Following the end of 2023, it’s time for the highly-awaited yearly Legend Inductions. Whether you love it or hate it, everybody has something to say about the process and individual nominees. Today, I gathered up several nominees and interviewed them on what being nominated means to them.
Designed by Cassie
A Club Penguin Army Legend is the title bestowed upon the very best the community has to offer. Each legend has impacted the community, for better or worse, in one way or another. It could be they led the best army of their time, made significant progress for the community, or provided a monumental service to the rest of us. Each legend is different, but each is legendary in their own right.
The annual Legend Inductions is always a hot topic in the community. Every year, the list of nominations comes out, the committee votes and every year people get angry over the results. On January 3, 2024, Legends Committee Head DMT announced 2023’s list of nominees. Various important figures from each corner of the community were nominated, alongside an additional option for the wider community to nominate more people. This year, a total of 18 people received nominations for legend, with 11 nominated for major legend and seven nominated for small/medium legend.
Typically, media organisations hold ‘Press Conferences’ with those inducted, but Club Penguin Armies wanted to change things this year and offer both inductees and nominees a press conference. It’s a monumental task to interview 18 people, so we narrowed it down to seven people with varying backgrounds and achievements.
I present to you, 2023’s Legend Nominees Press Conference, featuring Cabin, Calgocubs21, Dawnables, Dino, Shallissa, Spotty and Wynn.
Note: The interview with Dawn and Shallissa will be added when they are finished.
How does it feel to be nominated for Army Legend?
Cabin: It feels nice to be recognized for my army contributions last year.
Calgo: I’m indifferent to the nomination. That isn’t to say that I do not respect the title, just a nomination does not mean the same to me as it once did in 2022. Nothing is set in stone just yet. I’m a much different person than I was back then and ultimately I know my worth and what I achieved over my career. 2023 was ACP and we made that happen despite everyone betting against us.
Dawnables:
Dino: It feels weird. I mean I don’t consider myself legendary in the slightest so the fact I made it to the dance is great enough. I feel like people care too much on wanting the title itself when even being considered by a screening panel of the board to become a nominee is such an accomplishment in itself. It’s an absolutely great feeling but also weird at the same time, if that makes sense haha.
Shallissa:
Spotty: Honestly it’s really nice to finally be recognised solely for my judging background, and not just for my army background as I was back in 2021, especially as I have been a Head Judge for 3.5 years, and created Club Penguin Army Judges alone 2 years ago. Furthermore, it’s nice to see judging regarded as important aspect to the current community.
Wynn: It feels good to be recognised for your efforts, especially since the community is focused on army leaders’ achievements.
Reflecting on your journey this year, what are some things you’re proud of?
Cabin: I am most proud of two things: building the Napalm Corps and helping lead the People’s Imperial Confederation to their first tournament victory.
Calgo: I’m proud of my troops and staff. Despite everything they witnessed in 2022, they still banded together under our banner and fought tooth and nail for what they wanted. Without them I wouldn’t be standing here today. The people never stopped believing even when the community turned their backs on us in 21-22.
Dawnables:
Dino: Christmas Chaos was a great feeling, although I feel like people have too much recency bias for us. We shouldn’t shrug off WV going technically undefeated the whole tournament but I don’t like the narrative (even if it’s with good intentions and not meant to actually shame us) that WV went from bottom of the barrel to winners because to me it suggests people didn’t even have hope in us when I knew from the start WV could’ve won it all no matter the uphill challenge. Proving everyone wrong was something I’m proud.
But ironically, I’m more proud of AUSIA Arena even if we lost. I mean, we really didn’t have an AUSIA division and yet we went on that cinderella run too. That was a tournament I think it was reasonable to laugh at the idea of WV making it to the finals and having a shot to win (unlike CC which WV imo always had the potential). I mean we set our all-time AUSIA record all-time (it was unfortunately broken a war later by that sham World War with allies but I’ll still consider the AUSIA Arena max the official peak)
Shallissa:
Spotty: Honestly I’m proud of how CPAJ has constantly improved since its creation in February 2022. In 2023 it was noted that no battles were cancelled due to lack of judges, which is a massive achievement, if you compare the frequency of cancelled battles in previous leagues such as CPAH or CPAHQ. Furthermore, I’m pleased that CPAJ has been able to remain open and honest with the community, which is due to listening to suggestions, and concerns from not only the army leaders, but from all members of the community. Such honesty and communication has helped to provide the community with new and updated guidelines, a project which I was proud to be head of, in addition to honesty surrounding battle reviews.
