New Year's Day War

* Antarctic Empire
	+ Big Boomer Train Station
	+ Port-aux-Francais

 Bean Empire
 Corvarian Empire
 Kingdom of Florida
 Inquisition

 Wispexe
 VoiceOverPete
 Sylvee
 Krinios
 SalC1
 TimeDeo
 LukeOrSomething
 Bitzel

 CharlieSH

The **New Year's Day War** is part of a series of political events and engagements during Day 41 between Ph1LzA, Wispexe, VoiceOverPete, Sylvee, SalC1, and the members Business Bay. It follows the Battle of the Bridges and Raid of Bean York City in The Great SMPEarth War.

## Cause

On Day 41, TimeDeo, TommyInnit, and LukeOrSomething of Business Bay flew over to Port-aux-Francais and placed images saying “TOMMY IS ANGRY” all around the palace. They were later joined by Bitzel as well.

Deo had ulterior motives as well as he wanted to kill Wispexe, for calling him bad at SkyBlock, and wanted to execute his plan while at the Antarctic Empire's capital. Tommy convinced him to abandon the idea, informing Deo that Wispexe has very good armor.

Seeing that they were nearby, VoiceOverPete invited the crew to see the Big Boomer Train Station and the castle that he was currently constructing nearby. Pete wanted to meet the latest recruits of Business Bay. Wispexe was also present and attacked Tommy, and Tommy to hit him back. Pete then intervened with an airstrike, which all parties present avoided. After a bit more fighting, Pete threw another airstrike into the area and accidentally killed himself.

## The War

### **The Airstrike Robbery**

After noticing that Pete's death, Deo immediately ran for Pete's stuff and escaped by jumping into the ocean. Tommy later rescued him up in a plane and set a course for their base in Business Bay.

In reaction to the robbery of Pete's items, Wisp threatened to blow up Business Bay and debated the next action with Pete. SalC1 of the Kingdom of Florida arrived at the situation to assist the Antarctic Empire.

### **The Business Raid**

The members of Business Bay retreated back to their homeland to figure out their next move and Tommy mentioned to Deo that he should "probably" return Pete's items. Tommy recalled that Technoblade never returned all his items following The Battle of the Bridges, which has left a sour taste in his mouth. Deo was not inclined to return to Pete's items back and decided that the Antarctic Empire could travel to Business Bay to retrieve them themselves.

Pete, Ph1lza (who had just logged on), Wisp, and Sal went to Business Bay to retrieve the stolen items. Sylvee, upon seeing Pete's death message, began to travel there as well to assist the Antarctic Empire in combat. She was reminded by Tommy of the recent neutrality established between the Bean Empire and Business Bay following the recent Raid of Bean York City and Treaty of Bean York, yet she argued that she was still an ally of the Antarctic Empire. She arrived fashionably late to Business Bay with the help of Krinios, as she lagged midway while flying over.

Wisp, as proclaimed earlier, began blowing up and destroying Business Bay. The Antarctic Empire slaughtered many of Business Bay's cows and released the rest. The Antarctic Empire then began pursuit of Deo who was still in possession of Pete's items. Tommy was prompted to fly to Port-aux-Francais and issue an ultimatum: if the Antarctic Empire killed Deo, Tommy would kill their villagers. The members of the Antarctic Empire were prepared to follow Tommy back to their base and threatened severe repercussions if he even stepped foot in their territory. Tommy returned and Deo was not killed.

### **The Armour(ed) Conference**

Sylvee, who was spectating the argument and battle, attempted to establish negotiations between the two factions. She eventually convinced them to agree and acted as an arbitrator in the discussion. She offered Deo a prot 4 set in return for Pete's stuff and promised that she would craft them for him within minutes of the discussion. Pete also made snide comments about Sylvee's gender and Tommy's age while the discussions continued as Deo was reluctant to return the items. Deo only returned a few of Pete's items and continuously refused to give back Pete's armour, which he was currently wearing. Sylvee even promised to give some of her armour in exchange for Pete's and began to remove them to give to Deo.

Tommy noticed that Sylvee had made herself vulnerable to attack and suggested with LukeOrSomething to Deo to attack Sylvee. Deo complied and quickly stabbed Sylvee three times, killing her and taking her items as well.

#### The Great Grief of Business Bay

In retaliation, the Antarctic Empire first killed a couple of cows as warning as to what's to come if they did not return Pete’s items. Eventually, they used an airstrike and later freed all of the remaining cows from their pens.

Still infuriated by Deo's actions, Wisp and Pete would set Business Bay's storage ablaze, burning\* the items in Business Bay's storage area.

\*Note: Fire griefing was prevented by the server's plugins, allowing the "burnt" items to remain intact. The items would despawn following the departure of the Antarctican party, and for the sake of simplicity, we're leaving it as "burnt."

