| Romania | |
| Name | Romania |
| Description | The Romanian community |
| Discord | discord.gg/placero |
| Artwork | Peleș Castle (2022), Bran Castle (2023), Endless Column (2022 and 2023), Dacia 1300 (2022), Romanian Coat of Arms (2022) |
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. Romania is the twelfth-largest country in Europe and the sixth-most populous member state of the European Union. Its capital and largest city is Bucharest, and other major urban areas include Iași, Cluj-Napoca, Timișoara, Constanța, Craiova, Brașov, and Galați.[1]
The country was formed in 1859 through a personal union of Moldavia and Wallachia. The new state, officially named Romania since 1866, gained independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1877. In the aftermath of the First World War, Bukovina, Bessarabia, Transylvania, and parts of Banat, Crișana, and Maramureș became part of the Kingdom of Romania. Bessarabia and northern Bukovina were lost after World War II.[1]
For r/place 2017 and r/place 2022, the Romanian community on r/place was coordinated by the r/Romania subreddit, while for r/place 2023 coordination was handled by the newly created PlaceRO discord server which incorporated several Romanian communities. The PlaceRO was formed as a cooperation between members of r/OkPrietenRetardat and r/Romania.
r/place 2023
Organization and alliances
First flag
Final flag
Greek border controversy
Streamer attack
Attempts at expanding
Aftermath of 2023 and surviving artwork
r/place 2022
During r/place 2022, the Romanian reddit community created two main flags, however these flags were destroyed by Polish streamers in the last day. Only several smaller flags survived until the Great Whiteout.
During the first day, while the Romanian flag was being expanded, "The Hive Mind" of the Ukrainian flag took over a good portion of it. On the same day, the Romanian and Hungarian flags were expanded over the r/furry_irl logo.
After the Ukrainian flag had stopped, the Romanian flag was also expanded over its territory, while preserving the artwork of several communities such as the Half Life 3 logo, Adventure Time and the TNO Mod logo.
Void attack
On the second day, after the canvas expansion, a second smaller flag was made. This flag was attacked by the void but it survived with the help of the streamer Rubius.
First streamer attack
On the third day, a Polish streamer attacked the main flag and destroyed it, replacing it with a Polish flag. After the attack started, a post was made on the main subreddit requesting help to stop the streamer and rebuild the Romanian flag and the communities it hosted, gathering a lot of support.[2]
For retaking the flag, the Anti Void Alliances organized an event on discord, and together with the help of several other communities, the Romanian flag was restored and reconstruction began.
Reconstruction
The reconstruction took the rest of the day. During this time, the flag was also expanded over the place taken by the streamer which had been destroyed.
Last day
Conflict with Guatemala
While most of the Romanian community was asleep, the Guatemalan flag expanded over the territory taken the previous day from the Poles. This territory was taken back by the Romanians, first being decided to leave the Guatemalan artwork intact but soon everything being taken over. An agreement was reached with the Guatemalans to help them relocate after the Dacia car artwork, which was to be built on the taken back spot, was completed.
However, the Dacia was never completed as another Polish streamer, Popo, attacked the flag and destroyed it yet again.[3][note 1] While the attack was happening, the Nordic Union took the opportunity and invaded the Hungarian flag, while Azerbaijan took a portion of the Romanian flag.[note 2]
Trying to retake the flags
In the evening of the last day, iRaphahell, a Romanian streamer, tried to help retake the flags. However, as he did not know of the Romanian community's alliances he expanded the Second flag over some of them. Soon, a representative from the Romanian community managed to get in touch with him for better coordination.
All this effort was however not enough to take back the flags. The biggest achievement of the attacks were the destruction of the crude Winged Hussar artwork made by Polish streamers who had also joined in. Relocations of the flag were also tried, but each flag was destroyed by the Poles.
Aftermath of 2022
Before the end of the event, only a few smaller Romanian flags scattered throughout the canvas survived:
- Romanian Community of Risk Universalis III flag
- tiny Romanian flag
- Romanian heart - made by the Bulgarian/Polish alliance
- okptr troll face - made by r/okprietenretardat in collaboration with r/pMegu
2022 Alliances
The longest lasting alliance of the Romanian community was that with Hungary. The two made a friendship ribbon together and helped each other build and defend.
Alliances with other communities also existed, such as: Moldova, Guardian Tales, Italy, Touhou, Adventure Time, The New Order Mod, Half Life, Factorio. The community was also part of the Megaman Accords founded by r/Israel and r/Megaman.
2022 Artwork
Main Flag artwork:
- Peleș Castle
- Romanian Coat of Arms
- Moldovan Coat of Arms
- Dacia 1300
- Friendship ribbon with Hungary - collaboration with r/hungary
Second Flag artwork:
- Endless Column of Constantin Brâncuși
- Romanian Penguin - collaboration with r/penguin
The flags hosed sever other communities as well. On the Main Flag: Half-Life 3 Logo, TNO Mod Logo, Adventure Time characters, Alice Margatroid (Touhou), Little Princess (Guardian Tales), Mayreel (Guardian Tales), "BURO" text (r/Buro. The text was eventually modified to write "EURO"), and Little houses (r/LilHousePlace).
On the Second Flag: Peter Parker and Miles Morales (Spider-Man group), and Romanian themed Factorio belt.
r/place 2017
In the 2017 event, the Romanian flag featured a flagpole with a golden aquila on top, which was added before the upward expansion of the flag; a vampire snoo, which replaced a more human looking vampire just before the end; a banner with the text "Romania", and a friendship heart with Hungary.