Beyond Horizons: 2026 Year in Review

A Note Before We Begin

Hello everyone,

As we head into the final months of the year, I wanted to take a moment to look back at 2026. It has been, without exaggeration, the most eventful year in Beyond Horizons' history.

We started the year with a new name. Since then we have moved onto powerful new hardware, upgraded to 26.1, relaunched Skyblock, built a website from scratch, and have now opened the doors on Frontier. Along the way I finished my degree, survived my finals, and drank an amount of Coca-Cola I would rather not put in writing.

It has also been a deeply personal year for me, one of great jubilation and one of loss. We faced our challenges, that much is clear, but we rose above them, and we did it together. So grab a drink, settle in, and let's walk through the year together.

January and February: A New Name, A New Era

The year opened with a fresh start. Beyond The Vale 2.0 launched on 30 December 2025, bringing custom enchantments, quests, fishing, mcMMO, bosses and dungeons, and a brand new world generation.

Two days later, on 1 January, we announced our new name: Beyond Horizons. After a decade under different names, it felt right to choose one that reflected how far we had come and where we wanted to go. With it came a new IP (play.beyondhorizonsmc.com), a new store, and our own Discord server tag.

February brought the Valentine's Crate, our first custom crate of the year, followed by the first major Slimefun content update of 2026:

• A new Rankup system tied to money and votes
• An economy reset, with every balance set to $25,000
• A jobs overhaul, buffs to the Fisherman job and new anti-AFK pyrofishing rules
• Custom dungeons, boss fights and the Adventurer's Guild
• Graves replacing Keep Inventory

March: The Birth of Horizons

March was the month that shaped everything after it. On 5 March, Slimefun and Beyond The Vale came together to form Horizons, the home of Slimefun and our primary gamemode ever since.

To celebrate the new chapter, every donor rank carried over, Vale rank holders received matching Slimefun ranks for free, and everyone got free guide unlocks and Valefun storages. The Shop World followed shortly after, giving every player a free 150x150 plot to run a shop of their own.

On 19 March we moved onto brand new hardware with DDR5 memory, a far stronger processor and our most robust backups yet. Pter0x helped us onto our new in-house control panel, and voting returned with a brand new system and better rewards.

The month closed with a full Discord renovation, account verification through /linkdiscord, a new channel for quick bug reports, one-time purchase options for Solar and Interstellar, and our Easter Sale.

April and May: Sharks, Exams and Eleven Years

April began with iono and the Shark Army staging a hostile takeover of the server. The Lizard reclaimed the throne a day later, and Solar and Interstellar became permanent ranks at a lower price as part of the peace treaty.

On 13 April we spent a full day upgrading the network, adding another 64GB of DDR5 memory and making Slimefun more stable than ever. We also introduced the PayPal pool, giving everyone a fee-free way to support the server.

At the same time I was studying around 12 hours a day for my finals. Thank you to everyone who was patient while development slowed down. I finished my exams in early May and came straight back to full speed.

Then, on 21 May, Beyond Horizons turned eleven. What started as a small 1.8 server for a few friends is now a community thousands of players have passed through. We celebrated with 11 free vote keys, the limited-run Birthday Hat, triple voting and a 50% off Summer Sale.

May ended with the Nature Crate, bringing new pets, Sage the Axolotl plushie, and unbreakable custom tools and armour.

June and July: 26.1, Skyblock and Graduation

June opened with the Great Exploration Overhaul, replacing the old in-game ranks with a 15-tier progression line from Outlander to Zenith, built around survival tasks, global mining and slayer hunts.

On 10 June we completed the upgrade to Minecraft 26.1, with Slimefun and every supported addon updated and tested. A huge thank you to Starlethe and Zev for testing throughout. Two days later we published our technical roadmap, The Future, outlining two new gamemodes.

The first of those arrived much sooner than planned. Isles of Vale returned as a rebuilt Skyblock experience with KOTH, dungeons, island upgrades, minions, custom enchantments and optional Slimefun. Early access opened on 2 July, with the full launch the same evening. Thank you to Anonymoose and Starlethe for beta testing.

July was a big month in other ways too:

• Staff applications opened for Moderators and Architects
• Beyond Horizons passed review by the Mojang Enforcement Team and earned the Builder's Benchmark badge on the Official Minecraft Server List
• On 28 July I graduated with honours in Computer Science and Mathematics
• We revealed the Space Crate and completed a full store price review

A Personal Note: Joy and Loss

Walking across that stage on 28 July is a moment I will never forget. Four years of Computer Science and Mathematics, finals that could not be retaken, and more late nights than I can count all came down to that one day. Celebrating it with my family, my friends and all of you made it even more special, and in September I began the next chapter with an MSc in Computer Science.

