Welcome to the ninth issue of Leaving a Legacy, a column exploring the most pivotal figures who have shaped the legacy and culture of Club Penguin Armies. In this issue, we concentrate on a leader who left an irreplaceable legacy on the Army of Club Penguin as the commander with indescribable vigor and tenacity. Ugly’s legacy stretched from dominating the battlefield as a leader to taking the Clovers out of dark times to play a key role in ACP’s leadership during a tumultuous era. His legacy in ACP’s illustrious history will last a lifetime. Let us take a moment to remember one of the community’s most recognizable and determined leaders!
Designed by MasterDS
From Small Beginnings to Major Impact
Ugly‘s first foray into the community began in 2020 as the leader of smaller armies such as Tree Cult and Fire Warriors, where he first learned the ropes of leadership in the often unpredictable Small/Medium scene. Though these armies were far from dominant, they gave Ugly a space to develop organizational skills and tactical awareness that would later shape his style as a major army commander. Ultimately, he climbed the ranks and became Commander of the Army of Club Penguin in 2023, with his co-leader Roxy. Their leadership presence brought about what is regarded as one of the more consistent and successful times in ACP’s history in recent times.
Ugly has so many proven success stories as he holds the most battle wins as well as the most Top Ten #1s in ACP history, tied with Coolguy. He had an impressive streak of finishing #1 in the eight Top Tens of the month, with four of those finishes being consecutive, which is an unprecedented streak of placements. In August 2024, he also broke both the record for weekly and monthly events, all the while demonstrating unprecedented resourcefulness and drive to keep ACP visible and active on the battlefield.
Several achievements of ACP Leader Ugly
The HCOM Period: Trials, Tournaments, and Triumphs
Ugly did not become a known name overnight. His Higher Command period under Calgo, Coolguy, and AustinFraud was a whole influential time for both him and the army. In 2023, he was in an ACP that was constantly rejuvenating itself and received recognition for consistency and tactical discipline! He got to experience the victory against the Elite Guardians of Club Penguin in ACP’s first war and their stellar performance in the Trick or Treat Trials, where they finished in the top ranks!
ACP vs HF during the Trick or Treat Trials
While Ugly had yet to spot his name as Commander, his presence was most certainly noticed in HCOM. He contributed heavily by organizing events, rallying troops, and providing key input in battle strategies. This time helped him grow into a reliable core member of leadership, learning the high-pressure expectations of major army performance and community diplomacy. These experiences built the confidence and leadership style that would define his time as a future Commander.
From Shaky Start to Standout Success
Ugly’s transition to the role of ACP Commander occurred in a time of turmoil. During the reshift of army structure, short bouts of exhaustion, and domination of maintaining a competitive major army in a post-pandemic server community, Ugly’s initiation was met with distrust. However, Ugly was quick to find his way and began to rebuild momentum. Associating with the army and community, ACP went to the highest max in four years, was consecutively the #1 Top Ten army on numerous occasions, and led the army to an unprecedented historic 104 battles in a war.
Invasion of EGCPs’ capital, Zero Grau
Additionally, during Ugly’s leadership, the ACP also took home Project Conquest: Blood Bowl, a big tournament that showed their domination in the time frame. As well as winning with Roxy the Silver Medal by Army Legend CSY, for having a huge impact on an army’s legacy.
Ugly had plenty of accomplishments and field leadership wins and awards; he had several awards to him on a community basis, such as Best HCOM 2023, Outstanding Member Award in Winter Award 2023, Most Achieved Award other than Leader in the Summer 2024, and best Major Army Leader as well. Those awards not only show he accomplished a lot in leadership, but it show the impact Ugly had made, recognized by awards at all levels of the Club Penguin Army community. Ugly’s name became known through his diligence, flexibility, and resistance, and his legacy through learning by experience, not jumping over opportunities.
Best Major Army Leader Ugly trophy
CSY awards Ugly his Silver Medal award
Club Penguin Armies reached out to Ugly to engage in his precious time in the Army of Club Penguin.
Looking back, what moment during your ACP leadership are you most proud of?
I’m most proud of how ACP was crafted and uniquely changed different to previous eras with the changes and ideas that I brought and how I presented myself to the wider community as a leader so I’d like to think I definitely left a mark even outside ACP. Which moment was most important in my leadership though is the EGCP war, as you know ACP was in a hard state coming right after the Legends Cup and the last thing on our agenda was another war with arguably one of the top armies at the time. However the determination and dedication of everyone around in ACP and the hard work we put in definitely changed how everyone saw ACP and how everyone was locked in to face whichever rival that threatened to bring ACP down. That mutual attachment and patriotism made the army more intact and much harder to bring down and contributed massively to the success we had so that’s why I think this was a historical shift in ACP’s future and the events it followed after.
The Centenary Solstice War was one of the longest in CPA history. How did you manage to keep ACP motivated through 104 battles?
It was definitely a difficult task to keep everyone in the game especially with summer and most being on leave, I had to take difficult measurements to keep ACP fighting and obviously a lot got exhausted but I knew as long as I stayed motivated we will not lose, the will to fight by our troops and staff and HCOM made ACP carry on and that only grew stronger after every winning streak. I’ll admit I was definitely contemplating surrendering in the first 10 battles however I couldn’t bare the thought of letting my army down again and so from the get go I told myself we are either winning or we will keep fighting until we max 1.
How did your relationship with co-leaders and staff contribute to the army’s success under your command?
Teamwork is everything I’d say, all of our HCOM and of course Roxy brought many changes and great ideas and with them to keep ACP at the #1 spot so we made a pretty legendary team. One of the HCOM that I’d love to applaud is Noa which has been with ACP for more than 2 years now, joining ACP closely to when I first joined. She has definitely been a massive contributor to shape ACP how it was and the success we made, most importantly I remember during the EGCP war where she led a lot of times and been the key winning ticket to win us rooms that got us many important battles. I can’t thank her enough for all the sacrifices she made for ACP and for still continuing to serve to this day.
What advice would you give to someone stepping into leadership for the first time today?
Never be afraid to change and try new things. I was always told that if it aint broke dont fix it, but I say if it worked once it can work better twice. A lot of people feel the need to just follow the formulas given to them, but to really leave your mark make something different so that the next generation follows and works around it to make something even better.
Is there anything you wish you had done differently during your time in the army community?
I think everything that I did and things that happened in my career happened for a reason, if I did anything much different it wouldn’t have been the same and I am keen to believe that this was the best possible scenario that could’ve happened in my career. I met people I learned from, I made choices I developed from, had mistakes I studied from, had losses I grew from, and in the end I won. Could I have won more? Maybe. Could I have lost more? Probably. But I did things my way and I don’t have to prove to anyone why I’m the greatest to ever live.
Ugly is a demonstration of what so much can be accomplished with good leadership, creativity, and persistence during his time in the Army of Club Penguin. He led over 100 battles spanning a great war, and eventually earned some of the greatest awards in the community. Ugly created a story for himself that few have been able to reproduce over the years. Whether in a battle or leading the charge of his army, Ugly was everywhere in his ability to fill several roles for the entire Club Penguin Armies experience. What legacy would you want to leave in this community?
Zenishira
Associate Editor
More Information
Interesting, but not concerning...