2 Builders 2 Tools

Community
Name:	2 Builders 2 Tools, or 2b2t
Date(s):	Dec 2010 -
Founder:	Hausemaster (sometimes spelled Housemaster)
Type:	Survival Minecraft server
Fandom:	Minecraft, Video Games
URL:
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2 Builders 2 Tools, or 2b2t, is a survival mode anarchy server located in the game Minecraft. It is credited as being one of the oldest Minecraft servers, and possibly the oldest anarchist server in the game. An "anarchy server" in Minecraft is a server that has little to no rules. This means players are free to use cheats, hacks, and exploits, and there is no outside moderation. Or, if there is some outside moderation, the actions and decisions of the host/moderator(s) are tyrannical and not up for debate. 2b2t's only form of moderation comes from its host, Hausemaster, occasionally removing things from the game that cause server lag, such as extremely large dup stashes (chests full of items that have been duplicated using an exploit), or places that cause mass-banning of players (such as furnace traps).

2b2t has never been reset since its initial creation in 2010. This in itself makes the landscape of the server full of decade-old builds, though due to the nature of the server builds are frequently griefed. Still, this server is chock full of history. There have been several in-game factions formed, secret bases constructed, wars held, landmarks created and destroyed, and some 2b2t players even document this long history through their YouTube channels.

2b2t has gained enough acclaim to have a Wikipedia article dedicated to it. Wikipedia says: "In October 2015, the server was reported to take up over 800 gigabytes of storage and cost $90 a month to maintain. As of July 2020, this has increased to 8,376 gigabytes from over 510,000 unique players, according to the server's owner." It also has a fan wiki, which contains several disclaimers on its front page regarding the wiki's content.

History

Hausemaster and the Beginning

Brendan Caldwell notes in an article that, before 2b2t was a Minecraft server, it was a Garry's Mod server. The 2b2t wiki goes more in depth, stating that the original 2b2t wasn't just for Garry's Mod, but rather a group on Steam that served as a parody to a group called 2f2f (2 Fort 2 Furious, a Team Fortress 2 server). 2b2t was thus a gaming group in general, with its first server being hosted out of Garry's Mod. Wikipedia says that Hausemaster was not the Minecraft 2b2t's initial creator, however the 2b2t wiki states that Hausemaster did indeed start the server, albeit with a second person named georgebush420.

Hausemaster themself is a mysterious hands-off figure in the community. Among some 2b2t players Hausemaster has become a somewhat mythical concept due to almost never interacting with their community and showing up rarely in game. They are thought to be Swedish based on the original location of the server, which has since been changed (likely with a VPN).

The Incursions and The Rusher War

FitMC separates the seven incursions into two groups: the Classic Incursions (1-3) and the Modern Incursions (4-7). The classic incursions occurred before YouTubers began making videos about the server. The modern incursions mark the beginning of the YouTube invasions, starting with TheCampingRusher's "Rusher War."

First Incursion: The Spawn Invasion occurred in Jun 2013 and is reported to have lasted one week. This Incursion is also called the Boredom Incursion or The Spawn Invasion. Valkyria, a large faction, became bored and one of their founders named Hindejd decided they should invade spawn. They settle at a nearby Facepunch Republic base called 2k2k, but due to players not all falling in line, this incursion is considered to have been a failure.

Second Incursion: The Second Invasion was in Aug 2013, not very long after the first. It was also called the Chaotic Incursion or the IGN Incursion. It lasted about two months. This one went better, with the groups Valkyria, Belegost, and Rhadamantis working together. Reportedly, new players were coming into the game due to a post on IGN, so old players were killing them all at spawn. Players would patrol spawn, killing any and all new players as they found them. Valkyria built roads and protected bases during this incursion. Afterwards, some players look back and see the killing of new players as being a bad idea, but also stated that the second incursion allowed them to rebuild Valkyria.

