Remembering Zort: Tribute to a fallen little fighter

It is with great sadness that I write to inform you that Eitan had taken his own life on the 21st of November 2018. His closest online friends, Doix and mfc had made the disheartening discovery on the 13th of February 2021. I checked our IRC conversations and didn't notice anything out of the ordinary leading up to this sad day Zort had been on IRC—except that he had mentioned having trouble finding a new job. He even made a forum thread on his final day, sharing his LF2-related work. I contacted Eitan's mother, Mrs. Claire, and she supported the idea of creating this thread in honor of his memory and his work in the LF2 community and as a place to pay our respects to the brilliant and talented person that he was.

I believe it is important not only to remember Eitan, but also to learn from his life and tragedy. He was a brilliant person, skilled programmer, skilled LF2 player, skilled violinist, and his great intellect reflected in other areas of his life. Anyone can fall into depression, at any time, for various reasons. It is therefore important to understand these cases and try our best to prevent these things from happening. We know that Eitan had trouble securing a job and that he did not have (many) friends in real life. Sometimes we cannot choose our circumstances, we face hard times, our expectations aren't met, and we lose hope. You will be missed.

Eitan was only 25 years old. He had a family and online friends. Yet, it appears he did not reach out for help. If you ever feel depressed and miserable, please, contact with someone close immediately and find professional help. Psychologists and psychiatrists exist in order to help you find the right path again and believe me, you can and will get better. Don't lose hope! Don't give up!

Family Remembrance:

Beloved son of Claire and Uri and brother to Noam and Daniella, and much missed by Raymond the cat; gifted violinist and computer programmer.

Obituary:

Legacy:

LF2 Survival Stage World Records - Zort holds several world records for LF2 survival stage. They can be found in the posts that he made on the linked thread.
Little Fighter Replays - Website created by Doix and Zort to share replays of the game.
LF2 AI Script Engine - Contributions to Silva & SomeoneElse's ddraw.dll for LF2 AI scripts (listed in the link).
The Little Fighter Wiki - Created by Kevin and heavily contributed to by Zort.
LF2 Gameplay videos
bortzot: the bot of #lfe. Currently maintained by mfc and originally set up by zort in September 2013 as "zorbot".

Helped many people with their projects by providing constructive criticism. More of his contributions can be found in his forum profile by searching through his threads and posts.

Video where he talks:

Thoughts from friends:

AmadisLFE Wrote:I will not say that I knew him a whole lot. But we had some good matches, that much I remember for certain. And he was a wonderful member to the Little Fighter Empire community, that much I can say for granted. A sad farewell, may he find peace.

Azriel Wrote:Zort is among the best Little Fighter 2 players and promising creators. Making survival world records, winning in self-imposed disadvantage plays, and analyzing much of how the game works, and creating tools from that learning. But beyond the game is a person who persistently tried, and kept trying to grow stronger. Sadly we did not recognize those tries as repeated efforts to live. peace

Blue Phoenix Wrote:For the few years during which I had the opportunity to meet him, zort was always a reliable and intelligent partner. Even more so, he was a friend. Our sessions in LF2 and AoE were more than a mere time filler — they gave us the chance to converse about anything that was on our minds. We laughed about bugs and memes, cracked jokes, and enjoyed our time off. Eitan, thank you for everything we could share. These moments were short but will last forever.

Chiko Wrote:Zort was a kind and intelligent person who I had the pleasure of chatting with over IRC. He has helped me test my work and I wish I had gotten to know him better over the years I felt there was more time and I'm shocked and saddened to learn of his passing and his struggles. RIP Zort we'll miss you.

Doix Wrote:Zort was a good friend and we spent many hours working on random projects together. He's one of the smartest people I've ever worked with and had a talent of motivating me to keep working when I was feeling lazy. As time went on I had less and less free time to spend on #lfe, but he used to be there whenever I joined. I'm sad I didn't get to spend more time with him near the end. I'll miss him a lot.

Kevincentius Wrote:He's probably the most patient friend I ever had. We played LF2 a ton, checking off very long lists of things to do in the game... one day we joked that we've beaten the game when we did 2 templates vs 4 Firzen HKC. But he also supported me whenever I'm doing hobby projects, and he is the only decent tester of one of my game Pantul. He used to be the only person I was comfortable with speaking online in English. He never runs out of new words when I told him to teach me some.

Luigi600 Wrote:Your projects and input will be forever valued and cherished. R.I.P.

