Father of Technoblade, YouTube Minecraft Star, Says his Son Has Died
He read his son's last message on the YouTube channel where the 20-something had entertained more 11 million viewers with Minecraft gameplay and humorous commentary. The titlewas "so long nerds."
Send a friend a story
Subscribers have 10 gift items every month. You can share what you write about.
Please share this article
Read in app
By Amanda Holpuch
Technoblade Technoblade, a YouTube celebrity who gained millions of followers through his humorous comments on videos of him playing Minecraft, has passed away his father announced through a video posted on his son's YouTube account.
Technoblade's Minecraft gameplay was watched by more than 11 million players. He was a commentator on camera. While he was usually focused on the action in the game, in a few videos, he talked about things that are as routine as going to the D.M.V. or as devastating as receiving a cancer diagnosis.
A video called "so long nerds" which was uploaded on Technoblade's YouTube channel on Thursday, and has been viewed more than 26 million times as of Friday afternoon, was a departure from the channel's standard aesthetic of colorful, pixelated bricks. Launcher Instead, Technoblade's father appears in a chair with a small white dog and an unmistakably white background.
His father, who does not give his name and reads an email from his son that begins: "Hello, everyone. Technoblade here. You can see me dead when you're watching this.
The message then goes on to reveal Technoblade's first name, Alex. He didn’t use it on the internet. A few images of Alex and his loved ones are also included in the video. Alex rarely appeared in YouTube videos and preferred to present himself as a crowned, sword-wielding porcine.
Alex's letter states "If I had another hundred years in my years to live, I'm sure I'd pick Technoblade again every time." "Those were the most joyful years of my entire life."
His father, who is emotional throughout the film, says that he and his son argued for months about whether to create an end-of-the-line video. Instead, Alex decided to write the letter and died around eight hours after having completed it, his father says.
"I do not think he did everything he wanted to say, but I think he got the main points," he says.
The video concludes with a letter that Alex's mother (who isn't named) wrote. She said that Alex was not famous and self-deprecating despite his channel's growing popularity.
"From Technoblade's first days on the web, he was always strategizing ways to delight and reward his audience by offering online prizes in the name of encouraging sportsmanship and, most importantly, sharing his Minecraft adventures for fun and entertainment," she wrote.
Alex's family could not reach Alex on Friday. Hypixel is a gaming company that collaborated with Technoblade, said Alex's family had requested comments not be sent to them. "The video they shared contains all the information they're comfortable sharing at the moment," Don Pireso, the company's lead administrator, said in a Twitter direct message.
Alex first publicly acknowledged the diagnosis of cancer in a video that was posted on his channel in August. The video, which showed Alex speaking off camera, showed the game. He retained his self-deprecating, humorous style, avoiding becoming too earnest. He also revealed his age at the time, 22.
In the video, he explained how the first round of chemotherapy made him exhausted to the point that he could barely get up for a virtual doctor's appointment. He also joked "Sitting in the chair is I Superman?"
After experiencing severe discomfort in his arm, he said he was diagnosed. He initially dismissed it as a stress injury caused by playing video games, but even after some days of rest, he stated his shoulder "was swelling like crazy."
He also advised people to obtain the vaccine Covid-19. He claimed that his treatments for cancer have weakened his immune system, which made him more vulnerable to serious illness from the coronavirus.
He added, "I'm going ahead and speak for all cancer patients when i say it is incredibly irritating when hospitals are overwhelmed by patients who are dying from preventable diseases." "I'm just saying that we should have priority for the beds in hospitals.
Technoblade's fans, friends and followers on social media have praised for his humor, as well as his role as a role model for Minecraft players.
Minecraft is unlike most games because its creator, Microsoft, does not control the servers on which players meet online. Instead, players can create their own servers and join other players to create a vast network of worlds within the Minecraft universe.
Hypixel which manages a network of Minecraft servers, announced that it had created a digital memorial book for people to write messages which would be printed and sent to Technoblade's family. The tribute featured a picture of Technoblade's pig avatar, as a statue. "In many ways the success of a lot of us is linked to the success of Technoblade," the company said.