Motorway Extension Gurus

Motorway Extension Gurus (MEG) is a nether highway mining group on 2b2t. The central objective of this group is to extend the existing highways which have been built by previously Independent Interstate Society and independent players. The members of MEG are tasked with creating tunnels that extend to the world border which facilitate boat flight and entity travel in each cardinal direction, as well as their respective diagonal axes and ring roads. Ultimately, this will allow players to travel between spawn and different regions of the nether with relative ease, making reaching otherwise unreachable regions significantly more accessible.

History
On October 15, 2019, Citadel2222 was on his way to the -X, -Z world border, and made a stop at -5M, -5M to check if any structures had been built. He flew around the area, and stumbled upon a player named illville502. Both individuals expected immediate death, however, neither were hostile - and so forth a friendship began.

The two decided to build a milestone at -5M, -5M, due to there being nothing more than a small sign wall. For two weeks, these two players built a large milestone. This cooperation between two strangers on this relatively unmaintained highway was a significant achievement.

The two players decided their next project would be to extend the -X, -Z highway (which to their knowledge ended at -4M, -4M). However, upon re-entering the nether, the highway had suddenly been dug. Both players were understandably confused, so they followed the now extended path and left multiple signs at the end in an attempt to contact the unknown individual. This individual was VeryVon, who with his sophisticated bot, decided to band together with us to dig to the -X, -Z world border. It was on this date (the 28th of November, 2019) that Motorway Extension Gurus was formed.

In the proceeding months, three individuals stumbled upon us on our dig to the world border - they were DantezWrath, KevinKC2014, and Superbad0315.

Upon the completion of the -X,-Z world border dig, the group received a huge influx of people interested in the digging process, especially after the youtuber SalC1 released his video on the subject. Most notably of these members, were Jonanen, Paragon, Kurakuea and Parzi. These members joined in May and June, and started working within the highway group on the remaining 3 diagonal highways, most notably in this time period the +X, +Z world border dig. In the span of 3 months, the diggers consisting of Superbad0315, Jonanen and KevinKC2014 was digging 24/7 to the completion on the 4th of September, 2020. The process was rather slow due to a slower and older version of baritone that had not been fine tuned, but that did not stop the diggers.

In late July, 2020, MEG discovered a massive stash belonging to a shop owned by the reputable player UFOCrossing on one of the highways. The group decided in the start to just steal some crucial stuff, such as pickaxes and gapples. But later, a member of the group, maksitaxi, released the coordinates to the group Infinity Incursion. Due to this, MEG decided to blow the stash up, to take the satisfaction from Infinity Incursion before they arrived. MEG decided to keep this a secret from UFOCrossing, but a member of the crew decided to message UFOCrossing that MEG has griefed the stash. This caused the first member in the history of MEG to be kicked out of the group, because MEG did not want a bad reputation with such a reputable player. The reputation between UFOCrossing and MEG was terrible after the incident, but due to MEG holding a low profile, this has mostly been ignored, and they retain a good neutral relationship with the majority of groups in the server.

Upon the completion of the +X, +Z world border dig, the bot was optimized and the diggers learned how to use it effectively without disruptions for longer periods of time. All of this meant the remaining 2 diagonal highways were completed at a faster pace with more dedication and insight to the process. On the 14th of October, the third diagonal highway was completed to the world border, dug out by the now infamous diggers Illville502, Citadel2222 and tycrek. Following this, the -X,+Z highway was completed on the 12th of February, 2021. This was a hugely delayed project, severely impacted by the patching of Elytraflight on September 4th, 2020. In the start, things were slow as the main focus was on the +X, +Z and +X, -Z highways, but the pace quickly picked up as the members of the other highway digging crews were joining in the final dig. Being only halfway after 3 months, the pace only really picked up after the new year.

Several more notable diggers joined the digging team in late summer of 2020, consisting most notably of Yesnik, Jenixblue and Aven, all of whom has contributed massively to the digging process. Due to the size of the group, MEG has expanded its ambitions in late July, and started working on more projects at once. Most notably of the completed projects are the +X highway; digging and paving the 125k ring road and the 250k ring road. With the release of an extremely powerful and fast highway digging tool, MEG has decided to try and hit 1 billion netherrack dug before the end of the year. At this pace, it will be reached in August 2021.

Members
* Elite Diggers have dug  ≥ 10M netherrack.

