Learning From Legends: 26th Leader Swimmerboy01

Posted on March 4, 2021 by

BLIZZARD, Shamrock Bulletin Headquarters – In this weekly column, we visit various legends from the community and pay them a penny for their thoughts. As we set out on our quest to uncover the wisdom of legends, what will we discover in this latest edition?

Swimmerboy01

Swimmerboy01 has been enlisted in numerous armies, reaching as high as the leader position in several. These include the Dark Warriors, Underground Mafias Army, Rebel Penguin Federation and Impossible Army Force, although he is mainly remembered for his stint as Army of Club Penguin Commander-in-Chief.

In this edition of our column, the Shamrock Bulletin contacted Swimmerboy in order to question him on his ventures in the Army of CP. What will we learn today?

When did you reach the position of leadership in ACP, and how did you achieve this?

All in all, I was a member for about 3.5 years, from 2008 to 2012. My progression started slowly due to issues with attendance but once I started making friends, connections, and making it to events I rose a lot faster. What expedited my progression was certainly involvement with organizations within ACP on the side. I helped instruct new troops in ACPTR and ended up being elected into ACP’s senate as its speaker, where officers, 2ics and 3ics alike met to discuss what direction was best for the army. Through good friends and connections I was able to be elected 3ic during the Flipmoo-Kenneth administration and from then on out it was wild.
I ended up in the role of leader sometime around the end of 2011 or the beginning of 2012. My memory is hazy so you can look this up. I replaced Kenneth upon his retirement and joined Kingfunks as dual leaders, continuing the precedent of a US and a UK leader. Our numbers were great for the time period initially but we suffered from attrition, Club Penguin was a dying game.
First week along Funks and I achieved a max attendance of 50 and rose back to 1st in the CPAC weekly rankings for the first time in a long while, but Funks was VERY hated by many other armies in the top 10. tl;dr we got hammered by a coalition with the sole purpose of seeing Kingfunks burn.
Funks, myself and the leadership arranged the removal of Funks as leader via coup to save Funks’ dignity and to establish the precedent to his reinstatement down the line but this was outed by a spy; but overall, this meant we all together schemed my way into sole leadership, which I promptly handed over to Mchappy. I was sick of the politics

Throughout your experience in ACP, what is your fondest memory?

We were at peak form for Funks and I’s leadership in that picture. Between that and being rewarded the Silver Medal of Honor for reviving the US division.

What was the hardest difficulty you faced as a leader?

Running the gauntlet with Funks, trying to weather the storm out against him, it broke us both (that being said he’s persistent). He came back and would lead several more armies after ACP but I… was left with a bad taste in my mouth. The war was hell, multiple invasions a day; scheduled, premeditated – UK division collapsed.
US division was alright but still struggled to keep up with the numbers we were facing, usually losing by a margin of 5 or so troops. Our ace in the hole was AUSIA invasions at 4AM. We would schedule re-invasions for whatever had been lost the days prior on short notice and did it with impugnity. We could get 25 on weekdays for US battles, 15 for UK, and 10-15 for AUSIA compared to 30/20/0 or something like that for the enemy.

What is a message or a lesson you would give the current members of the community, that you learned from your time in Club Penguin Armies?

Have fun with what you’re doing and make the most of the social interactions you have in discord. The best thing you can do here is make friends you’re excited to talk to (for me it was people like slider, flipmoo, kenneth, mchappy, bam, eyes, etc) and then the responsibilities come more naturally and easily.

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The lesson in this edition is definitely a great one. It advises us to make the most of the people we meet and friends we make while in the CP army community.

Fatchicken88

ACP Field General & Shamrock Bulletin Reporter