Skreelink, Master of the Withers, has decided to organize an event featuring the fearsome beasts!

The Wither Waltz involves two withers being spawned at the same time in the Spider Dome. All contestants will be locked in the arena beforehand, to attempt to take down both monsters without being killed themselves. If you, as a fighter, get killed: you're out of the fight. You only get one chance at this, so prepare yourself accordingly!

You're invited at the Spider Dome, which is easily reachable through the End of Time. The event will start this Saturday, during Events Night, at 10pm (Eastern time). Be sure to get there 10-15 minutes early to prepare yourself! This happening also has prizes for EVERYONE, so you won't come out empty handed!

The rest of this news item comes from Skreelink himself, with a few clarifications added.

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Rules, everyone loves rules:

1: No smite swords, weapons checked at door. No need to make it easier, you'll have friends to rely on!
2: Any armor is fine.
3: If you die, you're out. Head up to the observation deck.
4: No attacking from outside the room. Since everyone should be inside already, not too big a problem.
5: No splash potions, don't wanna hurt our friends, eh? Friendly competition.
6: Helpers and ops ARE allowed to play.
7: No late entries! Once the doors are closed, no other participants.
8: Have fun, is a game!

Now, let's talk prizes... often popular in events! This is run as a last man standing game.

1st place: One of the nether stars and enough iron for a beacon pyramid.
2nd place: A diamond block.
3rd place: 10 iron blocks and a Skreelink head.
All participants: One diamond for trying.

In the event of a tie (multiple survivors): Myself (Skreelink) and already 'out' players will judge who gave the final blow for first place (logs will be checked if confirmation is needed), all other survivors get a diamond block to match 2nd place. Players CAN 'back down' if chosen for first, and simply accept a diamond block of course if they may already have beacons, or know another player really wants one.

If all players are killed and withers survive: Prizes will be issued on the last man standing rules, last killed of course is 1st place. Then, FREE FOR ALL. Rules are done, allowed to shoot wither between the cobble fences, pull out the wither swords and rush it, etc. until the remaining wither (or witherS!) are dead. If it seems to get out of hand, and the players cannot kill the withers, I will request them to be op terminated for safety reasons.... But we should have faith in the fighting ability of our PvP hardened fighters eh?

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Who will win? Our brave warriors, or the wild withers? We will find out this coming Saturday!

Cha0sQc has prepared a challenge for all players!

Found at his place and running for the next two weeks and a half, you're invited to compete for the fastest running time. The three top winners get to win prizes! To get there, from Nether Central Station, take the Western line to the second station ("Salad Facts"). Then, continue on the High Tor Castle line and go through the "Maze" Nether portal.

Details below, as provided by Cha0sQc himself!

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Try out ChaosQc (Maze & Puzzle) before August 15th and win some prizes. You will need to advise him so he can open the front door for you, and stand-by to help you in case of support... for a price of course ! ;b
TRY TO ARRIVE AT => 20:00 Hours (in-game) so you can sleep in a bed, and in-case of an accident you can respond back in the game.
Also wear your best armor, you may need it.

1st Place - Enchanted Diamond Sword (With special skills of "Bane of Arthropodes IV & more") + Enchanted Pick.
2nd Place - 8 or more Potions with Enchanted Books
3rd Place - Hammertoe's Head - LOL

Depending on the players Skill the puzzle can last from 25 minutes to over 1 hours or more, depending on your penalties and skills.

Example;
- Sickness did it in 25 minutes (He tested it out for me, but he will not be counting in this contest.
- Ashalina time was 1 hr & 53 minutes, counting the penalties of moving forward and dying, she also will not count in the contest, and was nice to test my MAZE, Thank-You.
- PS; since she tested my Maze /Puzzle I have simplified a certain "PART" just a bit... "I'm not saying" but I did not want to make it to simple.... :-)

Here are the RULES;

Rule # 1 -> Get ready and change your batteries, do not eat at the same time and blame it on sticky or wet fingers, or blame it on "Lag" your time will still be counting.
(Looks like he had those excuses already from Media... and he is still on Part #1 of the Maze after 20 minutes - LOL)

Rule # 2 -> If you get stuck and can't figure out a way to get out of a certain Part of the Maze/Puzzle, you can ask for a FREE pass, it will cost you 10 minutes.
(You can ask for a free PASS at 10 minutes only once, the next one's will cost you 15 minutes then 20 minutes the next one then 25 minutes the next one, and so on, you get the idea.
(You cannot ask for a FREE PASS for the first Part, sorry you have to go through this one, and I have not changed it since "Sickness got through it in less the 3 minutes" so I know it can be done.)

Rule # 3 -> If you "DIE" there is a 15 minute penalty, I will stop the time and bring you back to the same spot you where, then start the time again.

Rule # 4 -> If you need to go somewhere I can stop the time till you decide to continue from the same spot you where at that time, but try to plan ahead please.
(This option is good only once... then I add 30 minutes as a penalty)

Now, how to access the "Maze/Puzzle", easily. You can go to the Nether Central Station and head towards High Thor Castle it should take you under 3 minutes, don't forget to bring a Cart! Once at High Thor Castle, there are 2 Portals, the first one belongs to Doorgunners that is not the right one. It will be indicated where to go for the MAZE/Puzzle - Chaos Qc on your right, which is just 10 blocks away. That 2nd Portal will take you directly in-front of my Maze/Puzzle, where I will be waiting for you.

Hope you enjoy it, it took over 2 weeks to build and I threw in many different brain teasers... hahaha.

Here is the only clue I will give you, don't rush through it, take time and try to decipher and decode all the clues written in the game, it will make it easier. But for this you have to make sure you looked around every corner.

When you see me in the game, advise me that you want to run the GAME!

