OPBlocks Lore

## OPBlocks

OPB Logo

OPBlocks is a Minecraft network which was originally created in 2015 as solely a prison server. It had four realms: Lollipop, Caramel, Chocolate & Bubblegum.

The server was owned by trkey who also owned lots of large Minecraft servers at the time, such as PrimeMC. It was managed by Amazing and gained a lot of its player base from resident Youtuber MrCrainer who regularly uploaded videos as part of a 'Candy Prison' series. The server had a lot of the features we still see today, such as, but not limited to its famous candy theme with factories and refineries. Many things were different, however! Ranks were candy themed (A-Z style) and each rank had its own mine. Each donator rank also had its own mine, lucky blocks were physical and pickaxes were tradeable. These are just some of the original features of OPB, many have changed since!

The server was going well thanks to the following of MrCrainer and some investment into the server, however, as trkey picked up ownership of more servers, OPBlocks began to be neglected and the player count started to fall. In early 2016, trkey announced that OPBlocks would be merging with PrimeMC due to having a 'tiny team'. This received massive backlash as the players of OPBlocks wanted to keep their server separate, as Prime did not have remotely similar prison content at all. Consequently, on 14th June 2016 trkey announced that OPBlocks would be made back into a separate server with a single realm 'Lollipop' called V2.

Controversially, donator ranks & perks which were transferred from original OPBlocks to Prime would later be **not** transferred back. Again, this led to more controversy and so every player received a $15 GiftCard, and everybody who had donated previously received the 'Veteran' tag and those who had spent over $75 received the 'Hoarder' rank. Release went well with the continued assistance of MrCrainer, and less than a month into release management changed from Amazing to Tuxx; who, 4 months later, announced the release of OPBlocks V3 on 8th December 2016.

During V3, management changed three times but ultimately ended back in the hands of Tuxx and CoolKish. During this version, they added back the original realm Bubblegum with new builds and YouTubers. The version lasted 4 months and came to a close due to not receiving any updates or changes for over a month. Management changed again as the server was handed back over to Amazing in March 2017, and by April he had taken on suggestions for V4 and announced its release. It came with a new donator rank, updates, new features and new resident YouTubers "BionicMC", "F1NN5TER" and "MutantMedicus". The server was also reduced back to one realm. Amazing also teased some future gamemodes such as Factions, KitPvP and Survival.

V4 lasted until October 2017, making it a fairly long season. Amazing announced V5 alongside a brand new YouTube series from MrCrainer which again boosted the player base massively. Then, in January 2018, OP Factions was announced. It raised a lot of hype and came alongside a big promised update for prison. After a few more Factions and Prisons updates, Amazing fell radio silent after March 2018 and stepped down from his Manager position. Resilience took over in early May, releasing his plans to reset Factions for V2 and Prison for V6, and announced the imminent release of a new Survival gamemode. Factions was reset in May 2018 and Prison shortly followed in June, with MrCrainer again making a series on both realms. There was still no sign of Survival.

Resilience announced the closure of Factions on June 17, 2018 due to lack of community interest (and rising toxicity). Mini updates for Prison followed until, in August, management changed again. This time, Aoros took over and announced the new V7 of Prisons to be released on December 8th, 2018. V7 was a new step for the server as it contained a new realm: Hardcore Prisons. OPBlocks had previously only ever been OP Prisons (as the name suggests). Two new YouTube partners joined: "Char" and "Guiltyy". Hardcore Prisons received negative community feedback and was removed on 4th January, 2019.

Aoros stayed as Manager until around March 2019, but after no updates for almost 3 months, management changed once again. This time, Affixes took over. He didn't announce a new version, rather, released some 'revamp updates' to V7 until he announced the release of V8 out of nowhere in April 2019. Hardcore Prisons was fully discontinued, and changes were made to the current donator ranks (see below).

Muncher, Gobbler, Chomper, Hoarder, Destroyer, Candy Prince, Candy Lord, Candy Warrior, Candy King, Candy Titan.
 * **After**

Muncher, Chomper, Destroyer, Candy Lord, Candy King, Candy Legend, (Then later in 2020) Candy Hero.

V8 had a few updates, but ultimately didn't last very long as V9 was announced on June 19th, 2019. Only 2 days later, Affixes would step down from Manager to be succeeded by KaosLord. He ran some community meetings, introduced the OPBlocks Bot to the Discord and updated the rules as things looked on the mend.

