How They Began: Ganger90 and Special Weapons and Tactics

ALASKA, CP Army Hub Headquarters – Welcome to How They Began! A weekly segment here at the Army Hub that puts one army under the microscope, looking at their foundations and interviewing their creator. This week’s edition will take a look at Special Weapons and Tactics and their creator Ganger90.

Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) was created by Ganger90 during 2009. However, it is a little-known fact the name ‘SWAT’ was used before Ganger90 created the army. Before the army was created by Ganger, Godplayer123 rebranded the Dark Warriors into SWAT. This change, however, did not last long and they were soon renamed to Dark Warriors once again. This led to the creation of Special Weapons and Tactics in 2009.

The Beginning

Before SWAT was created, the army was a gang of random players appearing on the server ‘Mammoth’ on the original Club Penguin. Many people gathered on Mammoth, including Ganger, and the bond that the people made there led to the creation of SWAT. Most of their troops came from the Club Penguin server which boosted the army as they all knew the game and created/joined the army as rogues. Some of SWAT’s first troops went on to be legends in Club Penguin Army history and some of the most notable troops in SWAT. Included in these are Minuteman3, Stare3000, S Cargo2, Domsamillion, and more.

SWAT started to appear in many places and rapidly gained size.

SWAT vs ACP

From 2009 to early 2012, SWAT was unorganized and the events of the time are lost to history for the most part. One memorable occurrence of the time was the rising tensions of SWAT and Army of Club Penguin. Since the beginning, the two armies have gone head-to-head many times throughout history.

The wars between SWAT and the Army of Club Penguin were continuous with neither army willing to admit defeat at any time. However, in a 2011 war, SWAT was considerably weaker than the Army of Club Penguin. Despite their attempts to postpone the war, it continued. ACP won and SWAT surrendered many servers to them. This lead to both the dark age and the golden age of SWAT.

The Dark Age

In 2012, SWAT began a golden age as they were reaching the top of the Top Ten. Despite this, an unexpected series of unfortunate events happened which turned 2012 into a dark age. They suffered three defacings of their site during November 2012. The army lost all the history on their site, leading them into the “Great Fall of SWAT.” In one of these defacings, the site was compromised by a Godplayer impersonator who claimed to shut down SWAT permanently and removed Ganger90 from SWAT.

As SWAT attempted to re-build in 2013, they declared war on the Army Republic on May 15th. Neither of the armies was declared the winner, but SWAT lost servers to AR. In addition to this, SWAT once again went head-to-head with Army of Club Penguin, continuing their dark age.

2014 is often called an “off-year” for SWAT. Despite their size, they managed to get into CP Army Central’s Top Ten multiple times. Even with their success, SWAT had their downfalls in wars and events. However, this only enabled them to push forward more, leading them to a golden age in 2015.

SWAT High Command finding out that the site was being defaced

The Golden Age

SWAT started to rise once again in 2015, marking the start of their golden age. SWAT came back to the army community in summer 2015 with Ganger90, Badboy, Beast, and Moneytrees leading them. The generation started roughly. The first event was raided by Mustapha, Doritos leader. Mid-October 2015, SWAT gained more members after declaring they would have no allies earlier in the month. For Ganger’s birthday, SWAT logged on and managed to get an incredible 35 troops on Club Penguin.

Ganger’s Birthday Party Event which shows them maxing incredible sizes

In November, Light Troops declared war on SWAT. In SWAT’s first invasion of the war, they were able to max an incredible 45+ troops and this was a big increase from their last event. Not long after this, the war with Light Troops came to an end after a treaty was drafted. SWAT soon attacked their next target: the Army of Club Penguin.

The Golden Wars

SWAT’s first invasion was ACP’s Breeze, a success. Their invasions on ACP’s servers continued, their maxes and morale high, and they successfully invaded all of ACP’s servers with no opposition. SWAT was in the golden age that they longed for and they were able to reach first place on Club Penguin Army Central’s Top Ten.

In 2016, SWAT came back and reached new incredible heights as they had 50+ penguins on Club Penguin. This, however, put an end to their golden age. SWAT closed and reopened many times. Due to their site being defaced so often, some of their history has unfortunately been lost. SWAT came back in 2017 for one last hurrah.

SWAT’s Comeback as a Club Penguin Private Server Army

In March 2020, the idea to bring back SWAT was brought up by Zuke. Zuke and Sweater created SWAT’s website and Discord server. S Cargo2 made a surprise return to the army right before they officially opened. With these three leaders at the helm, they led SWAT’s first event on Club Penguin Online and were able to max 48 troops.

