Famous Minecraft Youtuber, Technoblade, who has amassed over 8.4 million subscribers since his start in 2013, has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. On August 27th, he posted a video titled, “Where I’ve Been.” In the video, he describes how it all happened, and where he will be taking his channel now that he will have to go through chemotherapy. He has stated that he doesn’t want to stop his content, as it is the only thing keeping him going, and it is one of the few things that he has enjoyed for the past couple of years. But how did he get here? How did this one man change the game forever, and how will he go on with his diagnosis? 

Technoblade, got his start on Youtube not under the name Technoblade but under the name studioLORE. This channel mostly posted short clips of Roblox and other games, and at its prime, hit 47 subscribers. After the failed attempt of that channel, Techno quit that channel and started the Technoblade channel which primary focused on Minecraft PVP. During that time, Techno killed many famous Minecraft blitz players which gave him most of his fame. After the fame, Techno stopped with Blitz PVP videos and started on a different up and coming server, a server named Hypixel, where a new minigame had started, called Skywars. Techno started making Skywars commentary videos with other content such as his 100k special where he did his first in person video. After doing Skywars for almost a year, Techno got bored and stopped uploading as much in genral. After that short break from making videos, he came back with the new Hypixel game, the one that would give him the recognition he needed to make it as a professional YouTuber, Bedwars. 

After playing (Bedwars) for a while, he realized that he had won 349 games in a row, which is absolutely insane. This gave him the idea to go for a high streak for most Bedwars wins in a row. The high score was only 25 wins more than him, so he knew what he had to do: He gathered the best players he could find, and started grinding Bedwars. Before long, on September 23, 2017, Techno uploaded a video titled, “Bedwars 500 Winstreak (World Record).” The man had done it. With the help of his friends, he had not only broken the record, he broke it by a few hundred. And only a few months after the release of the game. But he didn’t stop there. 

After he posted a video where he got a 600 win streak, the owner of the Hypixel server, reached out to Techno. In a tweet by him, he stated, “IF @Technothepig gets 1000 win streak in bed wars (now 600) we will give him 25x 100$ store credits to give away to his fans. No pressure.” That’s huge. If Techno got to a 1000-win streak, he would receive 2,500 dollars to give away to his fans. After having to pull all-nighters, trying to avoid hackers, and many, MANY, close calls, on October 14, 2017, Techno reached it. Finally, after months of hard work, he got to the 1000 streak. But he didn’t stop there. For the next month, he kept going, getting a win streak of 1,400 games. But he was tired. He wanted to stop. So finally, on October 26, he posted a video titled, “im finally free,” where he purposefully died, freeing himself of the burden that was the win streak. Within a few weeks, he had shattered the original record by over four times!  But this was just the beginning of Techno’s long journey. 

This rise in fame granted him the opportunity to play alongside many famous Minecraft YouTubers in a 14-week battle royale, where each week, you are teamed with a different person, and the winners of each week get a prize of 10,000 dollars. That’s a lot of money, and of course, Techno had to join. His experience with Bedwars gave him everything that he needed, and with the help of many friends, dominated the competition. With his partner ShotGunRaids, he was able to win the entirety of week one, earning them the 10,000-dollar prize. Once again, the owner of Hypixel had an offer for Techno. If he were to win the competition, he would get a custom PIG rank on the Hypixel server, (Techno’s skin was a pig.)  Techno got that PIG rank, which to him, was way more important than the money. In the first week, he had a total of 21,000 live viewers, which helped spike his channel growth. Through the next few weeks, he dominated the game, gaining recognition from much bigger streamers, such as CaptainSparklez, Ninja, PewDiePie, and more. Before long, he became so good, that the event organizers had to step in, and teamed him with the least-experienced players. For the second week, he was placed with a less-experienced Minecraft player, iballisticsquid, but that didn’t stop him, and for the second week in a row, he won. He went on to win two more times, winning four of the fourteen games. All of this helped him get over one of the biggest milestones for any YouTuber; he reached one million subscribers. 

After Minecraft Monday was done, Technoblade needed something else to do. He went back to Hypixel, and decided to try out a new game they were making, called Skyblock. Skyblock teaches us that no matter how ridiculous the odds may seem, within us resides the power to overcome these challenges and achieve something beautiful. And one day, we’ll look back at where we started and be amazed by how far we’ve come.” Now that may seem dramatic but it is true. Except Hypixel throws it all out the window, and you bridge over to an island, go through a portal and suddenly it’s an adventure game, not Skyblock. 

