700Base

700Base was a small spawn base built by xcc2, omaliymix, x0XP , Lichtenburg, zxcwbz1, and others, in 2013. The base was, as the name implies, 700 blocks away from spawn. Despite the close proximity to spawn, some small parts of the base can still be made out under a mound of lavacasts.

History
Note: This was written by xcc2 on the subreddit

Link: https://www.reddit.com/comments/8q1akz

I was recently traveling around spawn and I ran across some ruins that looked familiar. After some head-scratching I remembered where I was and thought I'd take a WDL and make a render. First, the render. It's not a great image or anything, but here you go:

Unnamed Base Near Spawn

Now for the history: It seems like 2013 was one of the busiest times in 2b2t's history (or at least my history on 2b2t). Most of the original builds that I did, and the large bases that I was most active in, were made in 2013. At some point in early 2013 I had teamed up with Omaliymix to build a somewhat famous base at spawn which ultimately became known as 700Base. It was only 700 blocks from spawn and we basically started it by rebuilding some old ruins (I had the task of restoring the castle on the hill) and expanding until it got griefed, knowing it wouldn't last long. The base began in February and ultimately grew very quickly as several people joined us and expanded it; x0xp, Lichtenburg, zxcwbz1, slow_dive, polly_the_parrot, popbob, dr0ndeh and cytotoxictcell, as far as I can remember. The base lasted longer than it had any right to, and ultimately crumbled. This was it's final state:

700Base — mid 2013

Aftermath
When it fell, Omaliymix and myself quickly regrouped and moved to another location, also not too far from spawn (-1200, -1000). Again, this started as locating an existing ruin, repairing it, and expanding. Also, as before, I took on the task of restoring the original structure (the castle on the hill), and other people showed up to contribute. I built an observatory with a snow dome, slow_dive came and built a small sandstone temple as a tribute to the large one I made at Kaamtown. Someone showed up and made farms, I'm honestly not sure who it was. Cyto went nuts, and created a cool twin cylinder stonebrick thing, and I believe also the ice tower; both of which you can find the ruins of today. Omaliymix worked on a very large castle complex, which is completely buried under the large lavacast.

This base didn't last long and was griefed after maybe a month. We never kept loot there, and just used it as a place to hang out and build together, just like the 700Base. With minor griefing it was abandoned and we moved on. Not too long after it was abandoned one of the famous 2b2t dupes was discovered. I think this one involved using a minecart and freecam. Omal and some others went out to this base near spawn and used it to dupe a ton of stuff. At one point, someone (unknown builder - possibly jacktherippa or offtopia) constructed the obsidian statue with the axe, which can still be seen in the current render, and also placed a ton of spawners. I came and took a single screenshot, which is the only shot I have of the base, sadly after it had been griefed already, and not a very good angle of the whole base. I never took a WDL of this place.

Base Near Spawn - Unnamed

You can see Cyto's stonebrick build in the background, and the edge of my observatory's snow dome in this screenshot. Anyway, no real point to this post, other than to give a snapshot of life on 2b2t back in 2013. Frequently myself and one or two trusted people would forge out and find a spot to build in, and then invite other regulars who we maybe didn't even know very well at the time to come and build. We didn't really care if we got griefed eventually; the idea was just to have some fun building something and see how long it might last. That's why we never bothered to travel out a million blocks hide forever. I know it seems foolish to put the time and effort into these places that are so nearby spawn and will be found quickly, but it was really more about just hanging out and chatting/building something.