Motivation
I started playing Minecraft a pretty long time ago, before any custom servers existed. Back then only a few hackers could fly (and we usually banned them on sight), everything was built by hand, and we only had two ranks - "op" and "not op". To be honest, I kinda miss the simplicity of those days. So, to bring back some of the charm of building by hand, I'd like to suggest a contest that promotes building by hand, without assistance from any hacks or commands, in a limited amount of time.
Organization
I'd like to organize the contest as a tournament, with two players facing off at a time. This would start with 16 (or 32, if there is enough interest) contestants, matched up by timezones/availability or on random. One player will be victorious in each match, so the total number of players will be halved each round (16 -> 8 -> 4 -> 2). Each match would last 15-30 minutes - shorter in low-level matches, and slightly longer in semi-finals/finals. Each match will have a different topic/subject, which will not be known to contestants in advance.
Building Rules
The building arenas are empty 32x32x32 cubes, placed side-by-side. No flying, speeding, building commands (with exception for /bind, /grass, /lava, /water, and /solid). When the topic/subject is revealed, timer is started and building can begin. When the timer is up, the map is locked and building stops.
Judging
Prizes
Also not sure about the prizes yet. I can provide a globally customized name to the first-place winner (will show up to all fCraft servers). There may be more tangible prizes too, we'll need to figure it out.
Themes
Here are some theme ideas I've had so far (taking some inspiration from LEGO set themes )
- Wild West
- Medieval Times
- Prehistoric Times
- Videogames
- Military / War
- Space
- Ancient Civilizations (Egypt, Mayan, Babylon, Imperial China, etc)
- Racing
- City Scenes
- The Future