History of The Vortex Coalition
Prologe
Before creating The Vortex Coalition, Coltsnid joined 2b2t on August 17th, 2014. During his first few months, he explored near spawn, walking around until his hunger bar depleted, dying, and exploring more. Colt would sometimes invite friends to play on the server with him.
In December 2014, AmericanOreo, an IRL friend of Coltsnid for 7 years, first joined 2b2t. The two founded a small base 100,000 blocks out from spawn (overworld). This base would later become the Phase I VoCo HQ.
Phase I
In May 2015, Sato86 and the rest of Valkyria amassed their members at spawn, marking the 3rd Incursion on 2b2t. However, this was largely unknown to Coltsnid and AmericanOreo, who still didn't know what an Incursion was.
Colt and Oreo were on a trip from spawn back to their base, when they encountered a player in the nether named FuzzyFutureFox. At first, the two befriended the player, however, Oreo later killed him for his items.
FuzzyFutureFox was a participant in the 3rd Incursion, as Colt and Oreo quickly found out through an angry chat praising Valkyria and the Incursion.
The Vortex Coalition was founded by Coltsnid and AmericanOreo in late May 2015. A logo was designed by Colt which resembles the spiral of a vortex. Efforts to harass Valkyria began with VoCo's infamous "Did you know?" Spam Bot
The VoCo Spam Bot, which originally ran on the accounts InvisibleGecko18 and DeadlyMause, would frequently post satirical, over-the-top messages that were designed to annoy Sato and other members of Valkyria.
The bot would post messages such as ">Did you know? The Vortex Coalition is currently occupying and renovating Spawn." and ">Did you know? The Vortex Coalition single-handedly carved out all of the Nether highways." These messages are the source of all 2b2t "Did you know?" memes.
The VoCo/Sato86 rivalry was one of the oldest on the server and was often memed. The nickname "VoCo" came to exist through constant arguments in the 2b2t chat about the group, with the term being coined by someone as saying very negative things.
Over the next couple of months, VoCo rose in membership, peaking around 25 members. 2b2t only had an average of about 40 active players around this time in 2015. As such, VoCo still represented a relatively large percentage of the 2b2t player base, thanks to the ease of joining and the lenient nature during the later half of 2015.
Phase II
The Vortex Coalition was not as active during the first half of 2016, and consequently suffered a loss of members and relevance. However, they began to increase in activity just before TheCampingRusher joined the server, who subsequently brought hundreds of players onto 2b2t. With the influx of new players ready to make their mark on 2b2t, and the group's policy of accepting anyone regardless of being a newfag/oldfag, The Vortex Coalition was able to recruit far more members than they ever had before.
The Vortex Coalition worked to expand its reach by advertising through memes on /r/2b2t as well as /r/TheVortexCoalition. They also began actively uploading videos to their YouTube channel. This allowed the VoCo community to expand very rapidly. The Vortex Coalition was so prevalent at the height of its popularity that the 2b2t subreddit implemented a new rule forbidding low-quality posts due to VoCo memes that completely covered the subreddit's front page for 4 days.
Roles in The Vortex Coalition had remained relatively static up until mid-2016. After the large increase of activity, The Vortex Coalition was able to obtain many members, which required a shift in roles to distinguish trustworthy members and new members. In mid-August, the Vortex Coalition added its first new Executive member since Cyan; Ovnel (now known as Joe as of 2017).
Demeanor
The Vortex Coalition remained relatively peaceful during this time, not antagonizing other groups, and declaring themselves a noncombatant third party in the Rusher War. They were neutral with many groups and allied with many others over the years. They viewed PVP as "pointless" and the vast majority of their members did not partake in PVP at spawn.
Phase II Lag Machine
In September 2016, Sengorn_Leopard built one of the server's largest lag machine. He was later granted an Executive role in VoCo as a reward his efforts, as well as to solidify the group's control over the lag machine. The coordinates of this lag machine were later leaked by Coltsnid in retaliation of Sengorn_Leopard betraying the Coalition during the disciple/religion meme.