Until this point, OPB had a pretty volatile player count, with it massively increasing and decreasing based on resets and YouTubers due to constant changes of management and long periods of being left in the dark. The course of OPB history changed on the 8th of July, 2019, as Saito would buy OPBlocks from trkey and change its trajectory completely...

Saito brought with him an immense amount of work, providing updates, showing eagerness to learn about the community, investing money and time and showing that he cared. This was something the OPB community hadn't seen in over 2 years, if at all. A month after his arrival, Saito announced OPBlocks X (V10) on August 12th. Mass amounts of bugs were fixed, old features were brought back and it was a massive hit. Many old players returned, whilst many new ones stayed.

OPBlocks X was updated constantly, with Sumo, Fishing, Bosses and Boss Crafting, Spawners, Parties, Enchant Removal, Custom Titles and more being added over the course of its duration. KaosLord resigned from Manager on 29th September 2019. On the 16th October, the idea of a Skyblock server was brought up and Saito asked for potential themes. Skyblock Beta was announced for 23rd November. It received a lot of attention and updates, and with it being a new gamemode it became the priority for a while to make sure it was fully polished. Around this point, Saito formed a partnership with world famous Minecraft YouTuber JeromeASF, who would make videos and livestream on OPBlocks regularly, boosting player count significantly.

Prison didn't see an update until January 31st, 2020. The community understood that Skyblock was important to the playerbase and was why a Prison update was so delayed, and V11 received overwhelming amounts of support. It received a large update in early March which added lots of new features. OPB had been Managerless since the resignation of KaosLord, as Saito had been filling the role. On the 21st March 2020, urbanajlucas was announced as the new manager, somebody who had worked with Saito on his previous networks. He brought many new rule updates, introduced the current ticket system and hosted new special events, alongside admin Fugitive.

On the 31st March, Saito announced the return of the Caramel realm. It was introduced for Jerome to stream on as he felt it would be a nice option for players who prefer a calmer experience on the server to not have to deal with the mass influx of Jerome fans. The original realm became Lollipop. Caramel was launched on 3rd April, 2020.

On 13th May 2020, Saito announced that season lengths would be shortening from 6 months to 3 months, as it still stands currently. This came off the back of the Lollipop season being 4 months long at that time, and he felt it would be ready for a reset shortly. On the 23rd May, Fugitive was promoted to Manager. June 19th marked the release of V2 Skyblock after how successful V1 was, released with a brand new theme of Carnival. All builds and donator ranks were changed to reflect this: they were changed to the current ones you see today. Jerome would play and stream on this version, again bringing a massive influx of new players, holding an average of 200 concurrent over the weekend of release and maxing the player count during a Jerome stream.

Skyblock V2 was a massive success and on August 7th 2020, Saito announced the release of the newly revamped Lollipop realm: Milkyway. It was a space-candy hybrid theme and technically V12 of the 'original' Prison map, whilst Caramel was only in V1 of a 'new' map. "RKY" was the newest YouTuber to create content on OPBlocks, as he played the new Milkyway Prison. He brought many brand new members to the server, and got his own special "RKY Crate" in the store. Fugitive would resign from Manager on 14th August.

On the 28th September two resets were announced. Caramel would become CandyCorn Prison (V2), and Carnival would become Harvest Skyblock(V3), both inspired by Autumn/Fall to be released on October 3rd. urbanajlucas would step down from Manager on the 1st October, leaving no active managers. On 13th October, Saito announced two new donator ranks: he introduced CandyHero on Prisons and CircusDirector on Skyblock. Both are still the highest ranks to date.

Jerome returned to stream on the new CandyCorn Prison in mid November to bring some players back for the holiday season, meanwhilst Fugitive came back to Manager on the 15th of November. MilkyWay V13 was announced to be released on 12th December, 2020. After its release, there was a game breaking mechanic related to mob pouches being too frequent. Consequently, player data had to be wiped and the map was re-released on the 14th December.

Development went slightly quiet after a busy holiday period, until the next season of Skyblock (V4) was announced to be released on 6th February 2021 with the new theme of Evergreen! On 18th February 2021, SuperCoolMomo joined OPBlocks as a Co-Owner/Manager who was primarily in charge of feature creation and advertising as he was the person who linked OPBlocks with Jerome and RKY.

Shortly after his appointment, CandyCorn (V3) was announced to be released on 20th March with YouTubers RKY and TheAtlanticCraft creating content on it!

On December 13th 2021, Penguin became Manager. He became the first ever OPBlocks Manager to rise from Helper to Manager through the ranks.