Alexander (June 1, 1999 – June 2022), known online as Technoblade, was an American YouTuber known for his Minecraft videos, livestreams, and involvement in the Dream SMP.
Born on June 1, 1999, Technoblade resided in San Francisco, California.
2013
Technoblade registered his main channel on YouTube in 2013.
His videos consisted primarily of Minecraft gameplay, particularly on the minigame server Hypixel.
Technoblade first registered and began uploading on his main YouTube channel on October 28, 2013.
Its content focused mainly on the video game Minecraft, particularly gameplay on the minigame server Hypixel.
2016
By his own admission, Technoblade and a sibling deceived his viewers in a now-deleted video from 2016 into believing his name was "Dave".
This was generally accepted as his real name until the announcement of his death, in which he revealed his name was Alexander.
In a video released on August 27, 2021, Technoblade disclosed that he had been diagnosed with cancer after noticing pain in his right arm and swelling on his shoulder.
Chemotherapy and radiation therapy proved unsuccessful.
His oncologist stated that his arm would potentially need to be amputated, and Technoblade advised his viewers to wear face masks and become vaccinated against COVID-19, as it was relevant to his immunodeficiency at the time.
In response to the diagnosis, Dream donated US$21,409 to cancer research, and Technoblade hosted a charity livestream later in September 2021.
In December 2021, he underwent a successful limb salvage operation.
On June 30, 2022, at 9:29 PM EDT, a video titled "so long nerds" was uploaded to Technoblade's YouTube channel, in which his father announced that Technoblade had died from the cancer.
Technoblade's father read a message written by Technoblade eight hours before he died and said that future proceeds from merchandising and videos would go to the Sarcoma Foundation of America and his siblings' college educations.
The video ended with a written message from Technoblade's mother.
Technoblade had planned to script and present the video himself but his declining health prevented him from doing so.
It was also planned that the video would include the song "Exitlude" by the Killers, but didn't due to potential copyright concerns.
2017
In a video from 2017, Technoblade beat Minecraft on hardcore mode using a racing wheel controller.
In another series of videos, beginning with "The Great Potato War", he tried to produce the highest amount of potatoes in the Hypixel gamemode Skyblock competing against rival im_a_squid_kid.
2018
In a 2018 video, he revealed he would begin attending college as an English major.
The Daily Iowan later reported that Technoblade had attended the University of Iowa to study creative writing for a year, from 2018 to 2019.
He was also known to have had ADHD.
Throughout his career, Technoblade avoided personal inquiries and interviews to maintain his and his family's privacy, although he occasionally discussed his personal life in his videos.
His family continued to decline interviews after his death.
2019
After rising to popularity in 2019 for his performances in player versus player (PvP) events, Technoblade was invited to the Dream SMP Minecraft server in 2020, further increasing his following.
In August 2021, Technoblade announced his diagnosis with cancer.
Following unsuccessful treatment attempts, Technoblade died from metastatic sarcoma in June 2022, which prompted widespread reactions across both the Minecraft and YouTube communities.
At the time of his death, his main YouTube channel had reached nearly 11 million subscribers.
Technoblade rose in popularity in 2019, following multiple wins in Keemstar's "Minecraft Monday" tournaments in which he defeated multiple prominent content creators in combat.
Technoblade also regularly participated in the MC Championships (MCC) tournaments with other YouTubers and won two of them.
According to Cale Michael of Dot Esports, he was widely regarded as among the best Minecraft content creators, especially in player versus player (PVP) events.
However, in a later 2019 video, he announced that he dropped out of college to play Minecraft full-time.
2020
Technoblade became a member of the Dream SMP in 2020, a Minecraft server hosted by the YouTuber Dream, which features numerous popular Minecraft YouTubers.
He began frequently creating content and livestreams on the server.
Technoblade had a friendly rivalry with Dream, and they were both generally regarded as among the best Minecraft players.
As part of this rivalry, MrBeast hosted a series of player versus player duels with a $100,000 prize, which Technoblade won.
In September 2021, Technoblade raised over $300,000 for the Sarcoma Foundation of America through a charity livestream, passing the $250,000 goal within two hours.
Around the time of his death in June 2022, Technoblade's channel had reached 10.8 million subscribers.
In August 2022, it posthumously reached fifteen million subscribers.
