The oldest relay race in the world just took place in 'Minecraft' on UPenn's painstakingly recreated virtual campus — here's what it was like

"Minecraft" Penn relays.Minecraft/UPenn

• Students at the University of Pennsylvania recreated their campus on "Minecraft" after COVID-19 ended their semester early.
• On Friday, the annual Penn Relays, the oldest track event in the US, was held in "Minecraft."
• The event was sponsored by the US Marines, and participants competed in four different courses.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The Penn Relays are the largest and oldest track and field event in the US, taking place every year since 1895. This year was quite different from past relays: it took place inside the video game "Minecraft."

A group of UPenn students set up a "Minecraft" server and coordinated recreating the campus together over the last two weeks of March. Since then, they've made plans to host spring traditions in the server, and one of the moderators told Business Insider that hosting the Penn Relays in some form was a major goal for the creators of the campus, who call themselves Penncraft.

The block-building game "Minecraft," which Microsoft bought in 2014 for $2.5 billion, has been one of the most popular games worldwide over the last 10 years. As of September, it had a staggering 112 million active players every month, a number that has reportedly grown to 145 million.

Here's what the event was like.