What made the day truly unforgettable was who was there to see it. Despite all the odds, and the doctors saying she would never see the day, my grandma made it to see me graduate. Having her there, watching me receive my degree, is something I will treasure for the rest of my life.

But if I am honest, this year has been one of great jubilation and also one of real loss. As some of you may know, earlier this year I lost a dear friend in a tragic car accident.

Grief has a way of sitting quietly alongside the good moments. On the days that should have been the happiest, I found myself thinking of them and wishing they could have been there to share it. I carry them with me, and a part of this year will always belong to them.

If you are going through something similar, please do not carry it alone. Reach out to someone you trust, and know that our team's door is always open.

August and September: Our Busiest Stretch Yet

August was the busiest month I have ever had on Beyond Horizons:

• Space Crate (4 August): the Verdant Nebula, Void Pulsar and Solar Flare gear sets
• Auto Reconnect (7 August): a free perk for every donator, sending you back to your gamemode from the lobby
• The new website (9 August): built completely in-house, with news, a wiki, a Staff Guide and a staff dashboard
• The Crate Hall on Isles of Vale (13 August): built with Papi Glove, home to the new Plushie Crates and Merchant Maddie
• Sakura Crate (20 August): our biggest crate ever, with nearly 100 items

On 21 August we ran the Slimefun Survival community survey, and I followed it with Where We Go From Here, a full response to your feedback. That led directly into a major Horizons progression overhaul: a rebuilt economy, 16 ranks, 11 quest lines, Claim Blocks, and reworked jobs and fishing, alongside a long list of Slimefun and Valefun fixes.

September was a little quieter while I moved house, but the community kept the momentum going. A special thank you to Semper Amici and Anonymoose for helping keep up with everyone, and to all of you who checked in on me.

October: Welcome to Frontier

While I was away in Kos, iono, Maddie and the Management team kept everything running, and iono launched the Halloween Crate on 2 October. Despite her best efforts, the server was not filled with Blahaj. (Mostly.)

When I got back on 10 October, I announced that development had begun on Frontier, our brand new Slimefun Survival server built on vanilla 26.3 generation. It brings Sulfur Caves and the Dappled Forest, chunk claims, graves, reworked quests and rankup perks, and a full economy overhaul.

Frontier was due to launch on Friday 16 October. Final polishing went faster than expected, so I put it to a vote. You chose early, 13 votes to 9, and Frontier opened on 14 October.

Our original Slimefun server is not going anywhere, and premium ranks carried straight over.

2026 By the Numbers

What	2026
Gamemodes running	3 (Horizons, Isles of Vale, Frontier)
Custom crates released	7 so far (Valentine's, Nature, Space, Player Plushie, Plushie, Sakura, Halloween)
Years running	11
Unique players this year	1,000+
Votes cast	6,000+
Bugs solved	500+
Litres of Coca-Cola	Classified

Thank You

None of this year happened because of one person.

To our staff team, past and present: thank you. To the managers who kept things running while I was away, the moderators who keep this community safe and welcoming, the developers and testers who helped bring 26.1, Isles of Vale and Frontier to life, the builders who shaped our worlds, and everyone who quietly gave up their evenings to help. So much of what you do goes unseen, but none of it goes unnoticed.

And most of all, to the whole Beyond Horizons community: thank you.

To every player who voted, opened a ticket, filled in a survey, suggested a crate item, entered a giveaway, bought a rank, chipped into the pool, tested a new feature, or simply logged in after a long day to spend time with friends. To the new faces who joined this year and the familiar ones who have been here for a decade. Every one of you helped make 2026 what it was.

When things got tough, you stayed. When we asked for your ideas, you gave them. When we tried something new, you jumped straight in. You are the reason this place is still going strong after eleven years, and I could not be prouder to be part of it.

Looking Ahead: The Rest of 2026

The year is not over yet. Here is what is still to come:

• Frontier: settling in, balancing, and building on launch feedback
• The Festive Crate, our final crate of the year, arriving mid to late November
• The Sakura Crate continues until the end of the year
• The 12 Days of Lizardmas, our festive celebration to close out the year

2026 asked a lot of us, and this community answered every time. We are finishing the year with better hardware, three gamemodes, a website of our own, and a community that is stronger than ever.

Here's to finishing 2026 strong, and to whatever comes next.

Justin