Recently, armies have hosted more and more events in various CPPS, deviating from CPAB. This post aims to analyse how the increased popularity of non CPAB events is affecting the community as a whole. Is it a good change, or is it damaging the community?

Designed by MasterDS

Introduction

A CPPS is a Club Penguin Private Server. Basically, an unofficial Club Penguin copy, run by various developers, which is what’s left of the original Club Penguin. Exactly three years ago, when the community was in a critical state, armies barely hosted events outside of the main army CPPS, CPA: Battleground. Currently, at a time when the community is in a much better state, as the census showed, several armies include at least one CPPS event in their weekly schedules. Notably, armies like the Aliens don’t even host CPAB events some weeks. The question that arises is, to what extent, if any, has that switch improved the community?

the most popular cpps currently for armies

CPAB

After Club Penguin Rewritten shut down in April 2022, the community was left without a home. At that time, there were some other CPPS around, like the New Club Penguin, but armies didn’t use them much. Luckily, CPAB was released 10 days later, offering an army-only space. Initially, there were issues, forcing the 2022 Legends Cup XII to be postponed to October. Over time, the issues were resolved and the game became a pillar of the community. Currently, it remains fast and better than ever, being updated to handle up to 150 penguins doing tactics.

CPAB’s Issue

The main disadvantage of the game is that it has no playerbase apart from the armies. Due to the way it operates, it is tougher for it to attract non-army players. People who are not enlisted in an army are less likely to come across it. Even if they do, it is tougher for them to get verified compared to the average person in armies. Additionally, there is no advertisement for the game. Compared to other CPPS that post on social media, CPAB does not do that and only has a Discord server. Also, there are no websites to post about the game in the same way, there are websites with the purpose of creating guides for specific CPPS. Armies don’t post about CPAB on their websites either, apart from the event posts.

Advantages

CPAB’s issue can be seen as something positive for the community. It is allowed to run free in a CPPS, without there being complaints about armies from rogues. It is the perfect place to host battles and tournaments, as everything, from the filters to the rooms, is made specifically for that. Several rooms have been redesigned and often simplified to give more space to the armies. The recent spectator feature is a very unique one that additionally boosts the case on why CPAB is very useful for armies. Through it, someone can spectate a battle without interfering with it and causing trouble to the judges.

A recent battle in CPAB

Despite not having a member base apart from army players, CPAB is necessary to the army community. It has proven its worth again and again, being the most used CPPS in the post-CPR era, holding all tournaments of the past 3 years. Apart from that, it is built by community members, administered by Superhero123, so the community trusts it more than the average CPPS.

NewCP

Apart from a space to have battles, armies also need a place from where they can recruit and attract rogues. Rogue recruiting is usually better than Discord recruiting, as the rogues are already familiar with the CPPS landscape and how Club Penguin works. Thus, they are more likely to attend battles hosted on CPAB. Some armies, like the Doritos of Club Penguin, have used NCP for some of their events. It is a consistent CPPS with a considerable playerbase, but it has the advantage of needing a client. People don’t trust downloading apps to play a CPPS, as they should, so that is its main disadvantage.

Club Penguin Legacy

Club Penguin Legacy is another CPPS that has been somewhat popular. The Rebel Penguin Federation was hosting events there at some point before abandoning it. It is a website CPPS, unlike NewCP, but its player base has shrunk over the years. Apart from that, it has had many allegations against it and its admins, which have caused many people to stay away from it.

Club Penguin Avalanche

Club Penguin Avalanche is another website CPPS. It has a unique element, being the only major Portuguese CPPS. For this reason, the Elite Guardians of Club Penguin were using it a lot, probably too much. Due to it being aimed mostly at Portuguese speakers, it hasn’t gained much popularity within CPA apart from EGCP. The scandal with the EGCP item code also didn’t help its case.

Club Penguin Journey

Undoubtedly, Club Penguin Journey is the largest CPPS right now. Several armies host weekly events in it. Most notably, Aliens, which had  6 events last week, all of which were on it. Despite some controversies causing it to temporarily shut down last year, it has come back stronger. It has the largest active player base, with servers often getting full and players having to wait in queues. It is definitely the most suitable for recruiting, based on the number of players it has. 

