The 1st Realm began in the summer of 2020, at the height of the pandemic, when Sam started a small Minecraft Realm for friends to escape the world and have fun together. With fewer than a dozen players, it became a tight-knit and close community, remembered as one of the most connected servers in the network's history. Despite its strong bonds, the Realm couldn't last due to the cost of running it, and it eventually shut down—yet the idea of a lasting Minecraft community stuck with its members and laid the foundation for everything that came after.