MangaD Wrote:I and Zort started off on the wrong foot. He was quite honest and it was hard for him to fake emotions. When I joined the IRC channel around 2014, I had heard from Kevin that Zort was the best at LF2 survival and that he was a great programmer. I pestered Zort, wanted to become his friend and know more about programming and LF2 reverse engineering. But he was quite annoyed for some reason and told me "I don't like you". Because of that, I stopped my attempts and never got to know him much better. I figured that he did not like my presence (or did he?) and avoided talking to him altogether. However, we did play survival mode together when BP, Ramond, Stm93 and Pf were around. I never figured out until this day if he liked me or not, if I was annoying to him or not, what exactly was his problem with me (if any). Maybe he was just depressed and had no patience anymore for my newbie attitude. Maybe I came late into the party. He did say once that since he left his parents' house that time appeared to go by much faster and that he had no patience for my "drivel". A conversation that I remember well with him was when I was planning to go to Finland, in late 2017. He told me that I was "living his dream" and that he'd like to live in my building's stairwell there (he'd say strange things sometimes). I asked him why was it a dream for him, why was it not a goal? He answered "Let your dreams be dreams, no inevitable disappointment that way". During the year of 2018 it was mentioned that he was having trouble finding a job. Part of the reason for it, as he admitted, was his difficulty at being dishonest. And knowing how many flaws the job market has, plus his negative attitude, I can only imagine how his job interviews had went. Knowing what I know today, I wish I could have had more serious conversations with him, but alas, he is gone. Farewell Eitan, you will be missed.

mdsrv (aka. madman vel vamastah, alias: f33) Wrote:zort was my internet buddy since I joined #lfe channel on freenode. I admired his analytical skills and his dedication to our common hobby (LF2). I enjoyed a book he recommended to me (Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie) and the other one is waiting to be read (Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson). It was a pleasure to talk to him about his views on many topics as they were similar to mine and original alike. I think I could say we shared a few problems (e.g. lack of understanding among people closest to us) but he was much more sensitive to them. 

I was worried when he stopped coming to the channel. Usually it was nothing to worry about - eventually he came back after a few days or weeks. I hoped he found better things to do in his life than sticking to geeks playing a niche game. It would be natural to do so: some of us followed their academic career, others started their own families, and still others devoted themselves to the work in the industry. It was not the case for him, he decided to end his life for the reason known only by himself. 

I wonder what zort thought of before doing his last step. I feel sorry I could not convince him to be more selfish. He always tried to meet expectations of others. He perceived emotions as weakness. He feared to follow his dreams due to possible failures. I think somewhere along the line he forgot to enjoy his life.

mfc Wrote:Countless hours spent together in the #lfe (since 2013 spring). Sassy on the outside, kind on the inside. One of the best survival LF2 players. Cropped off the height of all the buildings in the AoE2 to the point of madness. Curious, inquisitive and logical. One of the creators of LF Replays. Good friend.

not for the faint hearted (Click to View)

Prince Freeza Wrote:Zort was someone that made me laugh, that is the first thing that comes to my mind when I remember him. The late night IRC chats and the survival fights with Zort and the rest of the fellas were one of the best times I have ever had online. He would also always help me with ideas and suggestions each time I’d share one of my works on IRC. I am thankful for the memories. May he finally rest in peace.

Ramond Wrote:Zort used to be a rather frequent one of my acquaintances on LFE (mainly #lfe, its IRC channel) back when I was still active. We didn't talk super much outside of playing and organizing LF2 survival runs, which I had very much fun doing with him, since he belonged to the elite of skilled players. At some point we even started playing Age of Empires 2 together, and he became a regular training partner of sorts. A couple of years later #lfe became rather inactive - including myself - so I never consciously realized his absence. He will be dearly missed.

STM1993 Wrote:Zort was an inquisitive player who maintained the LF2 Wiki with Kevincentius. His contributions helped to build up the LF2 community's knowledge and enthusiasm. I enjoyed our online Survivals & IRC chats together and the percussion music video. May he rest well.

YinYin Wrote:I think he was the only one to ever give me lots of feedback not just on my work, but also my (first) website. Incredibly constructive and to the point. Very in line with how I approach things myself, so it was extremely helpful. Not sure I've ever been piled with feedback by anyone else the way I pile it on others.

If you knew Zort and would like to contribute with your thoughts, post below and I'll add it to the collection.