A (Super-Long) Biography on the Life of Technoblade

Regardless of whether they love it or hate it, most Minecraft players who’ve seen A Minecraft Movie can agree the movie has one moment that’s absolute cinema. As Jack Black’s Steve is leading the other human protagonists to Midport Village, they come across a pig wearing a crown. The youngest, Henry, asks if the pig is a king. In response, Steve proudly says, “No, that’s a legend.” While this moment might not make sense to casual movie-goers, it was enough to make dedicated Minecraft players break out in applause and tears. The reason? Because the film had paid tribute to the greatest player in Minecraft history. A man who, while gone, is not forgotten: Technoblade.

During his brief life, Technoblade became a legend in the Minecraft community. After his passing, that legend has ascended to near-mythic status. Anyone who was a fan of him will call him the GOAT. Everyone who worked and played with him has nothing but praise for the young man. He was so great that even Minecraft itself honored him after his death.

Gather ’round, everyone; it’s time for a story. This is the legend of the blade.

From Humble Beginnings

Like so many legends throughout history, Technoblade’s story starts from humble beginnings. Born to a family of seven in June 1999, Alex, the boy who would become Techoblade, spent the majority of his life on YouTube. In 2009, Alex created his first YouTube channel, StudioLORE. He wouldn’t post on it that often, and never really got any traction on it, either. But then, everything changed in late 2013, when Alex made a decision that would change his life. He decided to try his hand at a new sandbox video game that had been gaining popularity on YouTube lately: Minecraft. Thus, in October of that year, Alex would create the alter-ego that would become known far and wide: Technoblade.

Technoblade started out small, playing on a few minor Minecraft servers. That was where he realized that he had a natural talent for fighting other players. After dominating them in a short amount of time, he joined the newly-formed server, Hypixel. Initially starting off playing Minecraft Hunger Games, Technoblade eventually shifted to another minigame, SkyWars. He kept grinding at it until, eventually, he was among the best SkyWars players in the world, breaking past 100k subscribers. Since this is YouTube, though, he needed to do something truly viral-worthy to stand out. So, he decided to do something so crazy, it couldn’t help but go viral.

He beat Minecraft on Hardcore mode…with a steering wheel.

Hardcore is a mode of Minecraft where the game’s locked on the hardest difficulty possible. Worse, perma-death is enabled, meaning if you died once, the world would be lost. That would be hard under normal circumstances, but Technoblade decided to beat it using a steering wheel instead of a keyboard. It took him almost ten hours, and a few close calls, but he won the game. The video he published would get millions of views.

Technoblade, World Record Holder

Soon after his steering wheel video, Hypixel added the new BedWars minigame. Like before, Technoblade absolutely dominated, racking up a winning streak of 349 games in a row! Even more astonishing was that he was just 25 wins away from breaking the world record. Technoblade gathered a team of elite players, and together, they went for the record. On September 23, 2017, he uploaded a video proving he broke the record…and then shot straight past it.

It got to the point where the admin for Hypixel challenged Technoblade to reach a 1,000 win streak, he would give him $2500 worth of in-store credit. By October of 2017, he hit that goal and continued past it. But eventually, he got tired of keeping the streak up, so he decided to end it by throwing a game.

He then proceeded to help another player break his record. But Technoblade was just getting started.

He’s a Warrior

By this point, Technoblade was becoming very well-known in the Minecraft community, and he would only get bigger from there. He proceeded to join Minecraft Monday, a 14-week long series of tournaments where the winning players would earn $10,000. Together with his partner, ShotGunRaids, Techno would become the favorite to win the first tournament. To sweeten the deal, the owner of Hypixel made him an offer: if he won, he would get the special PIG rank for a week. He would ultimately win.

By now, the Minecraft community was well aware that Technoblade was becoming one of its best players. He was unmatched in PvP, making all who stood against him tremble in fear. It got to the point where the tournament organizers tried nerfing him by giving him less-skilled teammates, and he still kept winning. It seemed like no one could mess with Technoblade! His exploits would push his channel past a million subscribers in 2019, and would secure him a spot in future Minecraft tournaments.

No one Messes With the Blade

Technoblade didn’t rest on his laurels after hitting a million subs. He started playing Hypixel’s new Skyblock game, and dedicated himself to farming potatoes. Before long, he was one of the top potato farmers on the server. Being Technoblade, he decided he wanted the top spot. His efforts to reach #1 brought him into conflict with the current holder, im_a_squid_kid. Their epic battle to be master of the potato lasted from October 2019 to June 2020, and went down in history as the Great Potato War.

