Road From Recruit: BlossomBel

Posted on September 24, 2023 by Coolguy

Addressed to the Army of Club Penguin

BLIZZARD, Shamrock Bulletin Headquarters – In this edition of Road From Recruit, we talk to BlossomBel and explore their time in ACP from the start of their journey to where they are today.

BlossomBel is a well-known member of ACP’s Coordinator team but how did they get there? Blossom first joined ACP in 2020 and remains a part of ACP to this day which is an incredible achievement. A coordinator’s duties often go unnoticed as they are not a part of the main staff ranks. However, they undertake important tasks as a staff member and work with other staff members to provide the quality that we see within the army, the server and the system that lies underneath all of this.

To find out more about how they got into ACP’s ranks and how they became Co-ordinator, we contacted BlossomBel for an interview

How did you come across armies and ACP?

Club Penguin was a huge part of my childhood, so when lockdown happened, I decided to look more into CPPSes since I already knew they existed but didn’t try them. That led me to Super Club Penguin and their Discord server.
One day, I got a DM from someone on that server, and that’s how I got recruited to my first Club Penguin Army, the Elites. After a while, I started attending events and climbed the ranks until I got promoted to staff. Sadly, about two weeks later, it was announced that the Elites would shut down.
Because of this, I had to look for a new army, because I still enjoyed the CPA community, so I had some options that I was considering, but I ended up joining ACP as a Brigadier General, because the community was really welcoming and I loved everything about the army, plus there were other Costa Rican staff members so I definitely couldn’t doubt it haha

How long were you in Elites for and when did you realise that you wanted to rise up the ranks and one day become staff?

I joined Elites in June 2020 and was there until it shut down in September so I was there for about four months. To be honest, at first, I was planning to just keep the server on my server list and forget about it, but then one day the person who recruited me (Thanks Scorp !!) asked me if I could join one of their events, so I did it just to help and after that, I realized it was fun so I gave it a chance.
I really liked the system of earning new ranks by going to events, it felt like levelling up in a videogame haha, so that motivated me to attend until I reached the last member rank, but I never really thought about becoming a staff member.
Even if it wasn’t in my plans, on August 30th I got dmed by one of the leaders, that leader being our current ACP leader AustinFraud !! And so I got promoted to staff, not for a long time but it was an amazing experience.

Upon getting staff in ACP, what were your future plans/ambitions? Did you complete any of them or do you still have them?

One of the things that helped me decide to join ACP was their Spanish division, the Legión Española, because I wanted to help, which is why I usually went for people who spoke Spanish when I recruited. Even if Legión Española is not active anymore, I consider that it did great at some point, since I remember that one time we even had the chance to do a Spanish VC for a tournament, and it would be nice to help with bringing it back in the future !!
Another thing that I wanted to do was to climb up the staff ranks in ACP, my last rank before deciding to step down to unranked moderator (now known as Co-ordinator) was Corps General, which was 6ic at the time since we had five moderator ranks. My mindset wasn’t that good at the time x.x so I ended up giving up but I think it would be nice to try again in the future, my goal never was getting HCOM since I never had that in mind but I would like to go back to the moderator ranks sometime ♡

What led to you becoming a co-ordinator and what does it entail?

I was planning to step down from moderator because I lost motivation, I tried to do it many times and then changed my mind later, I’m not very proud of myself for doing that honestly lol but after some attempts, I was offered to stay if I helped with Legión Española, so I did that by helping Spanish-speaking troops and translating the event information. Then, after the previous co-ordinator who was in charge of the recruitment logs retired, I started doing that too.
I did my job with Legión Española until it was decided to close that division due to inactivity since we didn’t have too many active Spanish-speaking troops anymore. After that, I continued helping with keeping up with recruitment logs and supervising the Recruiting Force. So, in my case, my current job as co-ordinator is related to recruitment even though I don’t recruit directly, but the tasks depend on what’s assigned to each co-ordinator.

How would you describe your journey in ACP and what have been some of your favourite moments?

These (almost) three years in ACP have been amazing, I feel really lucky to be in this community and I don’t regret my decision to join this army, everyone made me feel so welcome since my first moment here. I had the chance to meet a lot of lovely people and I had a lot of enjoyable experiences that I’m grateful for, and I could never ask for anything else ♡
Some of my favorite moments have been the tournaments, they are always really exciting, and seeing everyone so hyped is always good to see. One of my favorite tournament battles was the Fight or Fright finals against RPF in 2020, where we broke our CPPS record with a max of 116 which made me feel very happy, even if we lost that battle, it was still impressive to see how many people we got that day. A more recent tournament that I liked too would be the Legends Cup of this year because seeing how we finally had the opportunity to win it was amazing, I had a lot of fun during this tournament too, and when the win was announced I was really happy because those were the result of the efforts of the army so I’m proud of everyone who participated !!
Another fun memory was when I somehow got Soldier of the Week back in February of this year haha I had a lot of fun that week, even making a petition to bring back the Legión Española role alongside other Spanish-speaking troops. I appreciate that I was chosen by the staff team that week, and I hope that I can take the efforts of that petition even further sometime because, as I said earlier, it would be amazing to have that division back in the future.

Where do you see yourself in the future?

I have been a co-ordinator for over 2 years, and even though I have considered retiring from the army at some point, I think it would be more probable for me to just step down from staff and stay as a member because I love this community way too much to just leave haha I just have to consider my real life situation and the things that might be coming up in the future.
So, if I haven’t retired yet, I would definitely consider the probability of either returning to the moderator ranks or staying as a troop, retirement is not really in my near future plans. The first option would be the most interesting one, I think I didn’t try hard enough when I was a ranked moderator and I could have done much more, so I would love to try it again in the future if I have enough time and feel prepared for it.

Any advice for those wanting to rank up in ACP?

As a troop, it’s important to be active, participating in the events that the army has and engaging in conversation with other members. Of course, with this, I don’t mean that you have to spend the entire day in main chat and forget about real life but just by interacting with others and being active during events, you are proving that you are interested in contributing to the army and increasing your chances of getting promoted for your efforts. It’s also good to have motivation and be positive, helping with things like hyping before events or guiding new members, by this, you could be even setting an example for your fellow troops. But it’s necessary to keep this in mind not just as a troop because this is also important for staff promotions since it’s always important for staff members to take the initiative and always be willing to help with any tasks that have to be done.

Thank you for allowing us to interview Blossom! It’s been great to hear about their time in the army and their passion both for ACP and the Legión Española. It seems like they still have aspirations and goals that they haven’t yet hit. Will we see Blossom rising in the ranks in the future?

What do YOU think? Let us know in the comments!

Coolguy
Shamrock Bulletin Administrator and 50th ACP Commander in Chief