When we read about the untimely deaths of young men and women in the news, our hearts generally go out to the poor departed. We might think about how sad it is that these people have passed on in the prime of their lives, whether they were taken in a car accident or some kind of violent crime.
The people on this list are not those people. I have Sean Cooke back with me this week you through a list of these unfortunate people that it’s just too hard to feel sorry for.
Chen Rong Yu: League Of Legends
Hardcore gamer.
Ever been down at the local gaming café? Ever stayed there for hours at a time, talking to people half way around the world but never sparing a word for the stranger sitting next to you? Well maybe after reading this you will.
Earlier this month a 23 year old Taiwanese man named Chen Ron Yu entered an internet gaming café to play the popular MMO League Of Legends. He stayed there for almost half a day. Now, while that seems a bit excessive it really isn’t. There are places you can go that are dedicated to just that. What puts this incident apart is that, a short while after entering the premises, Rong Yu died.
And stayed that way for 9 hours.
Nine. Fucking. Hours. Can you imagine that? And it wasn’t even a slow day. At least thirty other people had come and gone since Rong Yu’s demise. That means that they had possibly been directing people to go and sit next to his corpse while they gamed!
Hey, how you doin?
It has been revealed that the cause of death was a cardiac arrest brought on by blood clots, themselves brought on by low temperatures, ill health and not fucking moving for almost a whole day.
Jeff Dailey And Steve Burkowski: Berzerk
Looking at this game nowadays, you may be wondering how it could cause a heart attack. Can you get heart attacks from boredom?
I can feel my heart stopping already.
Atari’s Berzerk “killed” two people back in the 80′s, and has the accolade of being the first video game to do so. Of course, I use the term killed loosely: we know that the underlying cause of gamer deaths is reckless obsession.
Apparently though, back in the old days this game was quite stressful due to it’s difficulty level, and the race for scoreboard fame caused two teenagers to drop dead soon after posting top scores.
The first one was 19 year old Jeff Dailey, back in 1981, who died after posting a high score of 16,660. The following year, 18 year old Peter Burkowski suffered a heart attack shortly after achieving two top ten scores in the space of 15 minutes. Both were healthy, A+ students. Neither were drinkers or drug takers.
Although some say that Jeff may still be alive.
Not much information is available about these two deaths, possibly because the nascent gaming industry wanted to keep the incident quiet. But it is a verified fact that this is the oldest game with blood on it’s hands.
Chris Staniforth
Is he... Is he coming on to me?
Here we have a 20 year old man named Chris Staniforth. Chris used to like to play Halo online for twelve hours at a time. Honestly, I can’t see anything wrong with that. I’ve done it myself a few times, just not with Halo (Because it’s shit). With Chris, though, it was different. He would play for twelve hour at a time all the time. Like, all the time. I really don’t think I can stress enough just how much this guy would play that Xbox without moving an inch.
Although maybe I don't have to.
Well, apparently that kind of sedentary lifestyle can take it’s toll on a body. You see, Chris was standing outside a JobCentre with a friend explaining how, the previous night, he awoke to a strange feeling in his chest and a slowing of his heart. Unlike any other person in the world, he went back to sleep instead of calling an ambulance (Or at least checking Web MD). This would prove to be his downfall as, outside the very same JobCentre, Chris suddenly dropped dead.
Police are looking at this man as a suspect.
The cause of death was given as a blockage to the lungs brought on by Deep Vein Thrombosis. DVT is a condition most commonly linked to passengers on long flights to, say, Australia. You see, a combination of the high altitude and long bouts of sitting completely still can cause blood clots to form in the deep veins of the legs. The clot can then go from there to everywhere else in the body. People on these flights usually don’t get them anymore, though, due to being advised to get up and stroll around to keep the blood flowing. That’s on a plane. Obviously, it can affect the elderly or the bed-ridden at home, but imagine how lazy an able young man has to be to get that in the company of his own house.
That'll do it.
Lee Seung Soep: StarCraft
No. 1 on his Christmas wish list.
Another story from Asia, this time a 28 year old South Korean guy called Lee Seung Sop. His impending doom began to unfold when he was fired from work due to constantly being late (caused by his video game addiction), soon after which, his girlfriend broke up with him. Being an unemployed, single, video game addict in hard times, he turned to his favourite game: Starcraft.
And Country.
By the way, if you’re wondering how a gaming addict can actually get a girlfriend in the first place, your guess is as good as mine.
Although...
So, cut to a dim and smoky internet café. Lee walked in and began the Starcraft marathon that would be his last. During the gaming session, he ate and drank very little, never slept, and only left his seat to use the toilet – he never actually left the building. 50 hours later, his mother, curious of his wheareabouts, asked his colleagues to locate him. After finding Lee in the internet café, they informed him that his mother was worried about him, and he replied that he would finish the game and come home shortly.
Instead of finishing the game, he collapsed and fell out of his chair, dying later in hospital due to heart failure. The underlying cause? Exhaustion and dehydration… and, let’s be honest now, being a bit thick. Darwin awards anyone?
Unnamed Gamer: Unknown Game (Probably StarCraft)
To the last damn breath.
Some of the entries on this lit have undoubtedly left you wondering how anyone could possibly enjoy something enough to do it for that long. I mean, is there any activity that could keep you interested for fifty hours? How about six hundred and fifty? Because that’s how long this South Korean gamer played for before dropping dead for unknown reasons.
Pictured: Reasons.
He entered an unlicensed gamer café one day never to leave again. Although there’s no mention of the game he played we can be fairly certain it was StarCraft (He was South Korean after all). Report say that, while there, he barely ate, drank or slept, subsisting on a diet of only instant noodles. If that sounds like your first year after moving out of your mam’s house, that’s because it is. The difference here is that he crammed it into a 27 day stretch. Also, when you heard “unlicensed” gamer cafe, did you wonder how they got rid of the body?
Something like this.
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