Minecraft YouTuber Technoblade dies of cancer as his father posts a message he prepared for followers | Science and tech news

The YouTuber and Minecraft gamer known as Technoblade has died of cancer at the age of 23.

His father posted an emotional farewell message to his channel, which his son had prepared before he died.

In the video, titled “so long nerds,” his father says his son wrote a suicide note and “asked me to read it to all of you.”

“Hello everyone, Technoblade here. If you’re watching this. I’m dead. So let’s sit down and have one last conversation.”

He goes on to reveal that his real name is Alex, and that because of “one of the most successful pranks we’ve ever done”, where one of his siblings called him Dave in a video, people thought his real name was Dave.

“Thousands of creepy online guys trying to get overly personal by saying, ‘Oh hey Dave, how are you?'”

He thanks his followers for buying his merchandise, which he said would help pay his siblings to attend college.

“Well, if they want to. I don’t want to put peer pressure on them,” he adds.

Photos of him appear on the screen, revealing his face to his more than 10 million subscribers for the first time.

He signs: “But that’s all mine. Thank you all for supporting my content over the years. If I had 100 lives left I would choose to be Technoblade every time because those were the happiest years of my to live .

“I hope you enjoyed my content and that I made some of you laugh, and I hope you all have a long, prosperous and happy life because I love you.

“Technoblade out.”

Technoblade became famous for live streaming and posting clips where he played video games and won Minecraft tournaments.

He was widely regarded as one of the best Minecraft gamers in the world.

Last year, he revealed to fans that he had been diagnosed with cancer.

In the farewell video, his father explains that they were talking about making a “face reveal” video, but that he was struggling to focus on “all the different things related to him”.

His father starts to cry as he explains that he got on his knee by his son’s bed and said to him, “Alex, you don’t have to do anything else, you have done so much for so many people, millions of people, and if you now you want to, you can rest. But if you want to write one last video, and you’re waiting for things to get a little better, I’d say don’t wait, I don’t think things are going to get any better.”

He says his son then asked for his laptop and wrote a few paragraphs. “After that, he lived for about eight hours,” his father says.

“He was the most amazing boy anyone could ever ask for. I miss Technoblade.”

The video ends with a written message from his mother.

She thanks everyone for their support and says how much her son “adored and respected his fans and colleagues”.

“Over the past year, our son had many difficult moments as he battled stage four cancer, but he didn’t complain,” she says.

“My son’s courage on this path was a shining lesson to all of us who were privileged to walk it with him.”

Reactions to the video have been inundated with tribute.

One reads: “I remember growing up playing Minecraft. I used to watch Technoblades videos with friends. It’s amazing to see how much of an impact he has made on everyone’s lives. somehow immortalized by Minecraft. When they finally fix PVP, they should call it the Technoblade update.”

Another says: “Techno has been such a big part of my childhood and I’m still a little bit in shock, he was so strong and his legacy will never die because technoblade never dies. We all loved him and I hope that he is now somewhere much happier and with less pain, wherever that is.”

Thousands of the tributes include the words, “Technoblade never dies.”