By now, all of you that jumped to 1.12 must have noticed the new recipe notifications that appear in the corner of your screen. These exist to tell you that new crafting recipes are available based on your inventory, but many if not most of us don't need to be reminded that you can craft stairs, or sticks, and things like that.

To make these notifications go away, I've added a special button on the spawn platform of each world. Go there, press it, and you'll automatically be granted all recipes at once, permanently. Simple! Please note that this applies server-by-server, so you need to do it for each location that you play into.

After a long delay thanks to the temporary blindness of one such judge, the BOATS Contest results are finally in!

UE, Bob, and myself set out this weekend to score each of the 9 completed entries with between 1 to 10 points based on their creativity, use of materials, and their general design. After tallying up the scores, we have the following three winners:

First Place - Anonymous_SoFar
Second Place - Zixxter
Third Place - SorathePumpking

Congrats to our top placers, and thanks to everyone who took part! Most of the scores were very close, with half a point or less separating each entry. There were only 2 unfinished entries which sadly will be sunken when the rest of the completed vessels are moved to their permanent homes over the coming days. A full list of scores can be found along with screenshots of each entry on their own page right here.

For prizes, which will all be delivered inside Shulker Boxes, Anon has secured a replica of my own personal set of armor consisting of fully enchanted diamond armor and a haxor enchanted pumpkin along with 30 Merit Points. Zixx will receive a Loot III/Unb III/Infinity/Mending bow as well as 20 Merit Points. Finally, Sora has earned an Eff V/Unb III/Mending diamond pick coupled with Fortune III and Silk Touch books and 10 Merit Points. A full list of the current rankings for Merit Points can be found here on the forums.

Apologies for the wait, and thanks again to all the participants!

- Media

It's time for a new building contest! I'll let showrunner SorathePumpking describe the goals and rules to you.

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"Oh god no what's he doing now"

Well hey all you sacks of flesh and liquids, it's time for another building contest~
This one will be a bit different from the past, in that we want you to make more then one entry. Hell, you pretty much have to!
This way, everyone has as much of an equal shot at prizes as the best builders on the server, and with 4 WHOLE MONTHS to build, time won't be an issue! Naturally, with the ability to enter multiple times, we're running this thing on strict guidelines.

BE SURE TO READ THIS ENTIRE POST, TWICE IF YOU HAVE TO. YOU'VE BEEN WARNED~

This will be taking place in the magical socialist land of Lemuria; the deep, dark sanctuary of the Pumpkin army in the south of the world. The task will be to buildup the cities of Minetropolis, Halfway, and West Halfway, according to their existing themes; with the goal of filling up all the existing contest plots (Only one at a time, of course. Can't be too hasty).

The contest technically starts today, June 19th, with a 1-week period for gathering materials before anyone can start building. Feel free to look over the contest areas, pick your first plots ahead of time, and get a general feel for what you'll be doing!

Minetropolis, Halfway, and West Halfway can be reached by taking the 'Southern Line' rail from central, or taking the South Mainline nether rail, to substation 'Eden Bay'. Just follow the Pumpkins to the Lemuria Nether Hub~
Full contest details below:- read them to the T, each line will matter!

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Contest Description:
Build contest involving multiple entries under 3 zones: West Halfway with a Nether theme, Halfway with a Forest theme, Minetropolis with a city theme. The objective will be to create as many complete entries as possible, to gain as many points as possible.

Overall Running Time:
June 20th 2017 12am EST - October 31st 11:59pm EST
Gathering Time:
June 20th 2017 12am EST - June 26th 2017 11:59pm EST
Building Time:
June 27th 2017 12am EST - October 31st 11:59pm EST

Each Entry Requirements:
-Multiple entries allowed, and are encouraged.
-Free plots are designated by a fenced-in area, with a sign stating 'Unclaimed'. Refer to the following link for the general area of all contest plots: http://imgur.com/a/CCv6g
--If an area lacks a sign stating 'unclaimed' or 'claimed by X player', the area is not part of the contest. Builds found outside contest plots will be removed.
-Can only claim one plot at a time, and can only move onto a new plot when the first claimed plot has been declared 'finished for judging', at which time the plot is locked from editing - Plot must meet all criteria to be declared finished, which can be determined by contacting a judge to verify/lock the plot.
-Each entry must be fully furnished.
--Additional plots cannot be claimed by a player's alt.
-Must be 'visibly complete' to be announced complete (No obvious signs of continued construction)
-Each entry must fit within the plot bounds, within the boundaries of the existing fences (Fences will be removed at the end of the contest, and cannot be occupied until after the contest)
-Halfway builds must involve a tree in some aspect of the build
-West Halfway builds must involve fire/lava in some aspect of the build
-Minetropolis Skyscraper lots are limited to 3 per participant
-(While not a requirement, it is highly advised to do minimal work underground, as large cavities of earth are sporatically missing, and multiple tunnels run the vicinity of all areas. Suggestion is no more than 4 blocks down.)
-Each entry must be built to the scale of the player
-Each entry cannot use materials from the ban lists for the location (Halfway: No Obsidian, netherbrick, netherrack, netherwart, netherwart blocks, soulsand, fire or lava. West Halfway: No Oak/Birch logs or associated wood products ((Oak/birch planks, fences, ect)), no leaves or water. Minetropolis: No wooden doors or wooden door varients.)
-Terrain on each entry must still blend with surrounding plots
-For Skyscrapers only, existing builds in other locations can be utilized and moved to a plot within the city; as long as the building fits within the size of the given plots, meets the height restrictions, and fulfills all contest requirements once declared 'finished'.
-Each entry must be within reasonable size for each area; builds within Halfway and West halfway must not exceed 25 blocks tall (from the ground's surface), while entries in Minetropolis must meet a minimum height of Y=120, but not surpass Y=165.
--Any entry left idle (while unfinished) for a period of 3 weeks or more is subject to be removed in the event that the area has run out of plots, or the contest has ended. All materials on said plot are forfeit in these situations.
--We (the staff judges) do reserve the right to remove any particular entry for any reasons that may violate server or contest rules.