The Wrath of VoCo
During 2016, The Vortex Coalition created their own take on the Wrath Outpost at X: 420 Z: 911, which they built overnight. It was unfortunately destroyed within days of its creation during the 5th Incursion. This was the first consecutive summer that The Vortex Coalition had renovated its spawn base. They have continued this trend into 2017 with another renovation at 420/911 (which has already been destroyed). Structures built near spawn are not expected to last long, and VoCo knows this.
End of Phase II
Coltsnid began to call himself a god, and VoCo members that accepted him as their Lord and savior were accepted into his group of disciples. While many thought this was funny, some were not happy with this change of pace, and this caused controversy within the group. Some members who outright denounced Coltsnid were banned.
Around this time, one of the group's executives, HermeticLock, who was responsible for running the website, decided to change the home page to a meme displaying the DonFuer logo, which further escalated the tensions within the group. On January 13th, 2017, this controversy caused executive member Sengorn_Leopard to ban all users from the Discord. When Coltsnid became aware of this, he deleted the Discord server and posted an "official" disbandment on /r/2b2t. This post gained a lot of attention and once again the focus of /r/2b2t was The Vortex Coalition.
Before going inactive for the next several months, Coltsnid had a few more memes up his sleeve, such as "VoCo II" and "selling" the server to "RockyEric" and HermeticLock.
Phase III
On June 2, 2017, The Vortex Coalition ended its second Off-Season and began recruiting new members. With 2b2t falling into decline, it was thought that activities in The Vortex Coalition would likely never reach the levels it had during the Rusher Era (however, the group itself had since grown past the size it was during the Rusher War). Despite the decline in 2b2t popularity, their Discord server was one of the most populated 2b2t related servers with over 330 members (Phase III numbers, purged of inactive members regularly).
Salamander, Joe (ovnel), Cyan, and househousehouse1 remained as the executive members.
During Phase III, The Vortex Coalition built 11 separate group bases, two of which are major bases sprawling across thousands of blocks. One being a large above-ground city, another being a large underground cave housing a dwarven fortress. They also renovated their 420/911 spawn base for 2017, although it was griefed heavily soon after.
The Vortex Coalition had over 110 active members as of January 21st, 2018. Around the same time, VoCo been heavily investing in spawn operations, such as public infrastructure, spawn bases for new players, and public builds. They were also actively working on a streamlined currency system for VoCo members called VoCoin™.
In mid-December, reports began to circulate that members of The Vortex Coalition had been griefing public infrastructure, such as the Southern Canal. To push back against this destructive behavior within the group, Coltsnid refined the VoCo Terms & Conditions to prohibit public builds being targeted by group members.
On December 28, 2017, The Vortex Coalition announced that it would be taking over executive operations of the Spawn Infrastructure Group (SIG), and provide VoCo with resources to further mobilize spawn efforts and to efficiently produce reliable roads, bridges, and outposts for all spawn travelers.
End of Phase III
On January 30, 2018, Coltsnid announced that Phase III of VoCo was coming to a close. In this statement, it was also announced that all VoCo staff members, including Executives and Trinity members, would be fired, and new staffs would be chosen during the Off-Season and at the beginning of Phase IV. The position of Discord Moderator was the only staff position, which anyone could apply for.
"This was the most streamlined phase VoCo has ever had, and it yielded great success, not only for our Coalition but for 2b2t as a whole.
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...It has been an honor working with you all throughout the past 7 months to take The Vortex Coalition to new heights, never seen before by any 2b2t group. Our reach is nearly endless when we work together. Our dominance on 2b2t is so unbreakable even I couldn't truly end VoCo, and that means something.
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I will see you all in Phase IV!"
-Coltsnid, Phase III closure announcement.
Phase III Off-season
The Phase III's Off-Season went on record as The Vortex Coalition's most active Off-Season up to that point. While overall activity within the group decreased as expected, a handful of members and staff remained dedicated to ensuring activity never came to a standstill.
During the 2018 Off-Season, VoCo was a major participant in the 6th Incursion, continued further development of VoCoin™, and kept up consistent recruitment levels. In many ways, the 2018 Off-Season is foundational preparation for the beginning of Phase IV, which was expected to begin in May or June.
On April 12, 2018, Coltsnid announced the first Executive members since all staff members were fired at the end of Phase III:
Starting in Phase IV, all staff ranks in VoCo were required to be maintained with activity.