Throwing Our Ring Into the Fire

Posted on October 15, 2022 by Calgocubs

We were not going to make a post about this because we accepted the loss of our performance at the Semifinals of Legends Cup XII. However, with recent news brewing in the community, we thought we would throw our ring into the fire to shed light on – what we believe – to be some tone-deaf comments by the administration of Club Penguin Armies.

Before moving forward, we have censored all outside party names so as to not incentivize a witch hunt. We do not put any blame on our opponents and unconditionally accept our placement in this year’s Legends Cup tournament.

Recently, controversy has sparked surrounding the Semifinals that occurred on Sunday. Not Saturday during our battle. One of these controversies is centered around a review that was not only overruled but then backtracked, leaving three armies unsure of who they were facing almost 48 hours before the Finals were to occur. We feel that a form of delayed information also took place during the Semifinals.

After (almost surprisingly) winning the first round, we were ecstatic to have a chance to continue on in the tournament. At the time, the only people in our Higher Command were Calgocubs21, Commander in Chief, and Shane, ranked as General. Both Calgocubs21 and Shane had schedule conflicts on Saturday, so before any information was announced, these schedule conflicts were immediately brought to the attention of the administration hosting the tournament on Sunday, October 2.

Against the Clock

On Monday, October 3, a group chat was formed between the administration, a leader from Water Vikings, and Calgocubs21. The group chat was intended to provide an open dialogue between the two armies to discuss holding the battle on Sunday, 4pm EST. Again, we want to make it clear that we continue to hold absolutely no grudge against the Vikings for wanting to keep the battle for Saturday. However, during the conversation, it felt that our concerns were being brushed off as an annoyance.

For starters, information about the Semifinals was not posted on the official Club Penguin Armies website until Tuesday, October 4. This left the Army of Club Penguin only four days to prepare for the match. For perspective, Special Weapons and Tactics were afforded eight days to prepare and posted on their server the battle times on Sunday (same with Templars). One of the concerns that were brought to the administration was how could other armies already know their battle times before us? Was it just a coincidence? Maybe so, but, due to the fact we were actively trying to discuss scheduling concerns with the administration (something that was brought up by Shane on October 2), the team was unsure how to make of the situation.

We did not have the foresight to clear schedules as we were unsure if we would’ve even made it to the Semifinals. However, we’re extremely thankful for the opportunity of getting as far as we did. However, asking people to request work off for a Club Penguin experience is not what this community was founded on.

The way the bracket was made up, with unfortunately only six armies participating, it seemed that whoever had won the battle between the Army of Club Penguin and Help Force was designed to have less time compared to any other army. Again, we see this as no fault of any specific person but rather a delay in the information that should’ve been figured out as soon as possible. In this situation, it felt like every army knew about times before the Semifinal information post was even published despite the Army of Club Penguin actively engaging in a change or postponement.

Considering only six armies were participating, a historic low for the Legends Cup, we thought asking for a postponement was fair. Many tournaments have seen postponements for a mire of reasons. One example is a tournament battle between the Help Force and Ice Warriors where Club Penguin Rewritten was kicking people off the servers.

Questionable Comments

As another army has stated, we know people may respond to this post by saying we can’t handle a loss. While we strongly believe in the consistency of the judging that took place last Saturday, our faith in the administration has deteriorated slightly due to comments that we find only to be tone-deaf. It is argued that leading the Legends Cup may be one of the most important events a leader can do. When the Commander in Chief brought his concerns to the administration, the response back left us puzzled.

Calgocubs21 was told to find someone who was retired to lead in his absence. The remark made no sense to us as the whole point of being a leader of your army is to have a chance to experience leading big, exciting events such as these. The remark also contradicted past explanations that the times could not be moved because one of the other army’s leaders had requested work off on Saturday. Unfortunately, at this point, the team began to feel that one army was being put before the other. Again, to no blame of the other army.

While Mchappy was free to help lead during the first round due to connection issues by Calgocubs21, he was unable to attend (and did not attend until the last room via mobile) the Semifinals due to a trip. Thus, Calgocubs21 had to skip out on work and rely on past leaders’ aid to help lead the army.

Again, we understand that there is some responsibility on us in events like this to adapt. Our goal is to hopefully see more willingness to adapt to situations between organizations and the armies in the future, especially as our community as a whole continues to grow smaller. It feels weird being apart of a dystopian Club Penguin army community where instead of getting to enjoy the community events such as tournaments, leaders are now being offered solutions of relying on retired veterans to lead for them or to even entirely miss work. We hope this isn’t a standard moving forward.

Signed,

Calgocubs21, ACP Commander-in-Chief