Since 2020, there have been many debates on 2017’s Small/Medium legends and their actual place among the community’s legends. Should they be major? Should they remain S/M? Today, S/M Legend Dillon will be going over all of it.
Designed by Dino
Let us start with the obvious: 2017 was not a typical year for the community. The first 3 months of the year were the last huzzah for the original Club Penguin. At the tail end of that, you had the discovery of Club Penguin Rewritten and their clans, the re-creation of the Underground Mafias Army, and the first formal war on CPR. From there, armies returned or recreated in short order, wars were declared, etc.
2017: By The Numbers
Now, for the sake of comparison, let us go over the maxes of the armies during that time. For clarification: these are one-time maxes only for the year 2017. Many of the armies listed here averaged 10-15 troops less than their one-time max for the year. This is to simply give us a baseline to use and understand the peaks of each army in 2017.
1. Elite Guardians: 30.
2. Underground Mafias Army: 25.
3. Club Penguin Crew: 20.
4. Rangers: 20.
5. Wild Ninjas: 15.
6. Romans: 14.
7. United Republic of Penguins: 10.
8. Acids: 7.
In order to truly help us understand what the community was capable of, let’s add all these up and see what the one-time max was on average.
AVERAGE ONE TIME (rounded) MAX of 18.
These numbers illustrate the overall health of the community. It was an incredibly small community, and many of these armies did not exist at the same time as the others, which can skew these numbers even more. Now, let’s get into the elephant in the room: The Rebel Penguin Federation. RPF had massive numbers. Their raw numbers are undoubtedly the most impressive. However, due to their defacement in 2018, many of the numbers are lost.
However, with the information that was salvaged, we can safely say that at least once they maxed 41 on CPR. So for the sake of this post, their one-time max will be 41. Even if you add their 41, the average one-time max of the community only goes up to… 20. RPF, despite their dominance, couldn’t move the community above an average peak of 20. Just for the sake of knowing, I did the math, and to get the community’s average peak max up to 25, RPF would’ve had to hit 80 in 2017, which with the information I have available, they did not.
Highest RPF Max available for 2017
With this, we can now paint a picture. Armies during this time were smaller than normal, and there were fewer of them.
What Makes a Legend?
Many on the board argue that to be a legend, you must reach certain thresholds. Some argue tournament victories, some argue war victories, and some argue army size. In my eyes, the only defining standard for the legend is impact and how important an individual is to the story of Club Penguin Armies. Let me explain.
If you are introducing someone to the concept of Club Penguin Armies, you must explain its origins, the “lore”… everything. In my eyes, if you can tell the story of this community without mentioning someone, this individual is not a legend. If you cannot, they are a legend.
But Do They Fit?
Now, it’s time to go over the 2017 S/M legends. Cookky2, myself (Dillon), Manifest Red, Smurf, Thomas83514, and Ulysses Nardo. Let’s start from the top, and go over their accomplishments, as well as if their armies maxed more than the community average. With the knowledge we have of the size of the community, there is a very legitimate argument to be made that if the entire community is S/M, nobody is, and as a result, every legend should be a major legend as there weren’t enough large armies at the time to compose even a top 5. I do not believe this is truly the case, but the argument does in fact exist.
The S/M Legends
Cookky2 – Nachos Leader in 2017, Legends Cup winner, EGCP co-creator, victorious in 3 wars. Cookky should EASILY be a major legend. One of the first original leaders to cross over and actually create a new army that would dominate? Check. Legends Cup winner? Check. And of course, EGCP’s one-time max easily cleared the community average, regardless of whether you include RPF. Cookky should be a major legend, there is no legitimate case against him.
Dillon (myself) – Revived UMA and made it the first CPR army, revived Romans, victorious in 3 wars, vital in the creation of UMADKE (precursor to the New Viking Alliance), and finally, the Founding Father of CPPS armies. As biased as I am because… it’s me, I think I have the resume to be a major legend. There’s not much you can do to deserve a major legend nod that is bigger than being the re-creator of the community. You can realistically trace every single CPPS army back to me, which means by all measurements I have had more of an impact on this community than probably 99% of the people who voted to downgrade my legend to S/M.
Beyond that, the fact that I won multiple wars (the UMA-Mafias War, War of Roman Subjugation, the UMA Civil War), cleared both community average maxes, and have remained relevant to this day I would argue should be enough to be a major legend. If being able to trace every army on CPR/CPPS back to me isn’t worth major legend status, nobody should be a major legend after the shutdown.
Manifest Red – No. No numbers to back it up, URP at its peak was a Nullify and Moonlocks project. He was a powerful political presence but did next to nothing regarding leadership. Manifest truly doesn’t have a case for major legend.
Smurf – Smurf is a fascinating one, and one that if not for his induction being for his work in Romans rather than UMA, I believe he’d have a case for a major legend nod. A max of 14 in Romans is impressive for the time. However, Romans lost their only major war of the year, and overall they just didn’t do enough to validate a move upwards. This isn’t a knock on Smurf, just the reality of the situation.
Thomas83514 – I’m confused by the fact that he’s even a legend, at least for 2017. But, quite frankly, I’m not sure if he should even be a S/M legend.
Ulysses Nardo – Probably not. Nardo did great for the media side of armies, but given none of the media organizations from this generation survived, I don’t know if I’d move him up.
Final Thoughts
If I’m being frank here, the opposition to this is very easy to explain: despite having significantly smaller numbers than the current 2017 major legends did, every single person on the S/M list, regardless of whether I believe they should be moved up or not, has done more for the community than the current major legends of 2017. There is a very real fear that if you move any of the legends from 2017 up, it will simply one-up the current legends.
Chip‘s legend, I would argue, qualifies him more for RPF legend than CPA legend. Silverburg’s 2017 induction was based on the belief that he was a sort of founding father of CPR armies… which is on shaky grounds given the (evidence-backed) consensus that I discovered CPR clans, revived UMA, and won a war before April. Which is when RPF moved over. Let me be clear, Silverburg deserves legend regardless. I just don’t know if 2017 is the best year for that.
The reality is that the S/M legends built the 2017 community from the ground up with no involvement from RPF. You can write an entire retrospective (heh) on 2017 and mention RPF three times: once when they showed up, once when UMA recruited Games, and once more when they joined the Romans side in the War of Roman Subjugation. You try to write out EGCP, UMA, Romans, and URP… you’re not telling the full story.
Dillon
Reporter