Who really owns 2b2t?
The history of 2b2t
To understand who Hausemaster is and when the person behind the name has changed, we will first need to go over a recap of the server's history and notable events in the changes to the infrastructure.
Pre–Minecraft Server
The Pre-Minecraft server era starts with Hausemaster creating his Steam account on November 7, 2005 (At age 12). From February 2008 to 2009 (At age 15 to 16), Hausemaster starts playing Team Fortress 2 on Steam. The server he was actively playing on was 2fort2furious (2f2f), and his forum name was HOUSEMASTER, which he created on February 20, 2008.
Hausemaster meets Kalash (Reima) on 2f2f and invites him to a Team Fortress 2 group called the "Axeassins." On August 29, 2008, Hausemaster started the 2b2t Steam group with the aim of hosting game servers, titled "2builders2tools (2b2t)", a parody of 2f2f. From April 2009 through December 2010, Hausemaster ran the Garry’s Mod server after Kalash was banned from 2f2f due to exploits. The server was hosted on Hausemaster’s computer, with the IP address 216.86.35.230. The original domain of 2b2t was 2b2t.net.
The server was advertised through Kalash's YouTube channel. Some notable videos include:
After creating the Minecraft server in December 2010, the group continued hosting servers, though none were as significant. The group was deleted around 2019 or 2020.
2010
In December 2010, Hausemaster and/or georgebush420, the two server operators, began 2b2t's current Minecraft map. The exact creation date is uncertain, with possible dates being December 17 or December 26, 2010.
2011
In early 2011, admins georgebush420 & Hausemaster advertised 2b2t on 4chan and SomethingAwful. Hausemaster would teleport to random players and give them random items.
A notable event was in August 2011 when a player data corruption and a change in world generation caused strange anomalies at spawn. Here’s a video showing the reactions of players during the incident.
2012
On May 23, 2012, the 2b2t.net website was set up. Hausemaster demanded donations to keep the server running, saying the server cost him $95 monthly and had already cost him $2050 in total.
2013
In 2013, the only notable change was the domain shift from 2b2t.net to 2b2t.org, and several IP changes as Hausemaster searched for better hosting services.
2014
On July 31, 2014, a message appeared on the server website claiming that Hausemaster had left the server, leaving it in the care of "an anonymous friend." The owner’s personality appeared to change from polite to rude following this.
2015
On March 29, 2015, Hausemaster changed his Minecraft account name to HOUSE_MASTER, and later to "expunged" on May 19, 2015. Around this time, the server location shifted from Canada to the United States, and finally to Germany within a month.
2016
In 2016, the hosting for 2b2t changed to ReliableSite in July. Hausemaster remained active on the 2b2t subreddit (u/2builders2tools) until 2020. You can find his comments here.
On August 21st, 2016, TheCampingRusher released a video explaining whether he owned the server or not. This followed allegations that he was granting and removing priority queue access from players. He stated the allegations were true as he had previously made a deal with Hausemaster. He also stated that his developer Curtis was working with Hausemaster, and most notably made the improved queue system. Rusher claims he doesn't own the entire server still though.
Many people believe Rusher was not being entirely truthful and instead think that he bought the server from the previous Hausemaster.
2019
In 2019, Hausemaster made a Reddit post announcing bi-annual server news and updates. On May 28, 2019, the 2b2t.net page briefly showed a VMware ESXi 5 welcome page.
2021
After 3 years of no Reddit posts, Hausemaster reappeared to discuss the 1.16 update and recent DDoS attacks affecting 2b2t and other servers such as Mineplex.
A notable exploit, NoComment, was patched by Hausemaster on July 15, 2021.
Who is Hausemaster
Please note that the following section is partly speculation given the evidence above
First Hausemaster (2005-2014)
Hausemaster’s personality seems to have changed after 2014. Before 2014, it is believed that he was from Sweden, as several PayPal accounts linked to 2b2t include Swedish phone numbers. The domain registration for 2b2t.net was first bought by Sergej Korotygin on February 25, 2011.
However this is likely is farther as Sergej has a son called Ivan Korotygin. We believe Ivan Korotygin is the first Hausemaster.
Ivan had a friend called Georgebush420 aka Claudius Sundlof who also had operator status on the server. He apparently made some plugins for Ivan.
We reached out to him for comment and he admitted he was a developer for 2b2t.
Second Hausemaster (2014-2016)
As mentioned before, Hause gave the server to his friend in 2014. Perhaps this was Claudius, or maybe Love Walden, but we can't say for sure.
Third Hausemaster
In 2016, Curtis Bayliss, the developer who works with TheCampingRusher, joined the development team as admitted in a video by Rusher (see earlier in the blog post). We believe that they have now fully acquired the server with Curtis being the one running the server.
The Tebex slip-up
On the 22nd of Novemeber, Curtis sent a screenshot of the Tebex website he was working on in a Minecraft discord. This was because he was curious why there were now ads appearing. For context Tebex is what almost all Minecraft servers use for payments, including 2b2t.org.
In the screenshot he didn't realize it said "2b2t testing", which likely confirms he is still working on the server in 2022. Not only that, but also it confirms the previous Hausemaster no longer even manages payments, with Curtis taking on that responsibility.
Harry Nikolov
Harry is the creator of the Tebex theme 2b2t uses. It is a custom theme Hause commissioned from him.
2b2t players reached out to Harry, claiming to be referred by Curtis. Harry then confirmed it was Curtis who had hired him in the past.
Timezones
When things happen on 2b2t, such as updates or manual server restarts, these typically occur at times that correspond to when an American would be online. This makes sense as Curtis is based in Canada. Older hausemasters were based in Sweden so it is likely Curtis now controls everything.
Conclusion
While at times it was not always clear who owned 2b2t, it has now clear that it is Curtis Bayliss who really owns 2b2t.
