After four weeks of intense battles, the most prestigious tournament of the year has finally concluded. Two strong armies met in the Final to fight for the champions title, but ultimately, only one could emerge victorious and claim the trophy.

In the Grand Final, we witnessed a head-to-head battle between the Army of Club Penguin and the Rebel Penguin Federation. While the community’s predictions leaned in ACP’s favor, RPF is known for their numerous tournament wins. On the other hand, the Clovers haven’t secured a victory since Beach Brawl II. Both armies engaged in a close battle on Saturday, which extended into overtime, ultimately resulting in a single victor.

Army of Club Penguin vs. Rebel Penguin Federation

Grand Final went across Snow Forts, Iceberg and Inside Mine, with Stadium becoming an overtime room. The spectators quickly noticed that ACP would begin the battle with a significant size advantage, with the initial count of the first room showing 59 ACP and 39 RPF.

Despite the size difference, the judges deemed Snow Forts a tie. According to their assessment, the Rebels managed to maintain a great speed, while also displaying well-thought formations, covering their opponents and making themselves look as big as them. It was enough for the Rebels to tie the room, even though they didn’t secure a win. However, they seemed to double their efforts at the Iceberg, managing to emerge victorious from despite ACP’s max. The size difference decreased, which allowed RPF to create more clean and stronger formations, superior to those displayed by the Clovers. Inside Mine saw both armies performing exceptionally, however ACP managed to cover RPF more frequently and make a use of their size advantage. With the overall battle being at a draw, an overtime room was declared. At the Stadium, the Clovers maintained their dominance in terms of formations, creativity, and size, which allowed them to secure the Legends Cup XIII trophy.

Legends Cup XIII Champions – Army of Club Penguin

Designed by Master DS

We had the pleasure of speaking with Austin and Coolguy, ACP leaders, who shared some details about their victory:

Can you share any details about your preparations? In your opinion, what gave you the edge in the final battle?

Austin: We began preparations even before the Legends Cup was announced by improving our tactical performance and hiring potential staff members who excelled in each category. Every week, we spent a significant amount of time training and mentoring our team, which resulted in ACP’s success. We attempted to approach this as a long-term strategy rather than a short-term one. The long-term plan required considerable effort, but it has already yielded fruit. Even though our preparations for LC were extensive, we found it difficult to maintain continuous motivation among all staff members, but we were successful in keeping them hungry to win the championship once and for all. We went above and above, even when things were tough, and we pushed ourselves to the maximum. A good 80% of our sizes were troops, showing that we have passed the point where we no longer need to rely on veterans. The current World War significantly helped us in strengthening our tactical performance as we battled RPF, WV, and EGCP on several occasions on the battlefield. This was not only a positive step for leaders, but it was also an important step for our troops to get acquainted with the war tactics. We concentrated on considerably boosting our troop-to-tactic ratio, which has significantly improved since March Madness. I will confess that our innovative formations and sizes helped us to victory. We’ve practiced so much that we no longer rely on the non-creative formations in battle.

Coolguy: Our preparations for the finals were immense, from dm’ing everyone within our army about each and every round to recruiting, getting accounts registered and activated, fulfilling normal leader duties plus everything that came with the LC, especially trynna plan around it, motivating and hyping up everyone, remaining active and riding the motivation from each and every round etc. I think what gave us the edge was our hunger, how much each person on our team wanted the Legends Cup win. I mean, I’m sure RPF would’ve liked to win the LC but ACP had never won it before and upon creating this triumvirate we said we wanted to make history. Winning the Legends Cup was just one part of that plan. We finally brought the tournament/trophy that ACP’s creator, Oagalthorp, made but that ACP had never won, today. It’s not just about us as leaders or our staff team or troops but the generations of the past which have fought for this trophy but haven’t been able to achieve it. This is the second time ACP’s even been in the finals since like 2011 so it was imperative that we all pushed hard throughout the week, every single second we had and every breath we had left to gather our resources to try and take home the trophy. I think that’s what ultimately gave us the win. Ultimately, I think we all would like to thank each and every staff member, troop, hcom and vet who helped us along the way. ACP brought the trophy home for the first time and made history today! That’s something we are all proud of.

