Spleef

Spleef is a competitive sport within Minecraft in which the goal is to be the last player standing. The name is a pun on the word grief as the game involves destroying blocks. The game can be played entirely in vanilla. Though the peak of its popularity was in Minecraft Classic, it has since made a comeback in Beta.

Objective
Typically, Spleef games take place in a stadium, or elevated surface which consists of a generally large platform of blocks, known as the Spleef block. The platform is usually surrounded by a building for people to spectate.

The goal is to destroy blocks on the platform near or under the opponent to cause them to fall, while avoiding suffering that fate yourself. Those who fall from the platform lose the round, and can fall into a pit, lava, or many other cruel fates designed by the stadium constructors. Creating blocks during the playing of Spleef is not usually allowed, except in variations. The time Spleef matches take depends on the size of the stadium.

In Beta, since blocks aren't instantly destroyed when clicked on, the Spleef block is typically an easy to destroy material. For example, some common Spleef blocks are netherrack, snow blocks, wool and dirt. More often than not, players are given tools to help destroy the blocks quicker. However, since the Creative mode in Beta 1.8 which allows instant block destruction, this isn't necessary unless the focus of the server is survival. In addition, several Spleef server owners intentionally have it set to survival mode to prevent people from cheating by using fly mode in order to discreetly hover over the stadium without falling.

Spleef can be played individually or in teams.

How it started
Spleef was actually started in Minecraft in 2009, in the server Maulrus's Baby Wat league, in Classic mode. After Notch posted about it on his Tumblr, it garnered much attention and became integrated into Minecraft culture.

Rules
Spleef has a few basic rules to ensure a fair experience without being too restricting, but as with many sports, rules vary greatly from one server to another.


 * Creating blocks between the game's start and end is forbidden.


 * Creating or destroying blocks after you have lost the round is not allowed.


 * The losers must replace the blocks that were deleted during the game after the round is over. (Optional, occasionally a script is used instead)

Making a Spleef Arena




Depending on the type of server you're running, and what version of Minecraft you're using (Classic, Beta) can give many possibilities and allow for different construction methods.

Designing a Minecraft Beta Spleef Arena
If you're using the Minecraft Vanilla server software, then designing and maintaining a stadium as a server operator can be fairly easy, and you have a variety of building options. For the actual arena surface, most basic arenas will use dirt, as it is easy to repair and can be destroyed almost instantly by shovels, making it a decent spleefing surface. Sometimes, stadium constructors will opt for another block, such as snow, glass, clay blocks, and sometimes even TNT, as it can be destroyed instantly by your hand and doesn't ignite when destroyed with most tools or your hand.

Walls surrounding the arena are usually made to prevent players from falling off the block, or evading gameplay. The walls can be made with hard to mine materials, such as Cobblestone, Brick, or even Obsidian. The arena building, or stadium could be made with a roof of glass depending on the biome the structure is located in, to prevent snow or rain from interfering with gameplay. Most of the time, arenas are surrounded with towers or buildings, or other elevated ground for spectators to watch the game.

The pit is usually just a stone pit below the arena, with a tunnel or stairway out for losers to ascend to the spectating level to watch the rest of the game. Alternatively, as another passive option for losers, a water pit can be added. Many stadium builders use a lava pit instead as a more intimidating consequence for losing, and to make playing the game a lot more fun. Chests are usually placed around the stadium and filled with shovels, and are also to let participants store their valuables so they don't lose them if they lose.

Designing a Minecraft Classic Spleef Arena
Ideally, the arena (or stadium) can be very large, more than 32 x 32 blocks in size. Walls made of any block can surround the arena, and usually some elevated ground around the arena is designed for spectators. The spleef block, or surface in which the game takes place on, is usually made with wool, but it can be made with any block. Stadium constructors typically use wool so they can incorporate colored wool and make a pattern or design for the surface. However, an elaborate design is not advisable, because after a game of spleef, the players will usually patch the surface with random blocks instead of maintaining the intended design.

It is important that the pit is constructed directly below the spleef surface, and the stairs or a tunnel is included to allow losers out. Although this is optional, most Spleef stadiums are designed with a glass roof to allow for Spectators, or losers that have climbed from the pit below, to view the game.

Spleef Videos
Several videos of Spleef matches can be seen here;


 * Seananners and Deadmau5 play a round of Spleef


 * A video displaying a typical Spleef arena, in addition to a match being played.


 * A video of Spleef showing the gameplay. (Classic)


 * A video of a Minecraft Classic 1-layer Spleef game.

Spleef Variations
There are a few variations on the rules of Spleef, to add variety and new challenges.

A few of the below stated variations can be seen, as well as some added extras.



Multilayer Spleef
Multilayer Spleef is played like any typical Spleef game, except below the first platform there is one or more other platforms that the player can fall onto. Players that fall through a layer can still destroy blocks on the layer above them to try and get players still on that layer to fall through. Players who fall through the very bottom layer lose.



No-Jumping Spleef
No Jumping Spleef is Spleef with a small twist: there is a ceiling over the Spleef arena, so participating players cannot jump. This can alter gameplay by making it easier for players to eliminate other players, by removing the advantage of jumping from gameplay. A further twist in No-Jumping Spleef is to design the playing area with 2 adjacent layers so players can't jump on the first layer, but they can jump again once they reach the second layer.



Maze Spleef
Maze Spleef is different in that mazes are placed on the spleefing area. Usually made on large Spleef arenas, this creates many new interesting gameplay aspects, such as pathfinding skills becoming a major factor. Most Spleef mazes are made with loops or more than one way to get to a point to help keep the game going. Maze pathways can also be either 2 blocks wide instead of 1 block, depending on the size of the arena, for faster-paced gameplay.

Reverse Spleef
This game mode only requires a large standard Spleef arena. The players stand inside the Spleef arena, however the only person who removes blocks is below, in the pit. This means that the floor is removed below the players feet. The winner is the last person standing, and is next to be in the pit. If you have a very large arena then you can alter the rules to allow anyone who falls in to the pit can also delete blocks.

TNT Spleef
In this version of Spleef, the player gets armor, and a flint and steel. the Spleef arena has TNT flooring, and has a pit underneath. Though it uses most of the regular Spleef rules, the winner is the last person alive or standing. This is slightly outdated due to not being able to ignite TNT as fast, but for survival servers, an exception occurs as a bug with Flint and Steel causes a hand-ignited TNT block (as in left clicking TNT). Also, as a variation, the losers must stay in the pit and avoid the TNT. If they die, they really lose and have to repair the stadium.

Dark Spleef
In this version of spleef, The arena has no light source at all, and the arena is made out of Black wool. Players will have to destroy the flooring and try to avoid unseen pitfalls made by other players to avoid a horrible death.

Triple Spleef
In this version of Spleef, there would be 3 floors. One floor would be wood or planks. The next floor would be snow or dirt. The last floor would be stone or cobblestone. The players will get three tools: A pick, an axe, and a shovel. They are forced to change tools in order to destroy the floor quickly.

Drowning Spleef
In this version of Spleef, the arena would be entirely underwater. Signs or ladders will be placed around the arena to give the players oxygen. They will try to break the floor with Diamond/Gold tools whilst trying not to drown.

Arrow Spleef
In this version of Spleef, the walls will be made out Dispensers with 9 stacks of 64 arrows in each. The objective of the game is to try to break the floor whilst being shot back and forth with arrows. It can be also played using Snowballs or eggs.