Third Incursion: The third incursion was in May 2015, and lasted one month. It's also called the Wrath Incursion. This Incursion is credited as happening due to players becoming frustrated and angry, especially after a popular base called Asgard II (also called A2) had been destroyed. This Incursion seemed to be mostly about Valkyria and their supporters killing anyone who opposed them. This was the first incursion to have a deadline, allow non-Valkyria players to help, and have a community build project, which ended up being Wrath Outpost, a famous obsidian build on the server. This was the most successful of the classic incursions.

Fourth Incursion, The Rusher War: In Jun 2016 a YouTuber named TheCampingRusher began uploading videos of the server onto his channel. This caused Rusher's viewers to begin joining the server en masse, upsetting the older players. Old players started to join forces, specifically under FitMC's "Team Veteran," to kill new players as soon as they'd arrive. A group of Team Rusher players formed an opposing faction called "The Resistance" to fight back in a more organized way, making older players extremely frustrated. The Resistance's base was ultimately raided and griefed. Crystal combat evolved during this war and remains a lethal way to fight in 2b2t in 2020. The leader of The Resistances, CorruptedUnicorn, switched sides last minute and fought his own faction during the final battle. Rusher fled the battle and the incursion ended, with the older players having won. Team Veteran dissolved

Fifth Incursion: A large duplication exploit became public and player Jared2013 randomly called an incursion. He only allowed his own friends to join in the incursion. They tried to build a large obsidian wall at spawn but, due to him only allowing friends in, they did not have enough members to accomplish his lofty goal. Groups that had formed out of the Fourth Incursion destroyed the wall, including the faction called Aurora, who used Withers to destroy it. Nothing match happened outside of this.

Sixth Incursion, The Great Unification: Apr 1, 2018. AntVenom made a 2b2t video with the blessing of the 2b2t community. The AntVenom fans flooding the server were called "Ants," and old 2b2t members were already prepared to fight them due to AntVenom having warned 2b2t first. This is the largest incursion, with 100s of players and several groups coming together to fight. Thebesandsound came on to help the community build a giant obsidian spawn wall, which was successful (unlike Jared2013's from the fifth incursion). This lasted one month and the old 2b2t players won. This is considered one of the greatest and most fun incursions, with FitMC describing it as a "celebration of its culture and players."

Seventh Incursion: Summer 2018. A French YouTuber named Fuze III made a 2b2t series, bringing in his fans without any warning. Jared2013 became one of the leaders of this incursion, but wanted even more power. He lied to new incursion members by claiming he was the true leader of the incursion, then would remove players who opposed him. He then began telling everyone that the other incursion leaders were trying to get rid of him and turn them all against each other. They gave full power to Jared2013 instead of fighting. The incursion ended up being a failure due to not enough players and poor leadership after Jared2013 took control. In the end, an Anti-Incursion faction crushed the seventh incursion.

In 2020 2b2t players avoid starting new incursions, mostly due to the failure (and possible embarrassment) that was the seventh incursion. Instead, they look back on them with nostalgia.

Other Incidents of Note

In May 2020 griefers began plugging up the Nether highways. The Nether highways are mostly-straight roads within the Nether used to quickly get from one part of the over world to the next, as one block in the Nether equals several in the over world. The Nether highways in 2b2t hold the world record for the longest Nether highways in Minecraft (according to FitMC). Each highway goes out 3.7 million blocks for a combined length 14.8 million blocks, not counting diagonal roads. The griefers plugged up the roads by spawning chunks of obsidian on them, forcing other players to have to slowly break the blocks to un-clog these well-traveled roads. Groups such as the Spawn Infrastructure Group and the Independent Interstate Society were some of the groups to help remove the undesired obsidian to re-store the roads.

Some large projects have been conducted by 2b2t players to hinder players at spawn. These include the Great Spawn Trench and the wall of lava surrounding spawn. Large projects like these often require massive amounts of free time or several players working together. Redstone contraptions and bombers (redstone machines making use of pistons to "fly" in the air) are often built to aid the players in construction (or de-construction). The Great Spawn Trench is a giant square trench surrounding spawn and is 16,000 blocks; 24,000,000 blocks were removed to reach bedrock. Thebesandsound ("the server's greatest civil engineer") began this project in mid 2018. Thebes was also responsible for starting the Southern Canal, along with the Southern Canal Corps who helped build it, and the Great Spawn Wall.