The two would clash back and forth, trying to find ways to one-up the other. Eventually, they both agreed to end the conflict, with the first to reach 500 million potatoes being declared the winner. It was close, but in the end, Squid could not withstand Techno’s might. As a result, Hypixel added a special NPC to its lobby and bestowed Technoblade with a potato crown and title of potato king.

At the same time, Technoblade got invited to the then biggest SMP (survival multiplayer) server to date, SMP Earth. Taking place on a smaller version of planet Earth, Technoblade had only one goal: world domination.

Setting up his base in Antarctica, he and his allies conquered almost the entire map before the admin added a new rule banning world domination. It was also on this server that Techno would become acquainted with several other prominent Minecraft players who would play a big part in his life. But as his star continued to rise in the game, he would face his greatest challenge yet.

Dream vs. Technoblade: Dawn of Awesome

By now, Technoblade was known as one of the best Minecraft players in the world. He made all the players quake and his fans bow to his greatness. And most importantly, his chaotic charisma and humor made him beloved by all. It looked like no one in the world could beat him. Except for one: Dream.

A rising star in Minecraft, Dream had risen to prominence in 2019 with his “Minecraft Manhunt” videos and his speedrunning skills. He soon became one of the biggest names in the game, rubbing elbows with the elites of YouTube. Then, during a livestream collab with Mr. Beast, the two joked that Dream could beat up Technoblade. However, since this was the Internet, it wasn’t long before people took this idea seriously. Before long, entire flame wars ignited as people started arguing about who would win. The two would face off in Minecraft Championship, but Techno’s team would ultimately win over Dream’s.

Then someone joked that the two should be paired together for the next tournament. The tournament organizers thought this was a great idea, though. Come August 2020, Technoblade and Dream, the two best players in Minecraft, joined forces. Their team won, making them more popular than ever. And now more than ever, people really wanted to see who was the best.

Mr. Beast, being Mr. Beast, made the two an offer: if they went through with the fight, he’d give the winner $100K. In July 2020, it was made official: in one month’s time, the two best players in Minecraft would duel to see who truly was the greatest. And on August 27th, 2020, they recorded the fight.

Technoblade, the King of Minecraft

The duel between Technoblade and Dream would go for ten rounds, five on each player’s preferred version of Minecraft: 1.8 for Techno, and 1.16 for Dream. They would switch every round to ensure maximum fairness. Two days later, the video went up on YouTube, and millions of people tuned in to watch it. It was the greatest duel in gaming history; the gamer’s equivalent to Batman vs. Superman, only actually good. And so, for fourteen minutes, the two greatest players in Minecraft clashed, with the entire world watching.

Round after round, Technoblade and Dream held nothing back, hitting each other with blow after blow, with neither side gaining the advantage. Until, that is, Techno managed pull ahead with 5-4 rounds in his favor, with only one round remaining. One final round ensued, and although Dream gave it his all, he could not withstand the might of Technoblade.

And just like that, it was over. Technoblade had won. He had risen to become the best Minecraft player in the world. Technoblade, the man who beat hardcore with a steering wheel. The man who won the world record in SkyWars. The man who had started a potato farming war with another player for the love of the game was now the King of Minecraft.

There were no hard feelings between Dream and Technoblade, though. They had already agreed to split the prize between them. A month afterward, Dream invited Techno to join his own SMP, the Dream SMP. There, Technoblade would work and play alongside many of the Minecraft streamers over the years, and would generally act as an agent of chaos. Yet everyone loved and respected the King, and hoped he would have a long reign.

But it was not meant to be.

His Greatest Battle

The Dream SMP would make Technoblade bigger than ever. Millions of people around the world would tune into him, Dream, TommyInnit, Tubbo, and some of the biggest names in the community as they live-streamed this modern epic. Things IRL also seemed to be going Techno’s way. He had dropped out of college to play Minecraft fulltime, and was making plenty of money off it. His follower count was approaching ten million. He was a king who had made countless friends thanks to this game that had changed his life. And since he started helping write the story of the DSMP, it looked as though his reign would last for years.

And then…silence.

In the middle of 2021, Technoblade’s channel went dark. No one had any idea what was going on. Weeks went by, and speculation grew. Then, just as suddenly as he had vanished, he reappeared. For a moment, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. However, that relief soon turned to heartbreak as they watched his new video. Technoblade…had cancer.

