The most controversial tournament of the year has now finally come to an end. During the Grand Finals on Saturday, two armies went head-to-head to fight for the champions’ title and a March Madness Trophy.

In the Grand Finals, we saw Help Force and Rebel Penguin Federation meeting in a close battle. The Helpers haven’t won a tournament since Aces of AUSIA in 2020, while the Rebels wanted to come out victorious from a second tournament in a row, after last year’s Christmas Chaos.

Help Force vs. Rebel Penguin Federation

The battle went across the three rooms, after which the judges were able to agree on a winner. Both armies started with similar sizes, but Rebel Penguin Federation retained a size advantage most of the time. The speed displayed by the opponents also remained alike throughout most of the battle.

The first room, Iceberg, was declared a Rebel Penguin Federation victory, due to their superior form choices and their better quality. The judges were especially impressed by the Rebels’ upsidedown A. The Helpers did a good job with the bombs but it wasn’t enough to secure the room. Inside Mine, the second room, was the closest one and therefore was declared a tie. Both armies seemed to be slack at times and lose speed, which nevertheless remained equal. For the third room, the judges chose Stadium. An A and a Z formations from Rebel Penguin Federation gained the judges’ approval and turned out to significantly overpower Help Force. Both were armies were called out for their lack of creativity but in the end, the Rebels managed to secure a win in the third room. Help Force decided not to submit a review.

March Madness VIII Champions: Rebel Penguin Federation

To get more insight into the Grand Finals, we reached out to the leaders of competing armies for more details:

How do you feel about the results?

Link3000, Rebel Commander: Unsurprisingly I am very ecstatic about the results and very relieved as well. We knew that we had battled well but also Help Force is always a strong opponent and there were moments during the battle where both armies were equal in terms of performance. So it was very nice to see the judges verdict in the end. I do agree with the results as well, room 2 was tooth and nail fight lmao but in the end it worked out.

Desireus, Help Force’s Commander: It definitely isnt the result we aimed for, but its also something to be proud of at least by making this far.

What factor in your opinion contributed the most to your army reaching the finals?

Link3000: I think it’s one that really contributes to most of our tournament and war performances and that is the community aspect. Whether it was our staff members, troops or vets. It’s no secret that we have a very strong veteran presence that always boosts us. But the fact that even after so many years people still show up to support RPF just shows what the community is all about. Additionally, we’ve seen numerous new troops over the last 3 weeks, people that joined in the midst of a major tournament and stuck around and showed enthusiasm. Pair all that with an extremely dedicated staff team behind us, that worked very hard to bring hype to this and were hyped themselves, it really was just everyone in RPF coming together to help us secure this long awaited win.

Desireus: Number 1 factor has got to be teamwork. Without the rest of the staff team backing us up when we needed them to, we wouldn’t be able to achieve quite the result.

What are you the most proud of in the tournament?

Link3000: I am proud to have finally been able to secure a March Madness trophy. March Madness has really been the one that got away from RPF for so long and after losing again last year, both Elex and I are very happy to finally be able to claim the champions title. But more importantly – and saved the best for last – we’re so very proud of RPF. To everyone who showed up to our battles, to our trainings, who helped us hype, even those that couldn’t attend but were still showing their support. Again, it’s just really amazing to see the entire army come together in moments like this and it’s truly one of the best feelings as a leader. Also that was 2 things oop don’t kill me.

Desireus: Honestly us making it to the finals is the achievement. Despite some of us not being able to be the most active due to a hectic schedule, we still managed to give our best and made it this far.

Do you have any tips for other armies for future tournaments?

Link3000: Honestly this might sound cliche lmao but, perseverance and patience. Like mentioned before, it took RPF 8 years to get a MM title but it happened. Losing a tournament is always disheartening after putting so much work and effort into it but you can learn from things you’ve done correctly and things you’ve done wrong. That applies to everything from recruiting, to hyping, to battle leading etc etc.

Is there anything you would do differently in the finals?

Desireus: Something that I would do differently would definitely be in terms of preparation. I can say that our preparation for the finals wasn’t the best, but we did what we could do, and accepted the fact that there’s gonna be some ups and some downs.

Congratulations to Rebel Penguin Federation for winning the March Madness Trophy and to Help Force for putting up a good fight. Thank you to everyone who contributed to the tournament’s success, especially to Dino, who designed our trophy and the graphics, and the Judges who made it all possible.

Who do you think may be crowned champions next year? Will Rebel Penguin Federation defend the title, or maybe Help Force will reach the finals for the third time and manage to secure the victory? 

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