Do you agree with the judges’ verdict, or would you change anything?

Austin: As a former Head Judge, I understand how contentious critical battles like this can be, but the fact that no one in the community objected to the ruling speaks volumes about their judging abilities. Rebel Penguin Federation gave us one of the most entertaining fights of the tournament, but I disagree with some parts of the verdict. With a 20+ size difference, I believe Room 1 should have been an ACP victory. I doubt we had a huge gap that should be met to win or tie a room. I believe the judges also missed to realize that ACP was strong at various spots, like the bottom of the room. In terms of Room 2, I believe it should be a draw. Judges deemed as RPF moving first whilst RPF moved first because they were getting covered with the surround. I believe RPF moved after the one-minute mark.

Coolguy: The battle went by so fast and of course when leading it’s hard to really take a step back to see whether or not we’re “winning” or not. We just see what we see in the moment and do our best to try and do better. I was surprised by the results but only because I didn’t really have expectations for any of the rooms. I know RPF fought well, despite the size difference but I wouldn’t be able to tell you whether or not our size difference should’ve automatically given us wins but I saw that room 1 was 20+ difference between the 2 armies which “there are almost no circumstances in which the larger army will lose the room. To lose, the larger army must be slower, disorderly and use formations that do not highlight their size” – Imo we were not that so maybe Room 1 should’ve been ours, as per judges guidelines because we definitely were fast, using different formations to try and give us the win etc -one example is the arrow form we did which utilised the right side of the room, the chat bar and the middle of the room. I can’t speak on behalf of the judges or pretend that I observed every second of the battle because I was in said battle but I’m comfortable in believing that we deserved the win. Also I think that in the results judges failed to mention that in the iceberg (Room 2) while both acp and rpf did a surround/circle, RPF had to bomb because they were being covered and when they got into a new form, the circle still did well to expose their gaps while covering parts of it. I think the performance of acp in the 1st quarter and last quarter was overlooked somewhat.

What do you think was the toughest aspect of fighting RPF?

Austin: Even with a massive size gap, any army would struggle to keep up. RPF demonstrated that they can compete with us despite a 20+ size difference, which is a highly impossible concept in armies. RPF’s tactical performance is clearly on another level. Their veterans and troops have a plethora of battle experience.

Coolguy: The toughest aspect fighting RPF was definitely how they tried to combat our size with their formations and tactics. This was seen throughout the battle as they consistently fought despite our size, trying to be big and clean at the same time and I think that’s one thing the judges kept in mind. They are a relentless army which doesn’t stop, they are well-drilled and well-trained which makes them a formidable opponent so it’s always an honour.

Do you have any tips for other armies for future tournaments?

Austin: Plan ahead of time, visualize yourself winning the competition, and channel that same energy into your staff. The community saw our obsession with winning this tournament and knew we would. We’ve been grinding since day one with me, Calgo, and Coolguy sacrificing sleep and sanity to win this tournament, and it’s finally paid off. There were occasions when I would get two hours of sleep and then be on the grind. You will win if you have the drive, the obsession to win. Transmit your obsession to your staff and troops, and they will be just as motivated as you are. We gave our troops a taste of victory and made them desire it even more, which contributed significantly to our Legends Cup success.

Coolguy: Never underestimate your opponent. We didn’t underestimate RPF this week, we brought everything we had and left it out there. This helped us get the win but sometimes this isn’t always enough against the likes of RPF, as armies have seen before. I think it’s important to work hard but always make sure that you’re not wearing out your own army in the process.

Congratulations to Army of Club Penguin for securing the Legends Cup XIII trophy, and a shoutout to the Rebel Penguin Federation for putting up a strong fight. The administration would also like to express their gratitude to everyone who was involved in the organization of the tournament, especially the CPA Judges, CPA Battleground, and Master DS, who designed our amazing graphics and the trophy!

Who do you think is going to emerge victorious from the next tournament? Will RPF be back on top or will ACP secure another victory?

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Mchappy is interning at Club Penguin Armies as the Chief Executive Producer. Max held him at gunpoint to finish his biography.