Venerable Minecraft server gets shuttered, before the old guard got back together to save it

pcgamer.com:

The world of Minecraft custom content is so large that it supports countless different ways of playing the game, from all-out anarchy to prescribed roleplay. And then there's things like Mineplex. First appearing in 2013 and subsequently becoming one of the most popular custom servers around, Mineplex's schtick is custom minigames and multiplayer maps and it was so big it used to set records for player numbers. That popularity had dwindled in recent years, however, until on May 16 an announcement was made out of the blue: Mineplex would be closing its doors.

Reaction was uniform sadness. «Rest in peace,» wrote nepnep20 on the Minecraft subreddit, «I was online the day they hit 34k players and set a world record». Limpdicklawyer, for it is they, said «Born to Mineplex, forced to Hypixel» (Hypixel is a hugely popular server on similar lines). «I know Mineplex has had issues but man,» said SomeRandomBear, «Watching a part of my childhood die here».

The issues referred to are the kind of cheating and hacking that are rife across most Minecraft custom servers, particularly old and popular ones. Nevertheless Mineplex remained popular enough to attract thousands of players a day, and received plenty of heartfelt tributes: I especially enjoyed this one setting the closure announcement to some footage and a clip from Changes by XXXTentacion.

But cometh the hour, cometh the old guard to save the day. The main mover is one Sam 'Samito' Dawahare, who is perhaps better-known as a recently retired Overwatch pro and streamer but spent some of his formative years as a streamer playing Minecraft and Mineplex, eventually becoming an admin on the latter. The announcement clearly caught Dawahare as off-guard as anyone else, but he decided