Wynn: In general, I’m proud of stabilising an organisation that was believed to be dying. The team did a lot of great things this year, but one of my favourite achievements is releasing 81 posts in July, which is our record, and taking the monthly average of posts from 20+ to 60+.
Inversely, if you were to do your career again would you change anything?
Cabin: I am greatly ashamed in myself that I did not do more with the Napalm Corps. It ended too soon.
Calgo: No I would not change a single thing. Every mistake and every failure happened for a reason so that I could become the leader I am today. Without that I would be no one. This was our year and we never backed down from a fight. I look forward to what the future holds instead.
Dawnables:
Dino: I think I hinted at this in an interview eons ago but if I were to change anything about my career, it’d be changing who I was when I was younger as I did some immature and immoral stuff I did when I was 13 back in August/September 2020. I don’t want to go into detail because I’m extremely ashamed of it but all I’ll say is I’m glad to even be liked by the community after almost being blackballed/cancelled from the community from the fall of 2020 to early 2021 (I was banned from almost every major and CPAH
).
Although if I had to pick something I could change just talking about this year, hands down it’d be being the architect of the Blue Sunset Alliance and causing the World War. I have spoken.
Shallissa:
Spotty: I mean without a doubt I’ve not had a quiet career in this community. However, I do not regret my time in HF, DW or ACP. If I had to change something I would have liked to have retired on my own terms, but looking back to the past I recognise that I was stubborn and probably would not have retired. My final retirement army wise in ACP August 2021 was very abrupt as I acknowledged I wanted to focus more on irl due to moving to Paris, since then I have not been affiliated and without a doubt I’m glad I left enlistment to a thing of my past. Although, regarding leagues I regret how I acted with my last admin team, and if I had the time again I would have been more honest. Judging wise, I wish I had maybe started unification talks earlier than I did, as maybe wars within CPAN wouldn’t have been cancelled due to a lack of judges.
Wynn: I don’t think I would change much of the past year. There are some smaller aspects but everything turned out to be good in the end. I would try to write more, for example, I think it’s my biggest regret.
What has kept you going this year?
Cabin: Passion.
Calgo: My determination has kept me going to prove everyone wrong and stick it to the doubters who have kicked and spat at ACP for years. When I took leader I vowed to never give up even when I was at my lowest and I dedicated my leadership to reshaping ACP into the Green Giant it used to be known for. An army that the Vets and even my younger self would be proud of. I could never stop until that dream was attained. The old ACP that was known for cowering away from a war or maxing 3 is dead. Knock us down we will get right back up and take the fight to your capital.
Dawnables:
Dino: The thing that has kept me going this year is I always had an appetite to do better. Some people who are in WV know I can be a doomer at times, but I equally can be the loudest and energetic voice in the entire army. And that’s because you play to win the game. You don’t play to just play. If that’s the case, there’s no shame in retiring—which I easily thought of doing at times. In fact I originally was going to retire on November 30th. But I knew in my heart a job is never done until it’s done.
I don’t know when my appetite will be satisfied, but it’s a good thing it isn’t because that gives me the drive to wanna keep going and want to win tournaments, do well on the TT, or even wars (even if WV hardly warred last year). If I didn’t think WV had a shot at CC, I could’ve stayed with my original retirement date of November 30th. But as I already waxed poetic about, I have an appetite for more and know WV can win. I hope my successors inherit that trait from me (and not the other, doomer-ish half WARY)
Shallissa:
Spotty: Without a doubt it’s been CPAJ, especially due to the months of solo effort that I made to make the organisation a reality. To ensure that none of that hard work goes to waste has been a massive motivation, helping me to ensure that we have no battles cancelled, as often I can be found accepting battles last minute, or helping train new judges. I have also been busy continuing to listen to the community to retain their support, whilst also going above and beyond in every battle, writing detailed summaries concluding in clear feedback on how those armies can improve for future battles.