** Supreme Diggers have dug  ≥ 5M netherrack.

*** Diggers have dug  ≥ 2M netherrack.

Diagonals
There are four diagonal highways that either extend, or are being extended, from spawn to the different world borders.
 * +X +Z
 * +X -Z
 * -X +Z
 * -X -Z

Cardinal directions

 * +X
 * +Z
 * -X
 * -Z

Diagonal Highways
The diagonal highways extend from 0, 0 (nether) in each of the four diagonal directions (northeast, northwest, southeast, southwest). Diagonal highways are 5.3 million blocks or 5303 kilometers long.

-X -Z
This was the server's and group's first completed diagonal highway, which was dug from spawn to the -X, -Z world border. This dig was completed by Citadel2222, illville502, VeryVon, DantezWrath, KevinKC2014 and Superbad0315.

Milestones
-10M, -10M reached on 8th of January, 2020.

-20M, -20M reached on 12th of April, 2020.

-30M, -30M reached on 26th of May, 2020.

+X +Z
This was the server's second completed diagonal highway, which was dug from spawn to the +X, +Z world border. This dig was completed by KevinKC2014, Jonanen, Superbad0315, Paragon and 5K5K.

Milestones
-10M, -10M reached on 9th of July, 2020.

-20M, -20M reached on 13th of August, 2020.

-30M, -30M reached on 4th of September, 2020.

+X, -Z
This was the server's third completed highway, which was dug from spawn to the +X, -Z world border. This dig was completed by illville502, Citadel2222 and tycrek.

Milestones
10M, -10M reached on 24th of July, 2020.

20M, -20M reached on 2nd of September, 2020.

30M, -30M reached on 14th of October, 2020.

-X, +Z
The fourth and final highway was finally complete in the new year. On the completion of this highway, marks all cardinal and diagonal highways finished to the world border. This was dug out by Roy4lRondi, tycrek, Citadel2222, juderenee & frencheagle.

Milestones
-10M, 10M reached on 5th of August, 2020.

-20M, 20M reached on 31st of December, 2020.

-30M, 30M reached on 13th of February, 2020.

Cardinal Directions
These are secondary highways that are not the main focus of MEG. These are not the priority, but they are being worked on.

+X
This tunnel was originally pre-dug by the +X Digging Group 1 wide, 2 high. MEG subsequently widened this highway to 3 wide, 3 high to improve travel speed for individuals using elytra and/or boat flight.

This dig was completed by Kurakuea.

Milestones
+10M reached on 23th of August, 2020.

+20M reached on 4th of September, 2020.

+30M reached on 26th of September, 2020.

-X
To be updated in due course.

+Z
To be updated in due course.

-Z
To be updated in due course.

Ring Roads
Ring roads makes it easier to travel, as you can travel between each highway easily, and get to specific coordinates with minimal independent travel.

MEG has for a long time focused a lot of its attention on these highways, as they're essential for fast travel on 2b2t.

125K
After completion of the -X -Z highway, MEG created the 125K nether ring road, which equates to 1M overworld. The dig was started on the 9th of June, 2020. Afterwards, MEG (along with HWU) started to pave the 125k ring road on the 19th of August, 2020. This project would use 5 million obsidian and took 5 months.

This dig was completed by Harritaco, Paragon802, CorruptedSeal, illville502 & DantezWrath.

Milestones
The 125K ring road was completed on the 1st of August, 2020.

Paving the entire ring road was completed on the 13th of January, 2021.

250K
Along with the last diagonal highway being dug, MEG raised it's ambitions to dig out yet another ring road. This time it would be at 250k nether or 2 million blocks overworld. This project required 18 million netherrack to be mined.

This dig was completed by Harritaco, Jonanen and Paragon.

Milestones
The 250k ring road was started on the 1st of December 2020, and was completed on the 3rd of January 2021.

Statistics
Motorway Extension Gurus has (as of 11/02/2021) dug 324,469,192 netherrack. This total is spread across 15 diggers. Since the inception of the group (October 15, 2019), that equates to 27,875 netherrack per hour. On average, 6.8m netherrack is dug out per week, as can be seen on the chart to the right. MEG has spent over 3,000 hours on each highway, adding up to nearly 12,000 hours of digging. This is excluding the 2 ring roads and the cardinal highways which MEG has also helped to dig.

The most influential diggers with the highest netherrack count is as followed:

Media
On May 29, 2020, 2b2t YouTuber SalC1 uploaded a video titled "The Longest Road Ever Built in Survival Minecraft (The 2b2t Nether Highways)". The video highlights the accomplishment of reaching the -X, -Z world border corner, as well as the group's plan to extend the remaining highways.