At that time, it was more important to come together to prevent the immorality of rampant malpractices like multilogging that threatened the vitality of the army community. By ensuring that the Sapphire Concordat does not get negatively affected by the war, the Blue Sunset Alliance, unknowingly or knowingly, fulfilled this ideal.
Think about it, how many times would the armies have really flaunted their score? Maybe once or twice in their web posts, they would go back to their usual costume takeovers within 2-3 days. The treaty merely shortened that gap even further. However, this relatively insignificant inconvenience sets a platform for the involved parties to move forward from the rivalry and co-exist once again. What could be a better way of helping the community thrive than extending a hand to collaboratively rebuild after an exhausting war?
II. The Troops and the War Score
Many have argued that the exhaustive war led to the troops seeing no results, despite putting in so much effort. However, this argument does not properly represent the reality. Throughout the war, the announcement channels of the BSA echoed with cries of jubilation following their victories. The wiping of the war score essentially prohibited them from mentioning it one last time following the conclusion of the war – the message was already conveyed to their troops in spectacular fashion.
For all the BSA troops who put in effort by attending the battles, they did get an instant reward in form of all the victories that they obtained. The treaty does not overturn battle results in the Club Penguin Army Judges records. It merely prohibits any involved leaders from mentioning a winner, or the score. This is just an attempt to ensure civil behaviour in the public forums. Exhibiting human decency does not totally rob the troops of the rewards for their hard work.
Last war score announcement in the Blue Sunset Alliance server
III. Rebel Penguin Federation’s Term Violation
The Rebel Penguin Federation losing all their land due to a silly, accidental term violation is another point of dissatisfaction in the community. Surprisingly, the Blue Sunset Alliance affiliated members are not the only people unhappy with the forfeit of the Rebels’ servers. However, it should be noted that the Rebel Penguin Federation has remained dormant on this map since a while now. The war provided a reason for the Rebels to exhibit their exceptional battle prowess yet again, boosting their event maxes drastically. It helped their new members gain an idea of what an army is actually like when it is at war. The Rebels are no strangers to having three events per day (example, their Olympics weeks). Thus, it’s hard to say that the war unnecessarily exhausted their staff members or troops.
The loss of servers does not actually hurt the pride of a major army like the Rebels very much.In fact, it is probably insignificant when compared to the frustration of the Concordat armies in the war. It is true that the Blue Sunset Alliance intended to acquire more servers and stop ACP’s expansion. However, this goal shifted the moment the rest of the community stepped in, with the intention to transform the event into a World War between two alliances. The fundamental goal of any conflict is to win. The Blue Sunset Alliance managed to achieve that quite well on the battlefield. However, the Sapphire Concordat won on the diplomatic side of things. Ultimately, neither side of the war gained “more” than the other, and the war truly had no winners.
IV. The Attempted 3v1
The highly criticized term imposed by the Blue Sunset Alliance basically tried to ensure that the war involved the BSA ganging up on the Army of Club Penguin. Many people claimed that this soured the nature of the war. Furthermore, they cite this as one of the reasons why this war left them with a bad taste in their mouth.
It seems that in the heat of all the battles, people forgot about the nature of wars in this community. In case anyone needs a reminder, an incident occurred barely a day before the World War erupted. The Army of Club Penguin and the Elite Guardians attempted to simultaneously invade Special Weapons And Tactics while they were in the midst of another war. Note that both invading armies are strong major armies that have been on the rise recently. Both armies did so with intention to fight SWAT one-on-one. However, the end result was SWAT surrendering their land to the Clovers due to the unfeasibility of fighting two major armies at once.
SWAT surrendering their land just before the war
World War VIII, the alliance war that preceded this one, originated in the rivalry when the giants Help Force and the S/M army Red Ravagers ganged up on the Silver Empire. There have been several such cases, with up to four armies uniting to declare war on a single opponent. Such wars were allowed in the past due to ‘war reasons’ like immoral behaviour exhibited by the losing army. The Blue Sunset Alliance merely made another attempt at a similar war, with the term being revoked by the administration regardless. The point is, the term would not have produced something entirely unseen or unacceptable. While I agree it is quite odd to attempt to enforce no allies while using them yourselves, in no way should that undermine the quality of the World War IX.
Eventually, the removal of this term brought together several armies that would usually maintain rivalry with each other. Notable, the Clovers had declared war on SWAT barely a few days before SWAT allied with ACP to support them against the BSA. The Templars and Army of Club Penguin are also historic enemies with several wars in their past. It was definitely a positive thing to see enemies manage to put their differences aside to participate united in a community wide event.
V. The success of army organizations
Both Club Penguin Armies and Club Penguin Army Judges enjoyed a significant amount of success during this war. Club Penguin Army Judges executed their responsibilities in impressive fashion, ensuring that none of the battles was cancelled due to lack of judges. Moreover, the quality of the judges provided did not drop over time. The Head Judges and experienced tournament judges officiated in most of the battles. Despite the lack of an updated judging guideline throughout the war, the organization never truly failed in fulfilling its fundamental duty of providing unbiased, qualified judges to both alliances. Moreover, this feat is quite impressive considering the odd timings of battles on quite a few days.
The Club Penguin Armies media finally experienced activity fitting of the summer season. The majority of the authors were held back by affiliations or wartime responsibilities. Despite the lack of available authors, the team published over 40 posts in the first half of the month. Undoubtedly, that figure attests to the speed of coverage provided by the media team with limited resources at hand. The opinions and editorials department maintained a strong presence throughout the heavy influx of news. This trend surely lives up to the standards popularized by several legendary media figures.
Me after praising my team in a war editorial
However, these two organizations are not the only entities that benefited from the war. With every war comes an influx in sizes and activity. The army community as a whole finally experienced the much awaited surge in summer activity. Unfortunately, it is not possible to completely deny the negative aspects of the World War. However, the silver linings of it are far too good to overlook in retrospect.
More Information
Mchappy is interning at Club Penguin Armies as the Chief Executive Producer. Max held him at gunpoint to finish his biography.