Wynn:
- Knowing there are people sure that I’m going to fail, I loved proving them wrong.
- Having a fun way of self development.
- Feeling responsible for the state of the community.
What’s some advice you’d give to army leaders in 2024 looking to be nominated or even inducted as an Army Legend?
Cabin: Work harder than you did yesterday and use deniers as motivation to push forward. The Napalm Corps saw a second iteration for only one reason: I was determined to prove some people wrong.
Calgo: Be yourself. Don’t try to be like anyone else in this community. Its okay to look to others for inspiration, but make your own style and be a role model for others to look up to. Examine where you have hang ups and weaknesses and work toward being better day by day. No leader is perfect, but you can strive each day to be the best version of yourself so that there is no question of your character and who you are. Lastly, do not be afraid to be risk taker and aggressive especially when it comes to war and strategy. The armies that tend to triumph the most are the ones who take calculated risks while everyone else in the community is playing it safe. You can be a lion or a sheep, thats your choice.
Dawnables:
Dino: My biggest piece of advice is don’t think about being an Army Legend or trying to seek a nomination. Yeah I know that sounds like really bad but if you are leading for the sake of benefiting just yourself, you have lost sight of what a LEADER is meant to be. You do this for your army. You do this to win. Yes, you want to feel good about yourself. But you’ll be shocked to find you’d actually find better closure in yourself if you focus more on your army being the best of the best rather than caring about yourself.
I don’t mean to take shots, but there’s a CERTAIN former major army leader that cared too much about legend/POTY that he lost sight of his own army and it has been S/M since the summer, so… Yeah. I mean ffs the first OG legends didn’t do it for the sake of a title because legend didn’t even exist at the time and yet people still recognized them in the end. That’s the same story for early CPPS. Stop worrying about legend because if that’s all you care about, you may not get your closure.
Even if you do get nominated/get legend, you’ll be so caught up in yourself that you’ll lose track of your army. I admittedly don’t consider myself legendary and I’ve told Rowan and other close confidants that despite me having a shot, I didn’t care about that because a) I’m just graceful to even be allowed back into the community after the immature stuff I did as a 13 year old and b) I just want WV to do well. I want people to start respecting WV for the major it is, not some flash in the pan all the time. If WV is respected even more by the time I retire than it was when I first took leader, I can at leas solace in the fact that is my legacy and I don’t need some community title to tell me my worth because I know what I did.
Shallissa:
Spotty: Realistically when’s a better time than January to write down some goals for the year, whether that’s retaining specific sizes, winning tournaments, or helping the community in a league role. However, personally I wouldn’t recommend setting a goal like “I want to be an Army Legend”, but instead focus on goals that have a personal meaning to you, as those are usually the ones that make you feel more proud. Everyone is able to achieve something if they really put their mind to it, but also expect the unexpected. I was known in CPAH to state that I would never join the media team, and less than a year later I had been appointed the roles of editor in chief and admin in CPAHQ. I recommend definitely consider taking any opportunity that is offered to you, as usually the most unexpected options end up being the most positive and life changing options.
Wynn: I was nominated for my media work this year, but I would say, be present in the community, and possibly in a meaningful way.
Do you have any final comments for the wider community?
Cabin: It is an honor to be nominated for last year and I hope that my efforts serve as inspiration for future armies and leaders.
Calgo: Go outside and touch some grass 🙂
Dawnables:
Dino:
Shallissa:
Spotty: Congratulations and good luck to the other nominees, and I hope everyone within the community has an amazing 2024.
Each nominee has their reasons why it means so much to them. Some reflect back on their time in armies with great joy, others not so much. It’s very clear that each nominee this year has worked so hard to get on that list. Dino led his army through the World War and won Christmas Chaos. Spotty kept the Club Penguin Army Judges organisation alive, proving how valuable she is to the state of judging. Without Wynn, the very website you’re reading this post on may not even be open. Every person on that list has a reason for being there, and they each make it look easy.
Stay tuned for the Legends results which are expected to go live any day, and rest assured, we will interview each of them. Best of luck, everybody.