Top Ten Armies of the Year – A Year in Stats

ALASKA, CP Army Hub Headquarters – This has been possibly the most memorable year for the Club Penguin Community. With the ever-changing drama, retirements, wars, and tournaments, there was always one constant every single week: The Top Ten. So after a very long year, we are excited to release this year’s Top Ten Armies of the Year.

This year has been a dramatic one in both sizes and how the communities played out. With the COVID boom bringing so many people back to the game, many armies experienced record sizes. So many legendary armies were recreated this year and took turns placing high among the rankings. This unprecedented boom brought the new Golden Age for armies, something that many people could not foresee happening in 2017 when armies shut down. However with the boom, also came with the community drama as the community was divided for a large portion of the year. Despite this, my team and I were able to compile multiple lists that best represent the top armies of the year.

With the community being split for about 4 months, we needed to find a way to rank each of the armies fairly. We decided it was not fair to include the rankings together because the platforms that each community took part in were very different. For example, placing third on the CPOAL top ten required much greater sizes than placing third on the CPAM top ten. This would make it unfair for the CPO armies that were achieving sizes greater than their CPR counterpart. So, after extensive talks, the decision was made to have three separate lists. The first being ranking all armies from May 15th (the day CPO shutdown) to December 31st, the second being CPO armies from January 1st to May 14th, and the third being CPR armies from January 1st to May 14th.

After May 15th, armies began all performing on the same platforms, either CPR or CPATG (which was later CPArmies). With this, there could no longer be complaints about coin events or whatnot. The top ten had many armies competing for the top spot, however there was only one army that was truly dominant: Rebel Penguin Federation. RPF’s historic success unparalleled by any army this year as they dominated the top ten after CPO’s shutdown. Apart from Ice Warrior’s recent success on the top ten and Army of Club Penguin owning the spot for a couple weeks during the fall, RPF has held on to the first spot for the majority of the year. However, the rest of the top ten was filled with many consistent performers, with a consistent seven armies pretty much owning the top 7 spots for the entirety of the year. Without any further ado, here is the Unified Top Ten of 2020:

The Top Ten Armies of 2020

(This list only contains CPAH top tens from May 17th to December 27th. The other lists may be found below)

 1. Rebel Penguin Federation [312] [1.25]

2. Ice Warriors [276] [2.375]

3. Army of Club Penguin [240] [3.5]

 4. Help Force [202] [4.6875]

5. Doritos [176] [5.5]

 6. Water Vikings [128] [7]

7. Dark Warriors [126] [7.0625]

8. Special Weapons and Tactics [64] [9]

9. Water Ninjas [48] [9.5]

10. Elites [35] [10.1875]

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Close to Top Ten:

11. Pirates [26]

12. Red Ravagers [25]

13T. Army of Orient Seas [20]

13T. Templars [20]

15. Silver Empire [17]

Click here to see the calculations!

As the top ten shows, RPF commanded the rankings, finishing first with a comfortable margin. Following them is IW and ACP, both legendary armies who made their returns near the end of 2019 and were able to both have a successful year. The dark horse of the year was Help Force, officially cementing their names as consistent contenders within the top 5. Doritos, an army that was the center of a lot of controversy, rounds of the top 5, having two successful runs from the year. Water Vikings and Dark Warriors were neck and neck all year, but ultimately WV barely edged out DW to take 6th. SWAT having a consistent run landed them the 8th spot, while the Water Ninjas who made an impressive late year push managed to grab the 9th spot. Finally, the Elites rounded off the top 10, with their early stint in the league proving to be enough.

The number present next to the army is their score for the year. The way the scores were calculated was that each top ten from the year was visited. An army was granted 10 points for finishing first, 9 for finishing second, etc until 10th place who received 1 point. This system had been done in previous iterations of the top ten armies of the year and continues to prove to be the best as it values consistency over armies who were around for only a month.

The next number is the army’s average placement from the year. This was calculated by dividing the army’s score by the total number of weeks and subtracting that number from 11.

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Fun Facts and Stats

Here is a table displaying each of the top ten armies and how they have performed within their top ten rankings. Surprising nobody, RPF dominated the rankings, finishing 1st place a total of 24 times. IW, ACP, and HF join RPF as the only armies to feature on every single top ten, with WV narrowly missing out. Though DCP had more appearances in the top three than HF, HF’s consistency throughout the year helped them stay above DCP. Another interesting fact to note is that Elites were one of only 7 armies this year to place among the top 3.