Tommy then decided to reinstate his original ultimatum, to which he received no response.

### **The Dirty Armour Incident**

After negotiations broke down, Sylvee demanded that the members of Business Bay return her items. Tommy said that they would do so solely on the condition that the Bean Empire abandon their alliance with the Antarctic Empire. Sylvee initially agreed to the terms and received the majority of her items back.

Once she received her items, Sylvee quickly changed stances and declared Business Bay as an enemy of the Bean Empire. She reconvened with the members of the Antarctic Empire and prepared for an all-out attack. The battle was brief as both Tommy and Deo combat logged. Tommy and Deo claimed that it was late and that they both needed to sleep, which was considered to be a cowardly tactic by many who were present.

## Aftermath

Angered by Tommy and Deo's sudden activity change, the Antarctic Empire and its allies present begin destroying much of Business Bay. They begin to construct a trap for Tommy and Deo in the locations where they logged off as it would trigger when they log back on to the server. KaraCorvus logged on and realized that she slept through the entire battle and events. She quickly traveled to Business Bay after hearing that her Minecraft girlfriend, Sylvee, was murdered by members of Business Bay and assisted in the destruction of the faction's lands. Kara declares war on Business Bay and helped in the construction of the trap as well.

Chip, who had been spectating the most of the battle from far, convinced the Inquisition to aid Business Bay and attempt to diffuse the situation. InkTea, Grunk, Tempo, and RobTob successfully helped impede some of the destruction of the area and destroyed the traps created by the angered players. They even helped reconstruct parts that were destroyed.

Later, Deo eventually returned some of Pete's items claiming that he did not have the rest. Wisp apologized to Business Bay afterward and gave them a suit of diamond armour as well as other useful items as reparation for his actions.

Chip also had a discussion with the members of Business Bay, saying that they wer not going to intervene in the war but advised them to establish an official relationship with the members of the Inquisition. In response to the request, InkTea decided to leave the Inquisition and create a new faction called Gay Bay, now Log Lagoon, which acts as a protectorate of Business Bay.

On Day 42, SootCharlie of Kpop established an alliance with Business Bay and said that he will help the faction if the battle were to continue.

## Audience Reaction

Many fans on both sides of the war thought some of the actions went too far, particularly those of the Antarctic Empire. Fans have thought Deo stealing Pete’s stuff was BM since every time Tommy died by the hands of any members of the Antarctic Empire they always returned his items and killing Sylvee while she was busy taking off her armor to trade was also a bit ”toxic” and abusing planes by escaping with them every time they fought. People also thought Wisp and Pete were "toxic": the former for burning Business Bay, and the latter for initiating the war (though Timedeo played a huge role as well), his ageist comments to Tommy, and told jokes some thought was slightly sexist and uncalled for to Sylvee. Both Wisp and Tommy have mentioned that this is "just Minecraft" and they were very good friends outside of the server.

Wisp later gave a ”care package” to Business Bay to redeem his actions which made a lot of angry fans less mad towards him.

Technoblade later said he found Wisp and Deo's actions and reactions were a bit toxic and proceeded to call them both boomers.

## Trivia

* Bitzel of the Business Bay faction left right before Wave 2 started and came back just before Wave 4 began. He claimed that he had to go to eat dinner.
* Wave 4 ended in the late afternoon for the Americans of the server, but 1:30 AM for Tommy, this is probably the main reason people thought Tommy and Deo were being cowards for logging off.
* Most of Sylvee's items were returned, yet Sylvee's favorite pair of boots were not returned. The boots whereabouts are unknown.
* When admin Chip asked if Tommy wanted the admin to rollback Business Bay because Chip agreed the Antarctic Empire took it too far, Tommy stated: "No, this is all part of the game."
* During Day 42, the server was consistently down. Due to this, many players of SMPEarth decided to postpone the war and play on Hypixel instead.
* During the Antarctic Villager Ultimatum, it is speculated that Tommy's threat was an empty one as it was clear that he didn't want to kill the villagers.
* Even before Wisp started his cow massacre, Deo stated that he talked to Pete privately and Pete did not want his things back. On Day 43 , Deo said this again. He also claimed that he returned most of the items he got from Pete and the other half was burned. It is unknown whether the first claim is false, but the second is proven true as Pete only got back a chestplate and helmet.

## Gallery

Sylvee attempting to make the boys talk it out.Josh's 'God is always watching' sign changed following Tommy and Deo's combat log.Chip and RobTob rowing a boat on land in Business Bay; they are witnessing the destruction created with their own eyes.Signs placed by Kara condemning Business Bay for their actions against Sylvee.A pile of TNT being set off in Business Bay.