History of Hardcore Factions

Hardcore Factions (HCF) developed out of the wider Minecraft Factions genre in the early 2010s, adding a deathban and structured map cycles to what had been an open-ended land-claiming format. This page traces the format across five periods.

The stretch from roughly 2013 to 2018 is widely described by the community as the golden era, the point at which player counts, competitive faction play and outside attention all peaked at once. It spans the second, third and part of the fourth sections below, and is shaded gold throughout this page.

Parts of this article need sources. Player counts and closure dates in particular require citations. Forum archives, VODs and server-list history are all acceptable. Please do not add claims from memory alone.

Timeline at a glance

2012–2013
Origins

2014–2015
Expansion

2016–2018
Peak

2019–2020
Contraction

2020–2024
Later

Gold segments mark the 2013–2018 golden era.

Origins (2012–2013)

HCF was created on a server called HCGaming. It distinguished itself from ordinary factions servers by two additions: a timed ban on death, and a map that ends and resets rather than running indefinitely. Together these turned a sandbox into a season-based competitive format.

HCGaming subsequently merged with the Shotbow Network, and in November 2013 HCF became an official game mode there. That gave the format its first large, established audience.

The same year, itsjhalt founded MineHQ. Within two years the format had three significant homes rather than one, which set the pattern of competing networks that defined it for the rest of its life.

Origins of the deathban rule on HCGaming
The Shotbow merger and HCF's arrival on a major network in November 2013
Development of SOTW and EOTW as scheduled events
First recognisable class systems
Early YouTube coverage and its effect on player numbers

Needs: who ran HCGaming and when it launched, the exact Shotbow merger date, and when the deathban was first implemented.

Expansion (2014–2015)

The format consolidated and spread. Mechanics that had varied wildly between servers settled into a recognisable standard, and the largest networks began drawing consistent four-figure concurrent counts on map launches.

In 2014, itsjhalt opened HCTeams on MineHQ. Alongside Kohi, it became one of the two servers that defined the competitive scene, and the two networks between them account for most of the era's documented map results.

HCTeams opens in 2014
Standardisation of the class system across networks
KOTH, Citadel and Conquest as scheduled events
Growth of organised, roster-based factions
YouTube and streaming as the main driver of new players

Needs: peak concurrent figures per network with a source, and when Kohi launched.

Peak and fragmentation (2016–2018)

Minecraft 1.9 released in February 2016 with a rewritten combat system: attack cooldowns, off-hand items, a swing timer. The HCF community overwhelmingly rejected it and stayed on 1.7 and 1.8. Servers became pinned to old versions, and the genre's technical base gradually diverged from the game most players were running.

This period contains both the format's largest maps and the beginnings of its decline. Kohi merged with Badlion between Maps 25 and 26, a move most of its playerbase resisted and which is generally treated as the point the scene lost its centre. On 16 December 2016, johnzeh founded HCF Revival, which ran its first map in April 2017.

The 1.9 combat update and the community's refusal to adopt it
Version-locking to 1.7/1.8 and its long-term effects
HCF Revival founded, 16 December 2016
The Kohi–Badlion merger and its failure
Peak map turnouts and the most contested seasons

Needs: exact date of the Kohi merger, and which networks attempted 1.9.

Contraction (2019–2020)

Player numbers declined across the genre. Established networks closed or changed hands, maps ran shorter, and the pool of active competitive factions narrowed to a smaller group of long-running names.

With both Kohi and MineHQ gone, nothing united the scene the way they had. The community fragmented across a number of smaller servers rather than consolidating anywhere.

Network closures and ownership changes
Shrinking map turnouts and shortened cycles
Migration of players to other Minecraft PvP formats
Consolidation of the remaining competitive scene

Needs: closure dates for MineHQ and other major networks, and where the playerbase went.

Later period (2020–2024)

HCF continued as a smaller, more concentrated scene. Surviving networks ran established rulesets for a committed core, while revival attempts and nostalgia maps drew temporary spikes without sustained recovery.

HCF Revival illustrates the pattern: after three maps across 2017 it went quiet for over five years, returning in June 2023 and running four maps through to June 2024. The HCTeams and Kohi names have both been relaunched by unrelated owners.

Revival maps and one-off events
Community-run and open-source server implementations
Reuse of historic network names by new owners
Present state of the format

Needs: which networks were still running maps at the end of this period.

Period summary

Period	Years	Defining development	Trajectory
Origins	2012–2013	Created on HCGaming; official on Shotbow, November 2013	Emerging
Expansion	2014–2015	HCTeams opens; class system standardised	Rising
Peak	2016–2018	1.9 rejected; Kohi merges with Badlion	Peak, then splitting
Contraction	2019–2020	Kohi and MineHQ both gone	Declining
Later	2020–2024	Revival maps; smaller committed core	Stable, small

Key dates

Date	Event
2013	itsjhalt founds MineHQ
November 2013	HCF becomes an official game mode on Shotbow, following HCGaming's merger
2014	itsjhalt opens HCTeams
February 2016	Minecraft 1.9 released; the community rejects it
16 December 2016	johnzeh founds HCF Revival
8 April 2017	HCF Revival Map 1 SOTW
2016–2017	Kohi merges with Badlion between Maps 25 and 26