USC ESPORTS WRAP-UP #2 — Spotlight on TrojanCraft
By: Nikita Selene Xue
I ventured online this week to check out the new USC Esports Minecraft server, colloquially nicknamed “TrojanCraft”. The first of its kind, TrojanCraft was the idea of Gabe “GG” Gintalas, a member of the USC Esports Rocket League team, and his friend MJ “Manselm0” Anselmo. After realizing there was demand to have a school Minecraft server, they decided to put matters into their own hands.
“I had set up a couple of Minecraft servers for my friends back in undergrad and high school,” Gabe tells me. “I saw that people in the USC Esports chat were talking about how fun it would be to have a USC Minecraft server and I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to create one for everyone!”
MJ hosts the server on a server rack he has at home. I hopped into the Minecraft server myself and was able to take a tour of the place. Lots of people are exploring, claiming areas for bases, and working on their builds. It’s here I meet MJ, heading over to his seaside build of a cottage and lighthouse based off of Danish architecture, which is because MJ’s girlfriend is Danish.
“I host some other stuff [on the server rack],” MJ tells me, “So it doesn’t cost us much but our time.” It’s very generous of him, and definitely a worthy pursuit. Ideally, TrojanCraft serves not just as a new way to play Minecraft, but as a tool to build community.
“One of my favorite parts of gaming is [that] you are not judged by anything but your actions.” MJ types this out to me as he sprints around his base. “It sounds corny, but [online,] you get to meet people that you might not ever meet otherwise.”
Gabe agrees with this. “My ideal dream for the Minecraft server is to have it be a place where people can connect, socialize, and destress… In the future I would love for it to be a place where everyone can… leave a little piece of their creativity and expression as they come and go.”
This is already happening. Although TrojanCraft is still in its early stages, there are lots of players coming and going, setting up bases, and hanging out with each other. I got to tour Andy “soyuwa” Wu’s base during my time in the server, meeting him at the edge of a village he’d transformed.
He types in chat to me, “DMC,” and I am momentarily confused. Walking around the village, I pass by villagers and large chests with signs in front of them that read “dmc building materials”. The only DMC I’ve heard of is the building DMC—the Dr. Joseph Medicine Crowe Center on campus—but surely that can’t be what Andy is referring to.
Andy is a big Minecraft fan, and was told about TrojanCraft by his roommate, who’d seen the invite to the server on Instagram. “I joined [because] I was already playing [Minecraft] a lot so it felt right,” he says, hopping around his base. “I’m looking forward to this server becoming another place USC students [can] connect outside of the real world.”
Then he confides in me his personal goal for the server— “To build a full scale replica of DMC.”
So it was the building he was talking about. Finally I see why he’d originally texted it to me in the chat: he has a mini-DMC building amongst the village. “The actual one is going to be much bigger,” he tells me. “I really like how simple its design is while still having a personality… it has a unique design that really stands out with its roof and tower.”
Besides, “It’s very square so it fits into Minecraft well.”
The mini-DMC is already impressive, but Andy sends me some pictures of a full-blown DMC replica he’d built in a world in creative mode.
There’s still lots of opportunity with TrojanCraft, with players who have progressed a lot and players who have just joined alike all patronizing the server. Gabe tells me some of his plans for TrojanCraft; they intend to host lots of different events “such as the Ender Dragon fight, build battles, obstacle courses, PVP battles, and much more!”
