Some of you might not be aware that you can run your own events - you don't need to wait for one to be announced, you can take the initiative! These can be PvP, minigames, Carnival runs, races and more. And we've got something to sweeten the deal for you.

For all of September, anyone who chooses to run their own event will see the rewards doubled - that's free Merit Points and Vouchers for you! Plus, courtesy of the Horseman of Death, you will also receive bonus Horsemen Points! If you need a reminder on what these can be good for, I invite you to read the wiki's page on our virtual currencies.

But, "How do I run an event?", you might be asking yourself? It's easy, since we've got templates ready to go!

1. Look through the set of templates and pick one that interests you.
2. Go post on the forums with the date, time and event type that you want to run.
3. Once confirmed, it will be posted on the website's calendar, in the news, plus in our Steam group to notify its followers.

That's it! There are four weekends in September, and you can pick any time of your choosing. Multiple events can happen during the same weekend if there's enough interest, as long as they don't overlap each other.

Note that building contests follow different guidelines.

Questions? Get in touch, we'll be happy to answer them!

The familiar lobby that you use to move between worlds has received a full overhaul! Gone is the stone box of waterfalls, in is a more varied landscape waiting to be explored! All world entry points have remained in their locations, so you get the advantages of an updated scenery without the confusion of having to find your way around.

On first join, players will automatically get two books: one describing the various wings of the lobby, the other offering a summary of our Survival worlds. These will hopefully be useful to newcomers as they learn what we have to offer.

Have fun exploring!

I hope everyone enjoyed their experience of exploring and mining the new materials added in 1.17! With the interest level in Tasmantis calming down, it's time to retire it. This will happen on Monday next week; this gives you a full week left to go gather any materials you want from there!

A special message from Groovy!

The Brixton Estate building contest has wrapped up, and it's time to look at the winners! Without further delay:

1st Place: NicDaKermit
2nd Place: AlexTheTrain
3rd Place: Exodio

Your prizes have been placed outside the front door of all builds. Remember that every participant could earn a little something, so be sure to make the detour to claim your goodies! Tokens can be traded at the vendor next to the Nether portal.

See the contest results page for the full list of entries. Due to the difficulty of taking nice looking screenshots inside smaller builds, only the winning entries have visuals. To better appreciate all entries, go visit the Estate in-game!

The Brixton Estate area is now available once again for general building. Anyone looking to claim another house is welcome to do so, along with previous participants wanting to bring their entry further. Thanks to Twixxi for running another fun event, and congrats to all participants!

After a few days of downtime, the Games section of the lobby is back online! Fans of Parkour, PvP, TNT Tag and World 8, feel free to jump in right away.

With the higher amount of interest in Kenorland this month, mixed with the ongoing presence of the temporary world of Tasmantis, the physical server hosting us was getting overcrowded. This meant that players would have faced the dreaded "High server load" notification too often. To solve this, I have moved the minigames on a different platform entirely, helping you get where you want, when you want!

Kenorland: Grindatron

The popular Grindatron makes its return on Kenorland this month!

This world, accessible in Kenorland through the lobby, gives you the target of a different block or item to find every 4 hours. Find the item in the required quantity, return it to the enderchest located at spawn (0, 0), and you're done!

The catch is, you have a limited amount of energy to complete the objective, so you need to manage your resources to complete this in an efficient manner. Each goal completed gives you a Merit Point, making this a great way to quickly build up a supply of them!

Changes since last time:

• The items from both 1.16 and 1.17 have been added to the rotation, get that blackstone and copper ready!
• The odds of getting some targets have been rebalanced, including lowering the rates of coral and music discs.
• The difficulty for the first several days has been lowered; the challenge will now ramp up to the 10th day of the month.

For the full details on how this works, see the guide on the challenges page. Anyone can enter at any time, there is no direct competition, each target you complete is worth one Merit Point!

Science

Have you ever seen a dressed Rancor? No? Well, Captain Underpants tried to change that, and it didn't go well. Go calm both of them down at the Hunter's Lodge, all month long!

All Horsemen Quests have also been updated. See the Horseman Points Guide for an indepth look at the quests, points, and how to cash them in!

Guilds

After a mad rush last month, where the titles of Grand Masters were claimed surprisingly quickly, we're back to the regular rotation of monthly targets in all four guilds!

New apprentices, you start in Laurasia's Guild in Central, then gather points to work your way up to Rodinia, Superia, then Gondwana. Everyone else, all four guildhalls are now available to you, should you have unlocked the access.

Once you have been granted the rank of Master, you can obtain Council Tokens from the Master Guilds in Gondwana. These can be traded for special rewards back at the Council Chamber, at the Creeper Citadel. Each guild on each world also has its own range of rewards, so browse through to find what catches your eye!

If you need details on any of these, the wiki page about the Monthly Challenges is updated as soon as each of these is ready at the beginning of the month!