Community

The community within 2b2t mostly consists of factions, which often keep in contact through Discord. These factions are formed without any in game mechanics, such as those found on faction Minecraft servers. There is no ability to actually claim land.

The 2b2t fan wiki states of the community and sever that it was "also known as the world's worst Minecraft server." This may be partially due to the culture in-game, especially concerning the topic of antisemitism, the use of 4chan terms such as "newfag," and its "hostile player base." Even 2b2t YouTubers frequently have to blur out text from game footage in order to present it on YouTube due to the vulgarity of the chats. Despite this there are some parts of the community who do seem to be friendlier, such as the now-disbanded faction from 2013 called "Judge's Group," which would help new players. Other groups, such as the Spawn Infrastructure Group, actively seek to preserve and improve the infrastructure of the map rather than destroy or grief it.

Publicity is not usually welcomed within the community, based on the conditions that caused three of the in-game wars. However, not all 2b2t YouTubers/streamers are treated equally within the community. Though members looking back on YouTuber wars often place blame on said YouTubers and show distaste with the influx of new members, there is no such similar reaction towards YouTuber's whose sole subject on their channel is 2bt2. For example, while TheCampingRusher, AntVenom, and Fuze III may have made a handful of videos on the server, they soon moved on, unlike YouTubers such as FitMC, who has completely relied on 2bt2 videos for years. An outside perspective can assume that it's not necessarily content creators who cause issues within the community, but new content creators, as 2bt2 has shown a heavy emphasis on old players versus new players. This would explain any perceived bias against certain creators next to others.

Factions

Some factions are listed below. Note that not all factions exist anymore, being that factions can fall apart easily in 2b2t when faction bases are destroyed or factions deal with coups, wars, and merges.

• The Facepunch Republic- Founded in Apr 2011. The Facepunch War begins in late April when their base is attacked. Reportedly this faction went into decline in Jul 2011. The faction ends in Feb 2012, and "fully collapses" in Jun 2012.
• Judge's Group- founded in 2011. Judge's Group would aid new players, a sentiment not often seen in 2b2t, considering the Incursions. Disbanded in 2016.
• Hitlerwood- Founded in Feb 2013. This group was apparently formed out of old members from the Facepunch Republic. This group merged into Valkyria.
• Anatolia- Founded in 2013. They were "home of the Black Flag Group." This group caused issues with Valkyria. Anatolia's base was griefed and they disbanded in late 2013.
• Valkyria- Founded in Apr 2013. This group is credited as being "responsible for the first three Spawn Incursions." They also built a well known, popular base on the server called Asgard. The group disbanded in May 2015.
• Shenandoah- Founded in Oct 2013, then later known as "Legion of Shenandoah" in 2014. Founded by members of Valkyria and old Shenandoah. Friendly to both new and old players.
• Gape Group- Founded in Feb 2014. This group is named after a giant hole made by player Victor96. Members of Valkyria also helped form this group.
• Nerds Inc or The Tyranny- Founded in 2016. Said to be comprised of "some of 2b2t's most notorious griefers, PVPers, and nerds." FitMC, a 2b2t YouTuber, said this group's goal was to take control of the sever away from Hausemaster. Still around, but barely, in 2020.
• Team Veteran- Founded in 2016, during the Rusher War. The wiki states that this factions goal is to "eradicate famous YouTubers... from the server in order to decrease the amou of fans flooding the server..."

Links and Resources

Images

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  Timeline by Sato86, updated Mar 2020

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  Spawn from Feb 2020. Note the Spawn Wall, lava casts, roads, and obsidian swastikas.

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  A famous base that has, naturally, been griefed several times

Videos

• The Entire History Of 2bt2, I Guess
• I Survived 24 Hours in 2bt2
• 2bt2 is actually pretty easy
• 2b2t's History of Kings
• The Signs of 2b2t

Meta

• There's an alternative Minecraft server without any rules
• The Minecraft Server That Will Kill You 1,000 Times
• What Do You Consider "Spawn?"