Entertainment

The YouTuber and Minecraft gamer known as Technoblade has died from cancer, aged 23.

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

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

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

He goes on to reveal 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 dudes trying to get overly personal saying ‘Oh hey Dave, how’s it going?'”

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

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

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

He signs off: “But that’s all from me. Thank you all for supporting my content over the years. If I had another 100 lives, I think I would choose to be Technoblade every single time, as those were the happiest years of my life.

“I hope you guys enjoyed my content and that I made some of you laugh, and I hope you all go on to live long, prosperous and happy lives, because I love you guys.

“Technoblade out.”

Technoblade rose to fame livestreaming and posting clips of himself playing 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 he had been diagnosed with cancer.

In the farewell video, his father explains that they had been talking about doing a “face reveal” video, but that he was having a hard time focusing with “all the various things that were hooked up to him”.

His father starts to cry as he explains that he got down on his knee by his son’s bedside and told him: “Alex, you don’t have to do anything else, you’ve done so much for so many people, millions of people, and if you want to now, you can rest. But if you want to write one last video, and you’re waiting for things to get a little better, then I would 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. “He lived about another eight hours after that,” his father says.

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

The video ends with a written message from his mum.

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

“This past year had a lot of rough spots for our son as he battled stage four cancer. But he didn’t complain,” she says.

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

The comments on the video have been flooded with tributes.

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

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

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