SWAT entered the Warriors Alliance alongside three other armies. Lights717 and Domsamillion returned to SWAT with Larden, giving the army six leaders. The army went on to battle the Light Troops and the Underground Mafias Army, where SWAT maxed 100+. This was a first for SWAT and it cemented the generation in SWAT’s history. All good things come to an end, however — Sweater defaced SWAT and they merged into the Doritos.

The Current Generation of Special Weapons and Tactics

Ganger received many complaints about SWAT being merged into Doritos, and as he did not know about it, he deemed the merge unofficial. With the permission of Ganger, Sweater recreated SWAT with three other leaders. Sweater advised with Ganger while still playing a massive part in their recreation. SWAT quickly ran through many leadership changes. They ended up being led by nine different people in rapid succession. Currently, Special Weapons and Tactics is led by Coolguy, Ganger, Hiroyuki, Lights717, Aubz, and Oli.

CP Army Hub contacted SWAT’s leader, creator, and legend, Ganger90, to ask him some questions about his army.

Why did you create SWAT?

I created SWAT to bring a great group of people that all met on Mammoth together officially and to do something great together. I already seen so much potential in SWAT and knew with the team we started with we would do amazing things and we did.

SWAT was, at first, a rogue army. How did you make it an organized, official army and when did you realize that it was going to be big?

We first started with a chat, before organizing a website. We created our first chat xat.com/SWATrulers in late 2010. Then formed a website shortly after that time. I realized it was going to be big when all the rogues from Mammoth began joining our xat and from there, we formed a great team and family.

SWAT’s relationship with ACP has always been rocky with both armies declaring war on numerous occasions. Why was this and do you think that your relationship is better now or is it still shaky?

As of right now, I would say that ACP and SWAT are neutral and don’t have any interest in conflict at the time. But to bring it back to the original reason, SWAT was basically founded and created as an army strictly against ACP back to the rogue days on Mammoth before SWAT was even made official. It was a constant competition between the two armies and SWAT was the army that always kept coming back for more. Eventually in 2012, SWAT was able to beat ACP in an invasion of Mammoth and in the Semi-Finals of the tournament the same year in what nobody saw possible, also marking the first time SWAT became the number 1 army in all of CP.

SWAT has suffered many defacements but many golden moments, could you tell us a bit more about your best/worst moments in SWAT?

It’s really a lot to mention considering all the great moments that we’ve had. But to start, I would definitely say first rising up coming off of Mammoth; the loyalty and dedication that we had in the team first starting off is what made us so great to begin with. Some top moments would be defeating the legendary Nachos army in the same tournament in which we upset ACP for the first time and hopped to number one. Hitting number one again in 2013, and holding a Top 5 spot for many weeks/months during 2012-2013. At the time Nachos, ACP, and IW were considered the superpowers of CP armies and SWAT managed to contend with them

The new generation of SWAT consists of many veterans and legends, including yourself. What do you think about the current leadership and status of SWAT, why did you hire these specific leaders, and what do think will happen to/with SWAT in the future?

First off, I hired these leaders because I believe they were the best choices for the position and to help keep SWAT strong not only now, but for the future as well. The legends and veterans that are in our army now are also helping to keep an eye out for who will step up and be able to lead SWAT to greatness next. I think that in the future SWAT will be successful and continue to rise with the team that we have (:

You have been an inspiration to many people across the army community but was there any person that inspired you? Also, are there any notable troops that you admire?

There’s many people that inspired me back in the day, even people that I lead with and wouldn’t be considered to have come before me. One army leader that always stuck in my mind was Person1233 from Nachos. There’s really too many people to list, but Cul8rsl, Lights717, Stare3000, Domsamillion, Stars34, Codycat282, Raprocks669, Lego Kid5, Bill41053, Soma Meme, Coolgirl4018, Deliburger, Reece, S Cargo2/Flames370)(despite some stints of unloyalty to SWAT), Crazy186, Spikey Josh1, Reeces2011, NitroHAMMER, Superjay99,Shadowclub6, xiUnknown,Blizzard880,Goodjoker5, Badboy, Benjarkin, TacoDaily, Frozen Zuke, Np3000, Dwain and Spi101(Spiderguy22).

<><><><><><><><><>

Special Weapons and Tactics had many struggles over the years, but the army proved that they can be unbeatable. With the current generation in tow, SWAT shows the potential to grow. Ganger, among the other leaders, has high hopes for the future of the army.

Stay tuned for next week as we will be looking into the history of Pirates and talking to ex-leader Bucky.

What do YOU think? Has Special Weapons and Tactics been a historic army? Let us know in the comment section below!

Coolguy
CP Army Hub Reporter

Flav
CP Army Hub Reporter

Sarahah
CP Army Hub Editor-in-Chief

Cassie
CP Army Hub Editor-in-Chief

Advertisement