HCOM Life Stories: Zenishira From Help Force

Welcome to the eighteenth edition of the “Higher Command Life Stories” column. This week we sat down with Zenishira, a long-time member who rose up through the ranks of Help Force.

Designed by Legoman

This may come as a surprise to some but Help Force actually was not Zenishira‘s first army. He created his own army, Cofo, on Club Penguin Rewritten (CPR) on April 10, 2018. Intended to be Pizza Federation‘s (PZF) new arch-nemesis, they waddled around wearing the green coffee apron. Zenishira clarified that they weren’t exactly an official army, but more of a group of “organized rogues.” The group logged on whenever they felt like it, lacking any sort of formal schedule but recruiting primarily from CPR. Cofo had their own Discord server, and Zenishira co-led with a person named Shannon up until 2019, when a moderator expressed disproval regarding Shannon’s leadership. Thus a new Discord server was created, and the Cofo army continued to grow and was actually noticed by one of the news organizations at the time. In April or May of 2019, Cofo was asked to choose a capitol server, and they chose Blizzard, prompting PZF to declare war on them. In the first battle Cofo was so overwhelmed with PZF’s size they promptly lost their new capitol server and ultimately shut down.

Cofo gathering in the Coffee Lounge

Fast forward to October 19, 2020, Zenishira was recruited from CPR by Diwix under the guise of joining a “stamp hunter team.” Zenishira had over 300 stamps at the time, so he gladly joined and quickly discovered he had joined an army. Zenishira usually kept away from Club Penguin armies, having heard of the Rebel Penguin Federation and such, viewing Cofo as more of a social experiment. Within the first few days of joining Help Force, he noticed that the community was full of positivity, and compared everyone to a “bag of skittles.” Three years later, Zenishira is now a member of their Higher Command team, having rose through the ranks and leaving his mark along the way.

Club Penguin Armies sat down with Zenishira to discuss lessons learned and about him personally.

What’s a favorite memory of yours in Club Penguin Armies and/or Help Force?

One of my favorite moments within Help Force (HF) was when I first got the esteemed Gamer of the Week (GotW) award. It’s given to the HF troop that manages to attain the most sapphires within a given week. Consequently, this was also during the first week I became Junior Staff, if I remember correctly. Either way, with the GotW comes a custom name color. I, being an agent of chaos, decided that it would be best if I were to have a name color similar to the Commanders. I also “stole” Wynn‘s (the commander at the time) profile picture and pretended to be her. I posted her profile picture on the general chat so that everyone could become “Wynn”. The funny thing is that Wynn just went with it, we even managed to get 15 Wynns online and renamed the Help Force into “Wynn Force”. From that day onward, I shall remember the fourth of April as a magical day.

On another note, I have a pretty bad memory, so I just get excited over the current thing when it comes to HF. However, some things you just can’t forget, such as Overtime Day, it’s kind of become our holiday, along with Juanita Day.

What exactly are Juanita Day and Overtime Day?

Juanita Day: Juanita is one of our former leaders, infamous for her typos. One day, we decided we should all copy her name and profile picture and imitate her mannerisms. Classic HF-flavored chaos. It was difficult to moderate the chat, however, so we resorted to just changing our name to “Juanita but X” on the 15th of every month.

Overtime Day: March 27, 2021. March Madness Semi Finals against the Ice Warriors. We were prepared for battle, itching for a win. The Ice Warriors were worthy combatants, we were evenly matched. So even, in fact, that the judges called for an overtime room. That one overtime room was what made the difference between winning and losing. We lost, unfortunately, despite all our efforts.

What lessons have you learned on your way to becoming Higher Command (HCOM)?

For those who don’t know, in 2021 I was quite the rowdy character. I oftentimes caused a lot of ruckus and was pretty much a pain for the moderators at that time. I admit that I was rude in the past, I often swore, and I was oftentimes overly competitive. I apologize to anyone who has been hurt, annoyed, or otherwise had a bad day due to the way I behaved. However, despite my rebellious actions, the Commanders of Help Force saw potential in me, they knew that I wanted to do something for a change and not be just some silly grunt doing nothing but soldier work day and night, sitting in formations and chanting tactics. They knew that I wanted to climb the ranks, and so they accepted me within their ranks.

I ask this question “What does it mean to be an HCOM?” It is a question that will remain contested depending on who you ask. But in my humble opinion, the spirit of the HCOM is rooted in ambition and discontent. Ambition creates discontent. The desire to change the status quo drives people to demand something greater. It’s what drives people to give up everything they ever knew and cross an ocean, overthrow the most powerful monarchy in the world, to venture into parts unknown in search of gold, oil, and whatever else that might make tomorrow a better day. An HCOM should risk everything for the opportunity of prosperity. We operate under the simple ideal of a man controlling his own destiny through only his passion and self-reliance.

Within Help Force, staff are required to recruit a certain number of people per week. Our readers might agree with me when I say that recruiting is a Sisyphean task. Watching the new recruit leave your army just as they join your army is akin to Sisyphus watching the stone roll down the hill. However, just like Sisyphus, we must never give up, we must continue pushing that boulder up a hill. One should imagine the recruiter happy.

At the end of the day, he who rules is the one who serves the most.

What are some goals you have? And are there any you’ve already achieved?

I believe I might share some of the goals with my fellow HCOM, such as the desire to become the Commander of the Help Force, helping the community, leading HF to victory, etc. Personally, I want Help Force to win the Legends Cup tournament. Sure, the AUSIA Arena trophy is great, but we can aim much higher. I want to boost productivity in recruiting, as in recruiting a few people per day. Let there be no day without recruits. I wish that the well of creativity doesn’t run dry within me, I want each event to be unique and not just a rehash of a previous one.

Another goal would be to learn more about armies as a whole, there’s a whole history behind our community, and I am discontent over the fact that I know little about it. I only know what I’ve been told and what I’ve experienced so far.


It’s clear that even though Zenishira has stuck with one army, he has learned a lot on his rise to the top and is not afraid to share that knowledge with the army community. His memories of Help Force reflect their positive impact on the community, and he continues to aim high. We wish him the best of luck in his Club Penguin army journey and in achieving his goals. Did you know about the Cofo army?

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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.

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