For years, a common talking point in the army community has been that Major armies thrive at the direct expense of Small-Medium armies. But is this actually true today?
Designed by Master DS
Just a few months ago, Chief Executive Producer JojoTeri published a breakdown titled The Small-Medium Community in the Middle of 2026, looking at the volatility of the SM scene. His analysis reopened a debate that dominates community chats: are Major armies suffocating the SM tier, or does a busy community help everyone?
Having been around this community for years, I think it’s time to challenge that old narrative. The idea that Majors actively hold SMs back is exaggerated and outdated.
THE ZERO-SUM MYTH
David (SP) vs. Goliath (RPF) – SM vs. Major Allegory
It’s easy to see why this belief sticks around. Historically, the relationship between Major and SM armies often felt like a zero-sum game. If a Major army ran a massive recruitment drive, SM armies felt the drain. If a Major army dominated the news cycle, SM coverage got pushed to the side.
This created a persistent myth that Majors hog all the attention, server bumps, and tournament brackets, leaving SMs to fight over scraps. On paper, the size difference makes this an easy story to believe. But looking at how the community operates today, this ignores how much the scene has evolved. SM armies are no longer treated as an afterthought.
THE SMAC FALLACY: INTEGRATION VS. SEGREGATION
SMAC Homepage in December 2010
When this topic comes up, veterans often point to the OG era and ask: “What about Small Medium Army Central (SMAC)? Didn’t that give SM armies their own dedicated voice?”
It’s a nostalgic argument, and having a standalone site for SM armies sounds like a good defense on paper. But would bringing back a segregated media platform actually help today? Realistically, no. It would isolate them. SMAC existed back then because the main news sites didn’t cover smaller armies nearly as much as they do now. It was a workaround for a lack of coverage, not an ideal setup. Splitting the media into separate sites just highlights the divide between Majors and SMs, creating an artificial wall that implies smaller armies aren’t “real” enough for the main page.
Today, having a single, unified platform in Club Penguin Armies does what SMAC never could: it puts SM news, tournament runs, and war declarations on the exact same front page as the Top Ten and Major wars. Integration brings the community together; segregation just splits it up.
DEBUNKING THE CRITICS
Challengers Cup 2 Finals – FW vs. PIC (2021)
Skeptics usually push back with two main arguments. The first is that SM tournaments are just “consolation prizes” to keep smaller armies busy while Majors compete for the real trophies. The second is that Majors siphon away all the talented staff, capping an SM army’s growth. Looking at the league’s history, both arguments don’t hold up.
Calling an SM title a consolation prize ignores the prestige that comes with winning it. When the Fire Warriors won Challengers Cup 2, or when the People’s Imperial Confederation took home Beach Brawl III, those victories were celebrated with the same passion and historical weight as any Major trophy. A win is a win, and the community respects it.
The “one-way pipeline” argument also ignores how staff movement actually works. It’s reciprocal. Leaders who prove themselves in SM armies often rise to Major leadership roles because of that experience. At the same time, veteran Major leaders regularly cycle back into the SM tier to start passion projects or revive old armies. SM armies aren’t being drained; they are where a lot of the community’s best leaders learn the ropes.
BEYOND THE SHADOW OF MAJORS
Golden Intelligence War – SP vs. GT (2021)
The idea that SM armies are just victims at the mercy of Major power politics also ignores what actually happens on the server map. SM armies have a long history of waging their own wars and shaping the community.
A great example is the Golden Intelligence War in the summer of 2021. When the Golden Troops tried to exploit proxy mechanics on the CPAN map using the Post Malone Army, a Major army didn’t step in to stop it. The SM community handled it themselves. The Imperial Intelligence Alliance (IIA), a coalition of the Smart Penguins and the People’s Imperial Confederation, launched a campaign to fight the proxy manipulation and defend the map.
That conflict was one of the best stories of the year, holding its own against the scale of World War VIII. It proved that SM armies have the agency to wage wars that dominate the news cycle for weeks, without needing a Major army’s permission. You don’t even have to look back to 2021 to see this. On the current server map, several SM armies actively conquered land earlier this year to assert dominance in their tiers, holding their ground without Majors getting in the way.
THE SUMMIT MANDATE: FIXING THE ACTIVITY PROBLEM
If the league were rigged against SM armies, the recent CPA Summit 2026 would have shown it. Instead, the community voted through a package of reforms that actually helps the SM tier. Events now require at least five participants, opening events must last ten minutes, and armies must host an event every two weeks and a battle every three to stay active.
These rules act as SM protections. The old two-penguin minimum let dormant, fly-by-night projects clutter the Top Ten and dilute the credibility of serious SM armies. The new minimums ensure that when an SM army climbs the rankings, they actually earned it. The battle requirement also fixes a massive issue for the SM scene: finding opponents. With every registered army now required to fight, booking practice battles and wars is much easier. The SM tier, which usually has the most active competitors, benefits the most from this.
Even the approval of an alternative, more accessible battle style on Club Penguin Journey works in favor of SM armies. Since SMs rely heavily on CPJ for recruitment, a user-friendly battle format—like in-game leading or snowball fights without needing Discord—makes it much easier to attract random CPJ players. The community also rejected sweeping league overhauls, choosing to fix the current environment rather than tear it down. These changes weren’t forced by Majors to keep SMs quiet; the whole community voted for them to fix the dormancy that SM leaders have been complaining about for years.
THE BIGGER PICTURE
It’s also worth asking: what would the CPA community look like without active Major armies?
Majors drive a lot of the community’s overall engagement. Their wars, Top Ten rivalries, and large events bring a lot of energy to Club Penguin Battleground and the Discord servers. When a Major war happens, server activity goes up, article views spike, and inactive veterans log back in to watch.
That attention doesn’t just stay at the top of the Top Ten. A busy, active community makes it easier for new players to join and find a server that fits them, which directly helps SM armies recruit motivated members.
This isn’t to say running an SM army is easy. As Jojo pointed out in his mid-2026 review, SM armies face real challenges with staff retention and recruitment. But those are just the natural difficulties of managing a smaller team, not the result of Majors holding them down.
The next time the “Major domination” debate starts in main chat, look at the tournament calendar, the unified media coverage, and the trophy cases. The opportunities are there. Majors bring the initial crowd to the community, but SM armies provide the depth and the tight-knit environments that keep a lot of those players around long-term. The scene needs both to function. The rules have been updated to fix the activity issues; now it’s up to the armies to make the most of it.
df44
Chief Executive Producer
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