Back in 2012, I used to play Minecraft almost everyday. I'd get home from school and instantly go to that, hopping from server to server. Eventually I landed on one I'd grow to love.

You see, I was really into the Hunger Games at the time, and had learned about the Survival Games maps. I looked for a good Hunger Games server passing through some small ones with ridiculous wait times and admins. I finally landed on one that I loved. US14, a part of the MCSG network.

Instantly on my first match I had made a friend named Oscar. You see, this was way before Hubs were common so it was just a bunch of servers with different matches. Because of this, a lot of people just stuck to one server and that really created a sense of community. Everyone would stay on one so you'd get to play matches with a bunch of people you've probably seen before. This is what I loved about it since Oscar and I eventually got a larger group going.

Various players we fought against would join up with us and we'd just goof around on the maps having a good time. We all sucked but at least we tried with our creative plans that'd ultimately lead to our demise. Maybe it had to do with my crappy 2012 computer, maybe it was the fact Oscar played Pokemon at the same time, but we were pretty awful. The community would change over the years, but we'd stick together. There was Stone, which was his actual name, who was a younger pervert who'd amaze us with his wicked imagination. There was Xero, who was laid back and eventually started to get really good and lead us into glory. There were also smaller guys who'd be in and off, but that was the main group.

One day however, Oscar stopped coming on. I didn't really notice at first because of course people take breaks, but then he just didn't come on ever. I gave up on him, he probably just moved away from Minecraft, but a part of me hoped he would log on just one last time. This proved to be something that'd later come back to bite me.

Eventually, my real life friend joined in with me. He slowly transitioned everybody else that I knew to Minecraft, and we'd all hang out after school playing MCSG together. We were the two who played it the most though, it was like we had an addiction. Id call him on the phone and play match after match for hours upon end. My friend even went found himself forming a new group.

Xero and Stone would stick around, the first moving towards being a professional and the latter towards being a hacker. However, there was a new band of losers in town. A girl named Elle joined us with her two other friends, acting as counterparts to our IRL group. Along with them came the angry Josh and then Bonnie and Johnny. It was the same dream as before, chilling down with MCSG and having a blast dying all the time. Only when we knocked out heads together did we have any success, including that one time there was the famous eight man team were we just went door to door sweeping players.

This was more than the last group, it felt so personal. Just a good videogame pastime were you talked to awesome people. But then, the unthinkable happened.

After transitioning through different lobbies, MCSG realized it was behind the times. There was something needing to be had, an easier way of running servers for those who just hopped through the numbers anyway. They introduced the hub. From this point on I realized that our little group was gone. There was no working friend system at the start. There was no way to get together. Thus started the downfall of MCSG, because it truly would never be the same. The main idea of small community servers had been destroyed and the only thing that was left was toxicity. Sure, it was like that before but I never really noticed it until I was removed from my group.

My IRL friend eventually made his own server were we'd hang out for a while, then play a couple of Survival Game matches. We never considered using Skype, even though my friend promised Elle that one day he'd do it. We looked around for them but it was ultimately useless. Once we stumbled upon Xero, but at that point he had moved past it all. Somehow through some miracle we got them back together on my friends server were tensions were rather high, but in the end, we still managed to have a good time. It only lasted so long, because that's what was meant to be. Minecraft was only a game, and you couldn't stick with a game forever. Life went on.

While we were the young ones, everybody else had to deal with the stress of highschool and some were even moving on to college. There was no time for Minecraft anymore. We'd all half to move on, but I didn't want to. I was young and naive and didn't really understand. Despite the parting of ways, everybody got off well. Even the ones who struggled at times managed to make the best of their lives. And while I'll never truly get to say goodbye, I can look back at MCSG one last time.

So here's to you MCSG, and while you died a sad death of popularity decay, I'll always remember you fondly and the memories you gave me. I just had to get this off my chest, and if you read all of this I thank you. Minecraft really did show me a whole new world of people and friends to make. And while life may push people forward, I'm sure Oscar is doing just fine.