Members of the army community are located in corners all around the world. With many leaders living in different areas, it is no surprise that several armies are strongest in specific time zones.
Flourishing since its establishment in 2006, the Club Penguin army community has attracted the attention of users all throughout the world. As the demand for more time zone friendly events increased, armies were met with the creation of three major divisions. While the army community began as a USA-based group, European [EU] divisions became a mainstay due to the efforts of individuals such as Gu Gu Pengu. In the early 2010s, the first Australian/Asian [AUSIA] divisions were developed by Sidie9 and perfected by Flipmoo. Though it wasn’t an instant process, the community has reached a point where all time zones tend to be accommodated.
The trend of specializing in specific divisions has persisted in contemporary years. The Help Force is a notable example of a successful AUSIA army, having emerged victorious in several tournaments, such as Ausia Arena: Summer Edition and Aces of Ausia. The Elite Guardians have put their focus into the development of their US division, due to an abundance of members from South America. In addition, the Water Vikings have seen great success over the years through their EU division. While army leaders work hard to ensure stability and growth in all three divisions, it’s common for one specific time zone to remain more prominent.
In hopes of learning more about armies’ strengths in time zones, Club Penguin Armies reached out to several army leaders throughout the community for answers.
Which time zones do you believe your army is strongest in?
Rooboo, HF Leader: Our strongest timezone is INT timezone between AUSIA and EU (AUSIA/EU)
Dawn, TCP Leader: US.
Dino, WV Leader: My army is definitely strongest during European timezones, specifically GMT/BST. That is when we max the highest (as well where a majority of our members hail from) and has been the case for years now.
Link3000, RPF Leader: At the current time our strongest timezone is EU followed by AUSIA i’d say.
Lass, EGCP Leader: Our main timezone is US.
Why do you think those time zones work best for you?
Rooboo, HF Leader: The answer is that we feel like when we wait for the time in between those 2 timezones, people tend to be home and US people tend to yet have it a morning. AUSIA are home, EU are home, and US are sometimes home.
Dawn, TCP Leader: The whole leadership is from north america and so is most of our staff so most of our recruiting and registration is done during US hours, resulting in it being our strongest division.
Dino, WV Leader: These timezones are the best given our member demographic is majority European and thus perfect for them to attend. It’s also good for some of our American troops given they get out of school by the time we host our EU events.
Link3000, RPF Leader: I think it just comes with general availability. For EU, some AUSIA people might still be awake, it’s after work/school hours for people in Europe/Africa and some US people tend to have some free time then as well. As for AUSIA it’s pretty much the same just change up who’s in school, who’s awake etc.
Lass, EGCP Leader: EGCP has made its name as a brazilian army, so it should be obvious that most of our members are from that timezone.
How has the strength of this timezone contributed to the overall success and coordination of your army?
Rooboo, HF Leader: It has definitely rose the maxes of other timezones’ drom from 15-20 to 20-25.
Dawn, TCP Leader: US timezone is what makes Templars the army that it is because it’s the one division that we can always count on and depend on especially during war and it helps that we are all in similar timezones so it isn’t a huge hassle trying to communicate with each other.
Dino, WV Leader: It has contributed to our overall success due to being our most consistent and biggest division. Whereas our US and AUSIA has struggled at their times, EU has continued to be solid. Our chat is most active at EU, too (save for late US around midnight due to us sometimes mass-pinging).
Link3000, RPF Leader: Given that most tournaments/battles/events happen during EU it’s been easy adjusting to such events. If this was a predominantly AUSIA army for example it’d be more challenging to prepare for tournaments given most happen during EU times.
Lass, EGCP Leader: It has contributed in many victorious battles, especially in the ACP-EGCP war, one of the reasons why we managed to resist and counter several of ACPs advances was due to the US battles.
Can you provide some examples of memorable moments or achievements that your best time zone activities have facilitated?
Rooboo, HF Leader: We had a Super Mario Event with a 32+ max and it’s a fun event. We also had multiple INT events that held 30+ for fun events! We also hold important events for that timezone too. Be it the Merge of Force Arcadium and Help Force, celebrating the Ausia Arena win, and more!
Dawn, TCP Leader: We destroyed SWAT and have remained stable in that timezone. our wars have been winnable because of the US division and our hcom there.
Dino, WV Leader: Sure. I can go on and on about tournaments and wars but they might have allies and also obvious hype, so I’ll instead point towards two events. The first one was a hide-and-sneak event in early July where we maxed 25. It wasn’t like it was crazy hyped or anything and hardly any foreign help. The second was a few events afterwards at EU time as well for a Monday training, also maxing 25. Regardless of the days, WV tends to max well at EU. Even right now at our normal EU times we tend to get comfortably above 20. Only last event was it very rough but it wasn’t our orthodox EU timing.
Link3000, RPF Leader: I’d say pretty much any tournament like Legends Cup and Christmas Chaos that we’ve won over the last few years including some memorable war battles like the Sovereign War from last year.
Lass, EGCP Leader: Here is not many recent examples because there is not much action in US nowadays, but I can say examples of wars that EGCP participated like the First and Third Holy War and Templar Exodus.
Do you plan on expanding to other time zones or putting your focus on time zone?
Rooboo, HF Leader: There is no doubt in that. An army must strengthen all the other timezones. Not only for max size points, a tournament, but also wars. Especially wars. And what can I say, people from different parts of the world deserve to have fun in their timezone with events and activities!
Dawn, TCP Leader: We focus mainly on EU and US since those 2 tie into each other but ausia is a pretty dead division that’s only revived when needed.
Dino, WV Leader: We plan on expanding more into AUSIA.
Link3000, RPF Leader: It just depends on what the troops/staff would be into really, we adjust based on everyone’s schedule so if people start being more available for later US times for example then we’d probably expand to that but if not we’re happy sticking with what’s working.
Lass, EGCP Leader: We have been planning to expand for a long time, you can see that by the creation of Bushido and the International Division. Our AUSIA expansion is currently running in top priority.
Many armies have embraced their strength within a particular timezone, such as the Templars and their US division. In contrast, the Water Vikings wish to expand on divisional diversity through their AUSIA division. Though each army has a preference, it is clear that all three divisions are widely utilized throughout the army community. Will the attempts for greater division diversity be successful, or will armies maintain their focus on a single time zone?