KLONDIKE, CP Army Headquarters – In our latest controversial opinion, I get down and dirty with an infamous army legend to challenge his bold views on one of the key organisations from 2020: the CP Army League.
“The Club Penguin Army League was the best organization to exist after Club Penguin died.”
32op, CPA Legend & Former Doritos Leader
The CP Army League was the organisation that succeeded the CP Online Army League, and came about after the popular private server platform, CP Online, shut down in May 2020. 32op was of course one of the administrative figures in this organisation, and therefore possesses some degree of bias despite also being a Founder of the organisation that it merged into: the CP Army Hub. To find out more, I asked him to elaborate on why he believed CPAL was the best organisation to exist post-Club Penguin:
“The structure of CPAL, similar to CPAN, is the best structure an organization can have if done properly. Having a unique board consisting of members from different armies who have a strong voice was what really made the board popular within the community.
During the majority of CPAL’s time, the board consisted of Me, Iceyfeet, Mehak, Zamb, Lucifer, Zuke and Ben. Although, I have to admit that CPAM’s news was very fast and greater than ours, it wasn’t nearly as fun as CPAL. That’s what almost every organization lacks. Being functional and fun. CPAL was both. We had Iceyfeet hosting fun old-style community events, having the community post an inside joke (furrid-19) and overall the vibe was amazing, it wasn’t too professional but it was still functional enough to be something armies can rely on, making it incredibly fun. That’s what we’re all here for, to have fun, not be super uptight and professional.
You can ask any army leader that has been around since the CPAL/CPAM days and were able to take part in CPAL. They will tell you know how amazing it felt to be apart of an organization that cared more about being fun rather than be professional as possible.
I was keen to challenge his views on the CPAL Board, as this system he is referring to as the “best structure” has been criticised in the past for only allowing a certain group of select individuals – usually the major army leaders – to retain the most power and influence. I therefore asked him the question: Do you perhaps think you found it fun because you were one of these privileged and powerful figures?
No I don’t, the majority of the time I was at CPOAL consisted of board members that were enemies with DCP with no DCP representation, yet I still enjoyed CPA heavily during that time. The armies that had no representation could have left anytime they wanted to CPAM since we were sharing the same CPPS but hardly any did (I think some CPAM armies joined CPAL instead) because we wanted to make sure everyone was having the most fun possible.
I doubled down with my questioning and asked: Do you think it is right for an army leader to hold a position of power in the league? Some believe those that are unaffiliated should hold the top positions to avoid bias.
I think it is, if it’s structured properly. Take for example a board consisting of members of two armies that are allies. That will obviously lead to bias. Having a board such as the one we had in CPAL ensures that bias is limited. This also requires for the people on the board to have a mentality of wanting to have fun rather than making an organization in order to gain power.
While I can’t disagree with his logic, is it really possible to get a group of powerful army leaders to share a mentality for fun rather than considering what is best for the army they lead? If the history of our community has taught us anything, it is that so many people crave the power that they cannot find elsewhere in their life.
Moving on, I queried 32op on CPAL famously merging with the CP Army Media: How does CPAH weigh up against the CPAL? And why did you make the decision to merge if the CPAL structure was better than the CPAM one?
To be honest, I loved the idea of making CPAH. A united community after a long period of being divided into two. Coming in, I thought I would be the CEO of the organization implementing ideas used in CPAL while also having the insane news coverage that CPAM produced. It seemed like a perfect organization. Unfortunately, I was not able to push much ideas into this organization as I was removed shortly after CPAH was announced to the public.
Over time, the influence of CPAL became less and less and slowly CPAH turned into what the CPAL 4 (Me, Lucifer, Zamb and Mehak) call CPAM 2.0 CPAH was a great organization nonetheless but I still stand by my opinion of CPAL being the best organization after CP died. I believe if I was kept in the CEO position, I could have implemented more CPAL ideas and would have made CPAH a better organization.
32op is certainly no stranger to controversy, and his opinion today may prove popular with many and bewildering to others. But what do you think – was the CP Army League the best organisation to exist after Club Penguin died? If not, which organisation was?