KLONDIKE, CP Army Headquarters – The Pizza Federation was one of the most influential Small/Medium armies of the CPPS era. Almost one year after their shutdown it is time to look up to their history. How powerful were they before the shutdown?
The Pizza Federation was founded on April 30th, 2018 by Chelpopkick, TheWaffle101, TheBreadBoii, Alan 109, and Neptune. It was originally named the Pizza Boi Rebellion but then renamed to Pizza Federation on July 26th, 2018. During its three years of existence, the army kept a great activity going on, and focused on maintaining a healthy community. Across their existence, there was also a multitude of leaderships, with each leader focusing on improving the army in their own ways, most notably R3TRO, Snork, Lightningmcj, and Hidcre. The army officially shut down on April 30th, 2021 after they held their final event in which they reached a high max of 35 penguins online.
Pizza Federation final event
The army participated in many wars, such as the Great Pizza War, against the Pizza Bros; World War VII in which they fought alongside the Templars, and ended up joining the Red Dawn Alliance to defeat the Rebel Penguin Federation; and a war against the Special Weapons and Tactics, where they reached their very high max of 38 members online. Another one of the main achievements of the Pizza Federation was its dominance in the tournaments they have participated in, with an emphasis on S/M tournaments. They had always shown amazing forms and tactics against other armies in tournaments and were well known in the community as the “tournament army” for winning Fright or Fight, Beach Brawl, and Challengers Cup I in 2020.
PIC vs PZF in the Challengers Cup finals
CP Army Headquarters was able to reach out to Lightningmcj, a PZF Former Leader, CPA S/M Legend, and CPAHQ Head Judge, to ask him about his thoughts on the army before the shutdown.
What are your thoughts about the Pizza Federation during its prime days?
I think in its day PZF was a very good army. Obviously it never made it to major but we could hold our own and I think we established ourselves as a dominant S/M army, particularly when tournaments came (a lot of people thought of us as a “tournament army” which has some truth to it). Overall, though, if you ask me and probably anyone from PZF what was most important to them about it was the community. We were really close-knit and that was far more important to us than Club Penguin.
What was it like being a leader in the Pizza Federation?
It was really cool, working together with the HCOM and staff and other leaders was never an issue because we all got along so well and we all valued the same things. PZF really put an emphasis on like being kind and acting with morality, so we didn’t really get into any army drama and it was just a joy to work with each other because we were all genuinely friends. Being a leader of PZF was rewarding in its own way because, like I said, you have the privilege to be a part of and lead that incredible community. But also so many things about PZF are unique and great, like the dumb pizza catchphrases and the inside jokes we have, so certainly being a leader there was a blast.
Do you think the army had the potential to stay alive and get stronger? If yes, how?
As PZF was when it shut down, I don’t think it was in a state to stay alive and improve. The staff was burnt out and had honestly just lost passion for the whole thing. CPA is fun when you start, but after a while, it becomes a chore. And we were never driven by things like becoming the top army ever or pulling incredible maxes, because being friends with each other was sufficient.
Do you believe that the army will revive in the future?
I wouldn’t completely rule out PZF getting revived, but I would say it’s very unlikely. We feel that we’ve gotten our legacy to a place where we like it. If it was revived, I don’t know who would be interested in being the leader because I feel confident saying it wouldn’t be any of the former leaders or HCOM I’ve kept in touch with. I think, if it did get revived, it would have to be a pretty special group of people who were really willing to put in enough work to become a respectable army (because let’s be honest, we wouldn’t revive just to max 5) and who truly understood what PZF is about.
Would you like to tell us how the Pizza Federation’s last days were?
It was really difficult, like it is to say goodbye to anything that you spend a lot of time on. I wasn’t a leader at the time, I was just a server admin and advisor, but many of us felt that we were no longer willing to put in the effort necessary to really maintain PZF. The hardest part by far, though, was having to talk to the people who did want to keep PZF, and who PZF meant so much to. I knew it wouldn’t be fair to ask them to run it by themselves, so we obviously had to overrule them, but their pain was my pain, too–we all knew we were really gonna miss PZF. Our final event was a max of 35, and it was a fitting sendoff with a lot of friends and allies we’d made along the way. We sort of ran with the idea of being a gaming community, but we’ve now pretty much just become a veteran hangout server. Even so, PZF is still alive in the relationships we’ve held onto and the memories we made.