CPJ servers at 12pm EST on a Tuesday

The use of CPPS for events

Several armies have taken advantage of CPJ, hosting events in crowded rooms and managing to grow in that way. Armies like Aliens or the People’s Imperial Confederation, last year, have used this method and it rewarded them. Aliens managed to win the Around the World Cup 2 and the October Horrors tournament. It was a surprising win, as many people considered them an army that inflated their sizes through rogues. Similarly, PIC managed to win back to back tournaments and become a major army through events on CPJ. Through these events, the community gains new members who are already familiar with the game. It is more common for those to stick around and keep attending army events. 

Increase in CPPS Recruiting

As seen from the census, the percentage of people recruited through CPPS/Club Penguin has risen compared to 2023. Additionally, people who joined in the past few years make a large percentage of the community. This further proves that people who join through CPPS are more likely to remain in the community compared to those recruited from non Club Penguin related servers. It is a good sight that the army community is returning to its roots and CPPS recruiting has been boosted. Last year, Sidie9 wrote a post regarding rogue events and using CPPS to gain retention, at a time when very few armies hosted non CPAB events.

From the Census2025

Size Inflation

Of course, there are also armies who have attempted to inflate their sizes by using rogues. They use simple uniforms in order to get more troops easily and do specific emojis. One example is the smile emoji, E2, which gives a stamp if many people do it together. A scroll through #event-pictures and you can spot some events with smile emojis. In that case, the shown sizes aren’t in par with the ones the army would show in a battle. In a CPAB battle, the army would not be able to use rogues and thus would be much smaller. So, inflating maxes only works if the army never battles, which by itself defeats the purpose of being an army.

The Armies-CPPS Interaction

As it has happened before, if armies overdo it with events and recruiting in popular rooms and servers, people may start turning against them. That can be done in many ways, either by trying to sabotage them, or by complaining to the CPPS admins, or by the admins themselves imposing specific rules on armies. Some CPPS have a set of rules that armies specifically need to follow if they want to be allowed to host events. In CPJ,  a part of its community is already made aware of armies, knowing the larger and the ones most active in it. It is important that the CPPS members have a positive view of armies. It helps armies gain new members more easily. Some have also added CPPS guides and mascot trackers about the CPPS they use the most in order to appeal to their members who use it.

A recent RPF event on CPJ

The Future

Safety

As it has been proven to be helpful to the community, armies should continue to host events in safe CPPS. Speaking of safety, one can never be sure enough that a CPPS is fully safe. Out of the 20 CPPS that exist currently, some potentially dangerous or inactive ones can be distinguished and not used. It is still important to take safety measures when using a “safe” CPPS, too, in case of a data breach. If it can happen to Google, it can definitely happen to a CPPS, too.

For that, it is advised that when using CPPS, army members also have a VPN enabled. Most CPPS should encrypt IPs, but you never know. Additionally, people should have separate emails from the ones they use for real life stuff when making CPPS accounts. They should also not repeat passwords and most importantly, not share any real life info through the CPPS chats.

Club Penguin Zero

A very new CPPS launched a few days ago, named Club Penguin Zero. It has already gained much popularity, reaching about 25 thousand registered penguins. It is both a client and a website CPPS, with the website running more slowly. CPZ has some unique features that aren’t seen in other CPPS. For example, it has a tutorial when you first make an account. Additionally, it has a day and night cycle in game, which is something I have not seen before. It looks promising, but only time will tell how it will end up. Some armies, like PIC, have already scheduled events on it.

Increasing Armies Popularity in CPPS

Apart from the solo rogue events, there could also be larger scale events hosted on CPPS. As voted in the Mapping the Map Summit, armies are allowed to host practice battles outside of CPAB, supposing they both agree to it. Armies could host events together in there, which would most likely attract the players and encourage them to join. Due to some CPPS having a restriction on spamming, the battle could be of a snowball fight type instead of the usual word-emoji fighting one. The league could also boost the armies’ existence in CPPS outside of CPAB. That can happen in a various ways, from hosting community wide events outside of CPAB to taking measures in order to be more welcoming to non recruited CPPS players.

It seems like the use of CPPS has benefited the community a lot. It has already brought several new army members into the community, provided it’s not solely used for size inflation. CPPS events are now engraved in how some armies operate. Seems like there is still a lot more to do to make the army community well known to the general CPPS one. At the same time, CPAB is there to stay, as it has already for years. It should remain the CPPS used for tournaments and war battles. Do you agree with the post? Should armies keep using CPPS outside of CPAB? Should there be larger scale events hosted there, such as practice battles or community events?

Jojo Teri
Chief Executive Producer

More Information

Jojo Teri

Professional Club Penguin player