Saying that people were horrified to hear this would be an understatement. Everyone, from his fans to his many friends, was shaken to their core. Technoblade, their king, was now facing a fight that he may be unable to win. But Technoblade would not succumb to despair. If death wanted him, then it would have to earn the right to claim him.

“So Long, Nerds.”

As with everything else he had done in his life, Technoblade threw himself into this final battle. People started donating money to help his treatment by the tens of thousands. His friends and allies would rally their fanbases to provide their own support. Now more than ever, the people of Minecraft stood beside their king as he fought his greatest battle, raising more than half a million dollars for cancer research. And, during this time, Technoblade hit one more milestone. In the hours before the end of 2021, he managed to reach ten million subscribers on YouTube. And, for a moment, it looked like Technoblade might have weathered the worst of it.

But then…more silence. Again, months would pass without any news. And then, on June 30th, 2022, one last video went up on his channel, “So Long, Nerds.”

Alex, Technoblade, the King of Minecraft, was no longer in this world.

Long Live the King

Across the Internet, countless people began to mourn Technoblade’s passing in their own ways. In the final video, his father, who fans affectionately call Technodad, read a message written mere hours before Alex’s death. His family would ensure that all future profits from his videos and merch would go to the Sarcoma Foundation of America and to fund his siblings college education.

Those who knew Technoblade personally, especially those he had played with in Minecraft, each took the time to grieve and mourn. Dream and other members of the Dream SMP would take the time to react to the news of his passing with their fans, and paid tribute to their friend. On the Hypixel server, the admins would set up a space for people to write messages of condolence until August. More than 377,000 messages were written and delivered to Alex’s family by the CEO of Hypixel in November of that year.

Even the Game Loved Him

Technoblade’s fans would spend months paying tribute to their king. His final message would gain 30 million views in less than 24 hours. It would remain the top trending video on YouTube for days afterward, and at 87 million views, it would become the most viewed video on the platform for 2022. Fans would make artwork, videos, and other creations, all to pay homage to the King of Minecraft.

In an act that can only be described as the equivalent of the heavens themselves weeping, Minecraft itself mourned Technoblade. On July 2nd of that year, Mojang Studios modified the starter image to the Java Edition of the game to include a pig with a crown. In addition, Mojang would add Technoblade’s famous catchphrase to the splash text for the game’s title screen:

“Technoblade never dies!”

Technoblade’s dad has since gone on to run his son’s channel, as well as post his own videos on his own channel.

As for the Dream SMP, it would continue until April 10th, 2023, after which Dream shut it down.

Technoblade Never Dies

Technoblade’s life was very brief, with him only being twenty-three at the time of his death. However, in the span of that short life, Technoblade had managed to do more than people five times his age could only dream about.

Technoblade had dedicated his entire life to playing Minecraft. He had devoted countless hours to perfecting his skill at the game, and his efforts bore great fruit. Game or not, he became unmatched on the field of battle. Whenever he decided to do something, he would get it done, no matter what stood in his way. Handicapping himself while playing the hardest mode of Minecraft possible? He still beat it. Set a world record? Technoblade would find a way to break it. Try to rig a tournament so that he was at a disadvantage? He still managed to come out on top. And that’s not even including all the times he would fight hordes of players at once and beat them all. Minecraft may be a video game, but that kind of determination is nothing short of admirable. Nothing seemed capable of stopping him. One could even argue that his death was merely fighting cancer to a draw!

Technoblade may be gone, but the impact he left on Minecraft and the world of gaming cannot be overstated. He was what every Minecraft player trying to make it big online aspires to be. And, were he still alive, there is no doubt that he would keep finding ways to one-up himself. Or maybe he could’ve turned his clout into something that could have helped the world in ways we can’t begin to imagine. Thinking about what could have been, though, wouldn’t do him justice. He didn’t set out to change the world; he just wanted to have fun playing a cool video game. And he was lucky to turn that into his life, alongside many others.

I think that’s why seeing that tribute to him in A Minecraft Movie is so important. It’s the game itself acknowledging the players who made it great by acknowledging the man who became its king. Someone else may eventually be able to claim the crown as the king of Minecraft, but they’ll still be following in the footsteps of someone else. The man, the myth, the legend that is Technoblade.

A big thank you to EvanMCGaming on YouTube, whose videos on Technoblade’s career were the primary source of information for this piece. If you haven’t already, go watch his videos. He has an entire series on the history of the Dream SMP, and it is really good.