Anonymous_SoFar's sculpting contest is now open! You have up until next Saturday, December 6th, at 11:59pm to carefully remove blocks from your cube to give it a proper shape! For the details, please see the previous news post on the matter.

To access the contest area, travel to Central, visit the TransHub and enter the teleportation pad marked "Sculpting Contest".

At the time of this posting, there are only six lots left. Claim yours as soon as possible from Anon. Once they're gone, they're gone!

Some of you might not be aware that the Creeper's Lab is present on several social networks. These various mediums are a great way to stay in touch with the community, ask questions, share ideas, discover new things about the servers, and more! You can always find links to all of them in the right menu bar of the website.

Some of the managers of these accounts, myself included, are planning to make a better use of these networks by posting more content and being more active overall. As such, I strongly suggest that you follow any or all of the following, and share them with your friends!


Facebook
Our Facebook page, mostly ran by WindRider739, is a hot spot for the community. News are posted there, along with updates from the community members ("happy birthday!") and various announcements. Like, comment, share!


Instagram
Images, images, images. AshaLina posts Minecraft images on Instagram!


Tumblr
Our Tumblr account is full of screenshots, renders, stories and links about what we do on the servers, and managed to attract several new players. I will happily reblog anything appropriate posted using the "#creeper's lab" tag, so get posting and tagging what you did! I also answer posted questions whenever I receive them!


Twitch
A few of our members stream their playtime from time to time, along with special events. Our podcast sessions are also streamed live on Twitch before being made available for later viewing.


Twitter
Our Twitter account automatically includes notifications on new Facebook and Twitch posts alongside quick tidbits of info. Unplanned downtime notifications will also be posted there, such as a server crashing while being unable to restart it for several hours.


YouTube
Videos, videos, videos. Our account gets Twitch highlights once in a blue moon, along with varied presentations. We're currently looking for someone to make semi-regular posts over there. If you are interested, please send me a sample of your previous work.


NEW: Reddit
A subreddit for the Creeper's Lab community is now available! You can use that space to post build ideas, screenshots, share ideas, ask questions, and more! I will be moderating the place.


NEW: Steam
We now have a Steam group for the Creeper's Lab, managed by MagicMarker101! This is the place where members will be able to find each other for online gaming, see what others are currently enjoying, along with a calendar of upcoming events. It provides reminders!


Forums
As always, don't forget about our very own forums! Myself and others frequently post there to share thoughts, screenshots or general Minecraft news. I sometimes float ideas there first before taking decisions or making front page announcements. The forums are also a nice place to exchange with other people from the community about other topics than just Minecraft!



All of us are opened to suggestions, comments and feedback. These social media accounts are there for YOU, so be sure to make yourself heard... and to follow them!

The Raw Survival server has been updated to Minecraft 1.8.1. While this version is compatible with 1.8, I highly suggest that you upgrade to benefit from the multiple bug fixes!

Anonymous_SoFar has a new challenge for you, the likes of which haven't been done on the Creeper's Lab before. The goal: sculpting a box of material to get the nicest result possible!

You can claim a lot and base material NOW by contacting Anon, and you have up until next Saturday (the 29th) to do so. The contest proper will launch on that day, and you will have one week to complete your sculpting work. This means that you have up until December 6th at 11:59pm to complete your sculpture!

Full details below, courtesy of Anon!

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Description

You are given a 15X15X15 solid block of material. You are to sculpt what you like out of this block, but be careful as block placement is denied, so Diamond picks are not recommended. The contest will take a period of two weeks, the first week will be preparations and the second the sculpting.

Prep week will basically be choosing a lot and asking me what material, out of the list below, you'd like to use; I'll make the block for you then wait. (This is just so I can place the blocks before we deny block placement.)

The second week is the sculpting portions, it is highly recommend that you take time during prep week to think of something you'd like to sculpt; time is precious.

In the TransHub in Central, there will be a pad to teleport you to the contest area; this will also enable flight for you so you can reach the top of your block. The exit of the area is next to the entrance, which disables flight on exiting. The contest area is sealed so you can't escape!

Along with this being a new and challenging contest, I have a new set of rewards as well! The top three winners of the contest have a choice of one of three rewards. These are are a Materials Chest (full of iron, gold, diamond, etc.), an Enchanting chest (Bottle o'enchanting, lapis, books, etc.), or a Mystery Chest!