Judging Parameters:
Judging will take place on November 1st 2017 and onward, or after all (Residential) plots have been declared finished, and will be rated on a scale of 1-10 for the following fields:.
-Attention to Theme
-Overall Asethetical apperance
-creativity of available materials
-adherence to entry requirements
-scale correctness
-use of existing terrain in build
--Extra points may be awarded in each category on a Skyscraper entry (On a scale of 1-20).
At the end of the contest, the players with the most points gained across all areas, wins.

An additonal prize will be provided to all involved participants if all plots within the two Residential districts are filled before/as of the end of the contest.

Judge Panel:
Each judge will be able to enter a single build in any category, which will be voted on by the server community on the above specifications. (Judges can build additional entries toward the 100% completion reward, but only one will count for a reward)

JUDGES:
Minetrop:
Sora
Doc

West Halfway:
Itachi
Media
UE

Halfway:
Roxas
Himo
Kag


Top 3 Prizes:
-Each person in the top 3 can choose either a $50 amazon giftcard, a 3D printed statue of their minecraft skin, or an additional minecraft account, in addition to the below merit points:
--1st Place: Choice of one of the above prizes, and 50 merit points
--2nd Place: Choice of one of the above prizes, and 30 merit points
--3rd Place: Choice of one of the above prizes, and 15 merit points
-For filling all the Residential plots, all participants have the option of receiving a fully enchanted Pumpkin helmet, and enchanted diamond armor (One set per player, alts excluded)

Judge Rewards:
Top 3 placing judges will receive a free Patreon pledge to Creeperslab provided by Sora, of the $5 pledge level. (Other means of award will be worked out of the winner has already pledged or donated)

The set of survival and games servers have been updated to Minecraft 1.12 today, so be sure to update your game version for even more fun! All plugins and features have been migrated successfully to this new version and are available right away with no notable changes. As usual, please let me know if you notice something not behaving like it should.

As always, Takao with its modded setup will remain on 1.10.2. As a reminder, it was recently updated to run PixelMon 1.0.4, which fixes several issues that some of you faced previously. Nena's testing is now over and the server has been taken offline.

UPDATE: Parrots should now spawn in all existing jungles in Laurasia. Keep in mind that the spawn rate is low, so it could take some time before you can find some.

Those looking to try Minecraft 1.12 right away can now join the test server I've prepared on Nena! To make testing easier, you'll have to connect to it to a separate address in your launcher:

play.creeperslab.net:25598

You can also find a map of the world when the server is up using this address: http://play.creeperslab.net:8269/ .

Most plugins are there and available while I continue to run tests on some of them along with the permissions. The full 1.12 upgrade should happen soon if all goes well. In the meantime, if you find any issues or suspect that something isn't right, please let me know so I can look into it!

How confident are you in your legs?

For the seasonal event of June, you'll be tasked with a brand new challenge: Race Away! As far as you can! And leave others in the dust!

The challenge is to get to the highest X value, by heading East, on the Seasonal server. You're free to head in other directions, but your final score will be determined by your highest X coordinate alone! Brave this new landscape and see how far you can reach. There is no world border! As mentioned, the entire event takes place on the Seasonal server, available from Central's TransHub.

To keep people in a competitive spirit, a network-wide announcement will appear whenever someone crosses a new multiple of 5000 blocks. Keep an eye on the competition to make sure you stay at the front!

To add a bit of challenge, beds will NOT set your spawn point. If you die, you'll be sent back to the very beginning. Tread carefully! You can still use them to sleep, of course. Additionally, the Nether has been disabled for obvious reasons. Added: I completely forgot to mention, horses have been removed as well to even out the playing field.


Goal

Get to the highest X coordinate that you can on the Seasonal server. That's it! The top three people to make it the farthest will be the winners. If you die or backtrack, your highest position will be saved and used as the final result. The inventory in Seasonal is separate, so you can't bring anything: you'll have to craft your materials right on site.

The contest begins NOW and ends on the 30 June at 23:59, Eastern time!


Prizes

The top three winners will earn Merit Points based on their position: 50, 30 and 15 points respectively for the first, second and third place. Everyone who participates will get one as well.

This, alongside the new UHC map, is the last chance to get Merit Points for this cycle! The top three players on the leaderboard will be getting something, along with a random person chosen from the remaining entrants. This is still in reach of many people! To get an idea of the prizes available, you can look at last year's related news - most of the same items are available!