2012 was a great year to start off. Everyone who joined the community, wasn't a randy. As
Bree_ says about her own state, it was just so small and you knew everybody, and if you got into beef with any of them then there's no real way out of it. All the legendary names you hear nowadays, came and started building this server into a community. This involved many people such as Arena Master, HalfSquirrel, and even LeafyGreenTea! Now most of this was created around the forums, as there was no hub and barely anybody went on the teamspeak aside from moderators and such. (tbh I don't even know if there was a ts at the time)
Now aside from the community, the MCSG v1 Gameplay was amazing. It was made a little bit after the first Hunger Games move came out and I'm sure many people wanted to play it after hearing about it. Now if you were to play a game today, you would win by being the first to your route and having exceptional pvp skills. Back in MCSG v1, (and note I'm saying MCSG v1 not MCG v1) the games were all about strategy. This was where you should attack someone from, when the perfect timing was, etc. This made the gameplay a lot more fun and fluid, and it really worked your brain out.
When I started in June of 2012, there were only 2 maps on the servers. There was Survival Games 1 and Survival Games 2. Later on came Survival Games 3, Breeze Island, and Survival Games 4. Anyways, when we had these 2 maps, there was no voting stage. You would get what you get and wouldn't get upset. Additionally, once a game ended, you would have to go to the website to see which other servers were open to play, in progress, and down for maintenance since there was no hub.
Although back then it was more complex, it was a lot more fun. With a small community created around a game that took great strategy, you couldn't really ask for any better.
This is for anybody who hasn't ever heard/experienced the old times of MCSG. They were great days that cause me to continuously say everyday, "I really miss those days."