Crystal Islands

The Crystal Islands was a base constructed by Offtopia. It managed to stay intact despite its proximity to spawn, and played an important role in the Fourth Incursion.

History
The Crystal Islands were founded by Offtopia and two unknown Australian players in October of 2012. At the time, the base was considered to be reasonably far away from spawn. The two Australian players didn’t have any hacks, so they created a large network of strip mining tunnels underneath the base to obtain resources. Offtopia would later invite CytotoxicTcell to the Crystal Islands, where she would stay for 3 to 4 months before taking a long hiatus from 2b2t. In mid-2013, Offtopia left to join other bases, and the Crystal Islands lay abandoned for years. In January 2016, Offtopia returned to the base and started new builds. He also invited Fit, who was at that time only a small YouTuber, to tour the base.

Destruction
On July 2, 2016, Offtopia returned to the base to find that it had been griefed and the main tower had been lavacasted. The lavacast was lagging the surrounding area so much that the griefer, who was most likely a Rusher, had most likely fallen into his own lava. Offtopia had already moved most of the valuables away from the base, and left it abandoned, calling on others to repair it. Two days later, Tomah arrived at the base and fixed the tower, but since the base was heavily connected with the Fourth Incursion and Team Veteran, the base was later griefed by many players, including members of The Resistance and YouTuber WildX. Finally, on May 31 2017, mrking039 heavily griefed what was left of the base, leaving it almost unrecognizable.

Builds
The first major build at the Crystal Islands was the central tower, which was used to store all of the items at the base. Around the same time a simple wooden structure was built, but was later destroyed by a lightning strike. In its place, Offtopia built the Phantom Pagoda, a large Japanese inspired build made of nether brick and blue stained clay. Other builds from late 2012 include a cat shaped tower which contained many tamed cats and led to an underground passageway with many rooms, and a series of underground farms. In 2013, the Mushroom Village was built to house all of the villagers at the base. It consisted of small houses made out of giant mushrooms on what was originally a normal island, until it was covered in mycelium through strategic placement of mycelium blocks, which then spread all over the island. Offtopia also built the Sewage Tower, which was covered in vines and contained a skeleton grinder, and another tower which held a spider farm. After Cyto arrived at the base, she built her Crystal Tower next to the main tower, as well as an automatic farm and an underwater glass dome containing trees made out of emerald and diamond blocks. When xcc2 visited the base, he built a small house inside a giant mushroom.

After Offtopia returned to the base in January 2016, he started work on new builds. One of the first builds that he completed was the brick tulip, a large flower like tower made out of duped bricks. He also built a small structure inside a nearby chunk error and named it the Granite Inn, and built two houses on top. His final build at the Crystal Islands was an underwater village inside a large glass cube.

Controversy
Near the end of the Fourth Incursion, Offtopia claimed that Fit and Rusher were working together in order to get as much YouTube revenue out of the conflict as possible. Fit initially denied these claims, but later revealed that he had in fact been directly working with Rusher in order to bring more players to 2b2t. However, he did not discuss the Crystal Islands, and the original griefer of the base remains unknown.

Trivia

 * The Phantom Pagoda was a replica of a larger build at New M, but was built incorrectly and never fully completed
 * The trees that Cyto built in her underwater dome would later be built surrounding her spiral build at Viper Base