PS; If this is a success I have many more idea, and if the demand is there I will build a 2nd one, which I already have many idea's..

- Cha0sQc

With 35 entrants tonight and 10 lots to be won, the odds were good for our players! The following have won a box full of goodies!

• AlphaSniper828
• AshaLina
• Dark_Fact
• JVVL
• MagicMarker101
• nikkehammerfist
• rpetersen
• SoratheEliteOne
• TenacArmy
• Cha0sQc (big prize)

Congratulations to everyone! For those that haven't received their goodies directly, they have been delivered to your mailbox in Nether Central. One has been created for rpetersen, while Cha0sQc will find his items in a temporary doublechest on the middle floor.

Also, don't miss the building contest, which just launched!

People love building contests, but those often take a while to prepare. As such, I'm trying today something new: smaller-scale contests!

This special challenge has you working in a limited, 10x10 space to create an element of a botanical garden. What will you do? A floral arrangement? A nice fountain? A water display? Benches to take a break? Something else entirely? The choice is yours!

The contest area is Central's Seasonal Park, in the Residential District, located in the north side of the city. To get there, walk the paths heading north or use the Residential Line from underground in Grand Central Station.


* RULES *

Pick a lot, put your name on it (on the outside border is fine too), and get building! Due to the nature of the park, you own the lot from sky limit down to *5* blocks underground. Your working area is defined by the 10x10 grass square you've selected. Tree leaves can overhang in the pathways as long as they're not in the way, but be reasonable on this front.

Due to this contest being designed to fit within the park, only 20 lots are available for the taking. Once all places are taken, that's it, so be sure to head there early! One lot by person only.

UPDATE: All 20 lots have been claimed, that was fast!

The contest begins NOW and ends in two weeks, that is on August 2, 2014 at 23:59pm, Eastern Time.


* PRIZES *

Of course, what would a contest be without prizes? As this event is smaller in scale, so are the prizes. They might not be as impressive, but they definitely have a value for many of the players! Besides, you can always claim bragging rights!

- First place: Enchanted diamond sword, specialized for Wither Skeleton kills
- Second place: A set of potions geared toward PvP + a Dr. Cossack head
- Third place: Two enderchests for the careful explorer and builder!

Judging will take place after the contest period is over. The judges will go around and give a score out of ten on each entry. Evaluation criterias will be adhesion to the theme (botanical garden elements), overall quality of the build and best use of the space available.


The garden will remain on display afterwards, but might get temporarily swapped out for other events, such as Christmas time.

If this new formula is a success, smaller contests could be scheduled on a regular basis to cohabit with the larger-scale events we've done in the past. Comments on this are welcome, now and after the event!

You prefer the idea of larger contests, where you can go wild with your ideas? A new one is already in the planning stages, with more to follow, so stay tuned!

Some of you might be wondering what happens to the supplies of banned members. Are they burnt away? Sent to oblivion? Kept by the staff? Or are they simply forgotten away, left to rot in chests forever?

What actually happens is that the items are taken by a staff member and stored safely away. Once enough have been gathered, a raffle to redistribute the content among active players is organized... and that time is upon us! For this round, 10 chests of items are being prepared. They aren't all identical in content, but aim to have a similar value, and only focus on interesting items: there are no sticks or wheat seeds to be found!

To enter this raffle and get the chance to win, be sure to join us online or in chat next Events Night, this Saturday, between 9pm and midnight (Eastern time). You only need to show up during that period; you can leave whenever you want to. The winners will be determined shortly after midnight. Online winners will be able to claim their chest directly, while the rest will be delivered in the post office in Nether Central.

We haven't done such a raffle in a few months and we have acquired quite a bit of loot. As such, I highly suggest that you enter to win one of the 10 sets: the effort is definitely worth it!


A special announcement will also be made this Saturday, so join us in-game or keep an eye on this space for more information!

The dragon fight is popular, and everyone wants to have a shot at it! Unfortunately, my previous method to reset the End world broke when we updated to 1.7.9. I now have a better alternative!

Starting today, after the dragon is killed, the End will automatically reset 24 hours later. This allows more battles to happen without any manual action, while still opening a time window for those looking to gather some precious moon cheese and obsidian. If a player is in the End after the timer expires, the reset will be placed on hold until he leaves, so there's no danger of a sudden dragon appearance.

I'm happy to release today a brand new look for the website of the Creeper's Lab!

While the previous appearance of the website had some charm, I felt like it was overdue for a redesign, hopefully giving it a somewhat more professional appearance and a better structure. I've been slowly working on this for the past few months, leading to what you're seeing today. An additional motivation for this was to have a layout that would better support multiple servers in the future, with everything related to each one regrouped in easily noticed sections.

The information for each server is now color-coded. The Creeper's Lab, both as a website and a network, is keeping the green creeper beaker as its main logo. The survival server will adopt a new squid beaker along with a dark blue theme. The upcoming server, due to its expanded range of PvP and fighting options, will use a blaze beaker and a related orange color. These logos will appear in your Minecraft client's servers list, on each news item when viewed on the website, and in the right menu bar. That way, you can quickly identify which part of the Creeper's Lab is affected with a news update or some key information.

You can easily see a result of this in the right menu bar, where the IP address of the server is always visible along with the current server version and what versions of the Minecraft client are compatible with it. This will hopefully make it easier for new and current players to find their way around quickly.

Among some of the other changes on this new website:

• A new dropdown menu, which will work better with some web browsers.
• Links to all pages, including past contest results.
• Clarified rules with some extra information.
• And some other surprises!

As such, I invite you to click around, discover what's new, and reply to this news post with your comments! Also, be sure to report anything that might look wrong on your end. While I ran multiple tests over the last few weeks, it's possible that something escaped me! I want your feedback!