DISCLAIMER: This is an editorial. Opinions expressed in this article are those of the individual writer and not those of the RPF as a whole.
10 thousand members. Wow. Five digits. I don’t know if I have seen 10 thousand people in my life, but we have ten thousand right here in this Discord server. 10,000 is a momentous number, a number that new armies only dream of achieving. When the RPF came into existence in 2007, I can comfortably say that no one saw the RPF, or even the army community in general, getting as big as it has.
For those of you that don’t know me, I am Jacquardio, RPF Major General. For those who don’t know me, I like to write, play the clarinet, and I like memes. A little background on me: I joined the Rebel Penguin Federation on April 8th, 2020, around the peak of the COVID-19 shutdowns. Everyone must have had the same wave of nostalgia around April, because the RPF, and the CP Army scene in general, went through a boom (referred to as the Corona boom, aka the golden days of recruiting,) with newcomers coming in left and right.
Recruiting: A Crash Course
Recruiting, defined by the Webster Dictionary, is “to enlist (someone) in the armed forces.” While a Club Penguin Army isn’t your typical armed force, we still need to expand our horizons by recruiting new members. Recruiters can choose their preferred method of recruiting, with many choosing between one of three options: recruiting on Club Penguin Rewritten itself, recruiting on Discord via Club Penguin related servers, or venturing off to different social media platforms. Many people choose the former. Many of the RPF’s best recruits are traced back to Club Penguin Rewritten.
CPAM Premier League
I mentioned that I joined the Rebel Penguin Federation on April 8th, 2020. That just so happened to be the day before the Rebel Penguin Federation would go against the Help Force (our current allies) in the CP Army Media Premier League tournament. For those of you who don’t know (because I sure didn’t know in April) the CP Army Media Premier League was the RPF’s first big tournament back on the army scene since December. Little did I know the significance the Premier League would hold on the army community. I was able to make one event, get my promotion to Private, then thrown on the battlefield in one of our biggest tournament events ever.
After the win in the quarterfinals against the Help Force, the Rebel Penguin Federation would go against the Army of Club Penguin, the other Club Penguin Rewritten superpower. After the semi-finals, the two armies with the best records would face off in the Grand Finals, the battle for all the marbles. Those two armies would be the undefeated Rebel Penguin Federation, and the Army of Club Penguin, coming from their only loss. The Rebels would go on to win the tournament, claiming their big tournament win.
CP Army Media Premier League Grand Finals
World War Rewritten
Speaking of the Army of Club Penguin, the first big war I fought in was World War Rewritten. When you look at the Rebel Penguin Federation today, many of the officers/HCOM consider the battle of Tuxedo (one of the largest battles in Club Penguin Armies history, over 250+ penguins online at once) a pivotal moment in their development as a Rebel. World War Rewritten played a key role in troop retention as well, with many of the members at that battle being high-ranking troops, with some even being officers today.
Picture from the Defense of Tuxedo
Seasonal Roles
Another incentive for people to recruit is our seasonal roles. At the beginning of seasons, our HCOM announces Seasonal roles; special titles with spicy names and colors that you can get by recruiting new Rebels. Roles last for a year, have a great aesthetic, and symbolize the hours of work you put into recruiting new members. I managed to recruit sixteen Rebels, thus getting “Ladybug”. I wish I could have gotten “Duckling” (the best Spring 2020 seasonal role, in my opinion), but I joined the RPF mid recruiting season.
Summer Seasonal roles were the first round of seasonals I took extremely seriously. On August 7th, 2020, I earned Firework (55 recruits). At the end of the season, there were 21 Rebels who earned Firework. When Spring Seasonal roles ended, the RPF discord server had around 8,000 members. When Summer Seasonal roles ended, we had eclipsed 10,000.
Legends Cup X
The first major tournament of the summer was the prestigious Legends Cup X. A major collaboration between CPAM and CPAL (predates CPAH), the Legends Cup X might have been the biggest tournament in army history. In order to go into this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity with the best chances, recruiters turned on their VPNs and put in WORK. Right before the LCX Finals (June 26th, 2020) the Rebel Penguin Federation hit 9000 members. The LCX win definitely gave the RPF a new tenacity. Since then, recruiting numbers have only gone up.
Room 2 of the Legends Cup X semifinals. 162 uniformed Rebels showed up – the largest uniformed event in history.
Doritos of Club Penguin vs the Black Ice Alliance
On July 15th, 2020, the Rebel Penguin Federation declared war on the Doritos of Club Penguin, another army who could pull comparable sizes. Once again, this war gave Rebels a new incentive to put in hours of recruiting. Everyone knew that recruiting would be the deciding factor in this war; the advantage that would push the winner over the edge. Similar to the war mentioned before (World War Rewritten and the Battle of Tuxedo) the battles of Chinook and Summit played a major role in troop retention as well.
Picture from the Battle of Chinook
The Final Push
As the summer ended, the Rebel Penguin Federation was getting dangerously close to 10,000 members in the Discord server. Seeing that number creep so close to 10,000 brought new life into the Rebels’ recruiters, which was just enough for the final push. While the real 10,000th member is unknown, that member is a part of Club Penguin Army history.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the Rebel Penguin Federation will keep on growing. We need to keep on growing. Recruiting and retention are necessities for all armies. A good army is only as good as its recruiters. As long as the Rebels can keep this recruiting mindset up, we will keep on rising,
-Jacquardio, Major General
