More than 11 million subscribers made a habit of watching Technoblade’s Minecraft gameplay screencasts as he provided off-camera commentary. While he usually focused on what was happening in the game, in some videos he described life events as mundane as going to the DMV or as devastating as a cancer diagnosis. A video titled “so long nerds,” which was posted to Technoblade’s YouTube channel on Thursday and has been viewed more than 26 million times as of Friday afternoon, departs from the channel’s usual aesthetic of colorful, pixelated bricks. Instead, a man who identifies himself as Technoblade’s father appears, sitting in a chair against a white background with a small white dog on his lap. His father, who does not give his name, reads a message from his son that begins: “Hello everyone. Technoblade here. If you’re watching, I’m dead.” The message goes on to reveal Technoblade’s first name, Alex, which he did not use online. The video also includes a handful of photos of Alex with loved ones. He had rarely appeared in his YouTube videos, preferring instead to appear as his avatar: a crowned pig with a sword. “If I had another hundred lives, I think I’d choose to be a Technoblade again every time,” Alex’s letter says. “Those were the happiest years of my life.” His father, who remains emotional throughout the video, says he and his son have been talking for months about whether to record a final video. Instead, Alex decided to write the letter and died about eight hours after finishing it, his father says. “I don’t think he said everything he wanted to say, but I think he got the main points across,” he says. The video ends with a written statement attributed to Alex’s mother, who is not named. She wrote that her son shunned personal fame and was self-deprecating even as his channel skyrocketed in popularity. “Since Technoblade’s early days online, he has always devised ways to please and reward his audience by giving away prizes online, encouraging good sportsmanship, and most of all, sharing his Minecraft adventures for fun and laughs,” he wrote. Alex’s family could not be reached for comment Friday. Hypixel, a gaming company that partnered with Technoblade, said the family had asked that requests for comment not be forwarded to it. “The video they shared contains all the information they feel comfortable sharing right now,” Don Pireso, the company’s chief operating officer, said in a direct message on Twitter. Alex first publicly acknowledged his cancer diagnosis in a video posted to his channel in August. Like the others, the video showed the game while talking off-camera. He maintained his self-deprecating, humorous style, refusing to be too serious. He also revealed his age at the time, 22. In the video, he described how his first round of chemotherapy left him so exhausted he could barely sit up for a virtual doctor’s appointment. He then joked: “Sitting in a chair, am I Superman?” He said he was diagnosed after experiencing severe pain in his arm. He initially dismissed it as a repetitive stress injury from playing video games, but even after a few days of rest, he said, his shoulder was “swelling like crazy.” He also pleaded with people to get a Covid-19 vaccine, saying cancer treatments had weakened his immune system, putting him at greater risk of serious illness from the coronavirus. “I’m going to go ahead and speak for all cancer patients when I say that it’s incredibly upsetting when hospitals are overwhelmed by people dying from preventable diseases,” he said in the video. “I’m just saying, we’re inundated with these hospital beds.” On social media, Technoblade’s friends and fans praised him for his humor and being a role model among Minecraft players. Minecraft is unlike most games because its owner, Microsoft, does not control the servers where players meet online. Players can instead create their own servers or join one made by someone else, creating an extensive network of worlds in the Minecraft universe. Hypixel, which runs a network of Minecraft servers, said it created a digital memory book for people to write messages that would be printed and sent to Technoblade’s family. The company’s tribute featured an illustration of Technoblade’s pig avatar as a statue. “In many ways, the success of many of us is tied to the success of Technoblade,” the company said. One of Technoblade’s friends, YouTuber Thomas Simons, better known as TommyInnit, described him on Twitter as a “legend”. “I just know,” Mr. Simons wrote, “he is strategizing in heaven how to defeat God.” Claire Fahy contributed reporting.