Top 10 Scores of the Year

1. Rebel Penguin Federation [130.6] (June 21st)

2. Rebel Penguin Federation [128.7] (May 24th)

3. Ice Warriors [123.5] (June 21st)

4. Rebel Penguin Federation [123.33] (July 19th)

5. Rebel Penguin Federation [123.25] (July 5th)

6. Rebel Penguin Federation  [122.5] (June 7th)

7. Rebel Penguin Federation [121.5]  (May 31st)

8. Rebel Penguin Federation [120.7] (June 14th)

9. Ice Warriors [115.50] (December 20th) 

10. Rebel Penguin Federation [113.28] (August 2nd)

Quick Facts:

• RPF retained first for 75% of the league
• RPF was first for 20 straight weeks (May to October)
• IW, RPF, and ACP combined made every top 5 except one.
• The Pirates were 11th, despite only making three top tens
• Only two other armies made the top 5 other than the main top 7 (Elites and Pirates)
• IW’s 4 week streak at 1st to end the year was the second biggest streak
• Top ten consisted of 5 CPO Armies, 4 CPR armies, and 1 army that started after the unifications (Water Ninjas)
• Water Ninjas are the only colony to ever place within the top 10 of the year
• One third of RPF’s first place scores finished in the top 10 scores of the year
• Despite having the third highest score of the year, IW did not finish first that week.
• ACP and RPF are the only armies to make every single top 5 with IW narrowly missing out.
• 9/10 top scores occurred around the summer, with the Ice Warriors in December being the only one outside of that timeframe.

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So now, moving onto the top ten for the CPO side. The CPO community experienced the greatest boom as it was filled with multiple armies such as Dark Warriors, Ice Warriors, Doritos, and Pirates who exceeded sizes of 100. This community also experienced the revival of many legendary armies alongside those already mentioned such as Light Troops, Golds, and SWAT, while other news armies such as Aliens, Royals and Crimson Guardians held their own within the rankings. Here are the rankings for the Top Ten CPO Armies of 2020 (before CPO closed):

The Top Ten CPO Armies of 2020’s CPO Community

(This ranking only included CPO armies from January 1st to May 15th. Top tens from January 5th to May 10th) 

 1. Pirates [145]

2. Doritos [144]

3. Ice Warriors [114]

 4. Dark Warriors [108]

5. Aliens [78]

 6. Templars [62]

7. Redemption Force [61]

8. Royals [54]

9. Light Troops [43]

10. Crimson Guardians [42]

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Close to Top Ten:

11. Golds [35]

12. Instrumentalists [25]

13T. Sky Troops [24]

13T. Special Weapons and Tactics [24]

13T. Adventurers [24]

Click here to see the calculations!

The big four armies make up the top 4, with Pirates barely beating the Doritos by a point. After IW and DW, the Aliens, who had a strong start at the beginning of the year, grab the 5th spot. The next three armies, Templars, Redemption Force, and Royals, are all armies that each dominated their own time throughout the year. The Light Troops take the next spot behind a very strong April. Finally, Crimson Guardians, a very strong S/M army, rounds up the top 10.

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Lastly, the top ten for the CPR community. The CPR community primarily consisted of three behemoths: RPF, ACP, and Help Force. These three armies dominated the rankings with only one of them ever falling out of the top three. Moving on from those three, CPR also had many other armies find success within the rankings as Os Masarados, Pizza Federation and People’s Imperial Confederation held spots on the ranking. Other historic armies were brought back for another run such as Chaos, Romans, Lime Green Army, and Pretzels. Overall, the CPR community had a mix of newer CPPS armies and older Disney CP armies. Here are the Top Ten Armies for the CPR community:

The Top Ten CPR Armies of 2020’s CPR Community

(This ranking only included CPR armies from January 1st to May 15th. Top tens from January 5th to May 10th. Top Tens for the week of February 2nd and February 9th were voided due to have no reliable record.) 

 1. Rebel Penguin Federation [168]

2. Army of Club Penguin [152]

3. Help Force [133]

 4. Os Mascarados [64]

5. Romans [39]

 6. Pizza Federation [34]

7. People’s Imperial Confederation [33]

8. Lime Green Army [31]

9. Chaos [24]

10. Elite Guardians of Club Penguin [20]

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Close to Top Ten:

11. Pretzels [18]

12. Golden Guardians [15]

13. PetaSWATCP [14]

14. Recon Federation of Club Penguin [12]

15. Poke Warriors Army [11]

Click here to see the calculations!

Unsurprisingly, the top 3 is dominated by the big 3 CPR armies: RPF, ACP, and HF, with nobody coming even close. OM, one of the only Portuguese armies, was able to snag the 4th place spot. Romans, LGA, and Chaos, all very respectable armies from the Disney era, were able to fill out the top ten with each army having a successful stint on CPR. Finally, notable CPPS armies PZF, PIC, and EGCP rounded off the top ten, with PZF and PIC being consistent for a good period of time, even facing each other in the finals of a tournament this past year.

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So with that, this concludes this year’s edition of Top Ten Armies of the Year. This year has been a roller coaster of a ride with many ups and downs, but we made it. This year has gone down in history and you the viewer is a part of it. With flash shutting down, we do not know what is in store for the future of this community, however I do know that we have shown that we can succeed on whatever platform it is. A special thanks to everybody who was involved with this project (Lucifer, Max, Sophie, Funks, Mehakk, Super, Spotty, Caramel, 44Griffman) who helped me compile all the data from this year for me to analyze. With the communities being split, this project was tricky at first, however we believe we found the best way to present this year in statistics. Thank you everybody, and see you next year where, hopefully, we go the whole year with a unified community.

What do YOU think about the Top Ten of the Year? Will Rebel Penguin Federation continue their dominance into 2021? Or another army overtake their dominance next year? Will 2021 hold the success 2020 did? Comment with YOUR opinions below!

Orange

CP Army Hub Vice President

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