Last week I brought you the fascinating story of how the creator of Minecraft, Markus “Notch” Persson, was challenged to a bout of Quake 3 Arena by a person giving away free copies of Minecraft. The match seemed to be the perfect ending to what could have been ugly. Notch could have threatened the pirate with, or actually taken, legal action. Instead, he politely asked that the pirate stop giving away his work. The site was shut down, but the pirate, obviously a Minecraft fan, used his opportunity to converse with Notch to propose a friendly game of Quake 3.

The match was scheduled for today at 1:00 pm EDT, but has been delayed. Notch made the delay announcement on Twitter:

The fact that Notch says the match is not happening “today” makes me think the event might still happen, and could be rescheduled. Also, what “bigger things” could be happening that would prevent a quick Quake 3 match? Only time will tell, and Notch is known for sometimes being cryptic on Twitter. Notch announced on Sunday that he would be slowing his internet interaction with fans for a while:

Despite his joke, Notch insists he is not on vacation. The first inkling that the Quake 3 match might not happen came soon after, when a curious fan wondered how this “vacation” might impact the bout:

The news is disappointing, but hopefully the match will come to fruition in the near future. In the meantime, we can feel free to speculate on what Notch’s short internet break might mean for his projects. Does it mean that the final touches are being put on a playable beta for his new science fiction game, 0x10c? Your wild theories are welcome in the comments section below.