The lots and base material are on a first come first serve basis. List of material are:

4 lots of Stone
4 lots of sandstone
2 of Ice
2 snow

There are 16 available lots available. Once the material is chosen it is gone, so plase dont complain that you didn't get what you wanted!

Picks and shovels will be provided for the contest, ranging from wood to iron (depending on the material and how confident you feel in your aim).


Rules

- You can only remove blocks from the material
- Flight is on during the competition, only in the special area
- No tampering with other people's builds


The way winners will be determined is just on originality, use of the block, use of the small area, etc.

Have fun and enjoy the contest!

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Once again, to claim a lot and material, contact Anon during this week. You can reach him via Skype (if you have his name), message him on the server or on IRC whenever he's online. Alternatively, you can reach out to UnknownEntity634 or MediaKlepto.

Our second podcast session, hosted by Mikey, is scheduled to take place next Wednesday evening. It will be streamed live to the audience, then made available for download afterwards.

This session will begin a new segment that we're hoping to include each time: an highlight of one of the multiple attractions available on the server, most notably during Events Nights. The attraction and its location will be introduced during the show itself, then a mini-tournament will be streamed after its conclusion. You might want to read on the forums Mikey's post about all this!

For those who have missed the first podcast, you can listen to it here.

I hope that many of you will be joining us next week!

First things first, I'd like to remind everyone that we have the Race to Survive event planned this Saturday, at 9pm Eastern Time! For the full details, please see my previous news post about it. Remember that we need at least 10 participants to make this happen, so tell your friends!


Teleporters network reorganization

While on the topic of Events Night, the network of teleporters, including the End of Time, has been completely reorganized. The new setup has the events spread out over different hubs, sorted by categories. This will ensure that we don't run out of spots to add later activities! All the current destinations have moved around, so you'll have to take a look around and get familiarized with them.

Anyone is welcomed to build new attractions! Once you have a complete project, it'll be linked to the network for quick access during later Events Nights.

It is true! As of today, the Creeper's Lab is three years old! Our first server launched on 2011-11-11 and has been running ever since without a single map reset. Several things happened in the past year, most notably:

- The addition of new worlds!
- Multiple contests and events!
- A new website design!
- The launch of the Raw server!

I'd like to take this occasion to thank everyone who's currently playing with us, with a special mention to those who joined early on and are still around to this day. The place wouldn't be the same without you all!

As a comparison for those of you who haven't been with us for too long, here is how the server's spawn point looked on launch day, compared to a render of the same area today. You can click on that second image to get a full HD version!





Here's to more years of mining and crafting!

Do you have the will and strength to endure and survive another event?

Skreelink is back with a new proposition to entertain you! The Race to Survive event is made of two major parts spread out in multiple locations on the server.

The first will involve players fighting predetermined sets of mobs at the Wither Lounge. Kill the beasts, get spoils and earn points to move up to the next round! The second part will involve RACING! Then, to wrap things up, a special bonus round that remains to be announced...

Due to how the event is setup and to make things as fun as possible, at least 10 players are required to participate! If that minimum isn't reached, the event will be postponed to another day.

There are multiple prizes available to be earned, but those are being kept under wraps as a surprise! All I'll tell you is that this should be well worth your time and efforts. There are enough ways to earn items that most players should be able to come back with at least something.

This event will take place next week, on November 15. Due to its extra length, we're planning to start shortly after the launch of Events Night at 9pm (Eastern time). Again, if the required minimum to 10 players isn't reached, the event will be delayed to another evening.

We hope to see you there!

Several people braved the madness to score pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns! Skreelink gathered the most, with 36 pumpkins and 11 jack-o-lanterns!

After a small prize was handed out to everyone present, something surprising happening, which caused many players to suddenly and unexpectedly suffer a case of death. While things calmed down after a little while, the rumor says that THEY might return to haunt us some day...

I hope that you enjoyed our special Halloween event!

- Raffle!

The following 9 people won the raffle, which took place shortly after midnight: ElizherTheGreat, Henry_Jaime, HimochiKouen, MagicMarker101, SerenityBlack, SexyGarcia, Sphenicus, starfyredragon, UnityEXE and WindRider739!

Additionally, Sphenicus won the large prize consisting of even more items!

Those of you who weren't online when the winners were announced have had their items delivered to the post office in Nether Central. If you didn't have a PO box, one was created for you!