The History of the Olympics

The Civ Olympics is a long tradition in the Civ genre dating back at least as far as August 24, 2013, when the first known Civ Olympics were held in Orion in CivCraft 2.0. This initial event inspired additional games to be held by other nations and in other iterations, A total of 10 known Olympic Games have occurred throughout the Civ genre across three major civ servers, with the most recent games being held by Yoahtl in September 2024.

The events featured in Civ Olympics differ greatly between different Olympic Games, though events related to 1v1 PvP, 3v3 PvP, spleef, civ hockey, archery, foot/horse/boat racing, and parkour are common events that can be found in many iterations of the games. In addition, like in real life, Civ Olympics feature opening and closing ceremonies. While the staple events will usually be present in each Civ Olympics, hosting nations also often host more creative events as well. More unique events include Gensokyo’s musical chairs and snowball fight events, Nara/Danzilona’s CivTCG event, and Yoahtl’s terrarium PVP and mini-bridges events.

Initially, two Olympic games were held in CivCraft 2.0, the aforementioned summer games in Orion and a winter games in New Leningrad a few months later in December 2013. Notably, both these games had terrorism incidents resulting in disruptions and pearling, but both games were largely successful. After that, a number of attempts were made to hold additional Olympics, including in Arran, Haven, Aeon, Mt. Augusta, and later in Concordia in CivCraft: Worlds (3.0), but these all are thought to have fallen through before any games could be held.

Much later, in CivClassic 2.0, the Olympics were revived by Yoahtl on June 22, 2018, kickstarting the tradition on the CivClassic server. Uniquely with Yoahtl, each nation playing in the Games built their own house in the Olympic village, allowing nations to showcase their unique cultures and build styles on the world stage. Five additional Olympic games then happened on that iteration, with Commonwealth, Gensokyo, Mount Augusta, Icenia, and Columbia respectively hosting subsequent Olympic games. Columbia’s situation was particularly unique in that they were initially scheduled to host in January 2020 but were forced to cancel upon Columbian player kdeeks’ seizure of Columbia’s groups, which in turn caused the Columbian Bush War. Much later in December, 2021, after the server’s imminent closure was announced, Columbia used their previously built stadiums and infrastructure to host one final Civ Olympics before the server shut down days later.

On the current iteration, the first Civ Olympics were held jointly by the neighboring nations of Nara and Danzilona in March 2023. This iteration of the games introduced the new staple events of drunk parkour, sumo, and summiting, all three of which were repeated in the subsequent games in Yoahtl. The Imperial Federation and Venne also attempted to jointly host the Olympics, but their plans fell through due to the Imperial Federation Succession Crisis. After one and a half years of no games and two delays on Yoahtl’s end (one being caused by the Wet Bandits), Yoahtl hosted the second CivMC Olympics in September 2024, with most of the events taking place within Yoahtl’s futuristic Yoahtlan-themed Olympic village. With this, Yoahtl became the first known nation to host two Civ Olympic games. Incidentally, the Olympics this iteration have demonstrated the games’ tendency to elevate their hosting nations on the world stage, with both Nara and Yoahtl joining major alliances shortly following their respective games.

While no subsequent Olympics have been announced yet for CivMC, it is likely there will be more Olympic Games on this iteration.

The cover image (and the final picture) was taken by specificlanguage, at the Shiroyama Olympic Park. The first picture is at the Yoahtl Olympic Village, taken by x1025. The second picture is at the Mount Augusta Olympic Village in CivClassic during the Opening Ceremony, taken by jaybirdino.

You can also learn more about the Olympics at the CivWiki page.

x1025 (at the time of writing) is the Alcuahtl of Yoahtl, and was the mastermind behind the previous Yoahtlan Olympics this iteration.