One day while he was playing on Skyblock, he noticed that he was super close to getting number one in potatoes farmed. He was only behind one player: im_a_squid_kid, a poor college kid. Techno realized what he had to do, and optimized his farm, going over statistics on the best strategies, and within days, he was number one. im_a_squid_kid, started the infamous potato war, Technoblade versus im_a_squid_kid. This war lasted for around a year, with the first-place position going back and forth, until finally, it was decided that the first person to reach 500 million potatoes would be the victor. And just barely, Techno did it. 500 million potatoes farmed. And the reward for his hard work, months of sleepless potato-gathering nights? The title “King of Potatoes,” and an NPC (non-player character) with Technoblade’s skin as the character. Now, other players could use this NPC to gain skills and advantages in farming. Technoblade was thriving. 

But once again, his fame didn’t stop there. A new tournament minigame had started to overtake YouTube and Twitch, a game by the name of Minecraft Championships, or MCC for short. This event was similar to Minecraft Mondays, but rather than the more intense game mode that Minecraft Monday brought, MCC was a lot more lighthearted and was more about having fun. Techno joined the second MCC that occurred, and did very well, his team scoring third place. His next MCC was similar to this, and his team ended up scoring fourth. But Techno wanted more and ended up winning the entire event, placing first overall. Things were looking up. Techno kept rising in fame, his subscribers rolling in. But suddenly, there was competition. There was another player that was considered by many to be the next Technoblade, and maybe even better: Dream. 

Dream was an up-and-coming YouTuber who was famous for his videos titled, “Minecraft Manhunt,” where he tried to beat Minecraft, but his friends try to stop him. So, a rivalry was started, people split between who was the best player: Dream or Technoblade. And finally, after months of going back and forth, one content creator couldn’t handle it anymore. A decision needed to be made about who was the best player, so MrBeast, a well-known YouTuber now with over 60 million subscribers, hosted a tournament: Dream vs Technoblade. The tournament would consist of ten fights, five in the Minecraft edition 1.8, which is Technoblade’s strongest version, and five in Minecraft 1.16, which is Dream’s strongest version. The winner would receive a grand total prize of 100,000 dollars. The ninth round came, and with everybody waiting in anticipation, Dream was killed by Technoblade in one swoop. The score was five to four. Techno had guaranteed himself at least 50,000 dollars. The final round came, and Dream had to win this one if he wanted his share of the money. The round started, and they both played it safe, trading hits. But then Techno went ham. Dream, and he died. Techno had killed him, and won the duel, winning 100,000 dollars, keeping his title as the best Minecraft player. There is no stopping the man. 

This brings us to today. In a video posted on August 27th, Techno announced his cancer, but he did it in a way that made the fans feel that they wouldn’t lose one of their favorite personalities. Techno started off the video with his usual antics rambling about the background footage and how he likes filming live commentary. Techno then gives us the real reason why he has been gone so long; as Techno puts it, “And the reason my arm hurts is because I have cancer…. That really couldn’t have gone worse.” Techno makes alight of his current situation by saying how his health care provider reacted by jokingly saying, “You have what… Nooooooooooooo!” Techno also asks his fans for a favor: get rid of Covid-19, to just wear a mask and get the vaccine, especially if you live in California. Techno then states that how many hospitals are being flooded by people that are not vaccinated, and how they don’t have room for more terminally ill patients, like people with cancer. Even though the video is pretty dark, he still jokes, and makes it seem like everything will be okay. 

And of course, he isn’t alone in this fight. Many people flocked to Twitter, Twitch, Youtube, Instagram, and more in support of him. Dream, one of his closest rivals, and now friend, donated 21,000 dollars to cancer research. But he will get through this. He stated that it isn’t that bad and he is already getting better. And by looking at what he’s gone through, with the highest streak in Bedwars wins, the Potato King, dominating Minecraft Monday and Minecraft Championships, and beating Dream, proving he is the best Minecraft player, cancer is nothing. To quote Technoblade’s famous line, “TECHNOBLADE NEVER DIES!”