Gearbox names Borderlands 3 weapon after fan who has terminal cancer

Last month, 26-year-old Trevor Eastman posted a message in the Borderlands subreddit describing the "bad hand" he'd been dealt: He had been diagnosed with stage 4 esophageal, stomach, and liver cancer in June 2018, and given one year to live.

"I've been a huge fan of Borderlands for a long time now," he wrote, "and I don't know if I'll live to see Borderlands 3. If there's any possible way that someone could find a way for me to be able to play it early... I would be forever grateful."

The request was shared widely by Borderlands fans, and 2K and Gearbox ultimately came through. Eastman said in a message posted a couple of weeks ago that "they're flying somebody out at the beginning of June most likely to give me a copy of the game," and then followed that up over this past weekend with photos of the Gearbox reps, the Borderlands 3 loading screen, and various pieces of Borderlands and Gearbox swag.

But Gearbox went one step further by letting Eastman name one of the new weapons in Borderlands 3 and write its description. The Compressive Trevonator is a unique legendary shotgun with a 28 percent weapon charge boost and +75 splash damage radius, that can switch between Cryo and Fire elemental damage. The descriptive text isn't exactly poetry—"Trev is gunna get you!"—but Eastman doesn't seem to mind: "Honestly I was just trying to be funny and it just came out as cheesy haha," he wrote.

"I am seriously so happy and astonished how kind they have been to me and it really means the world to me that they did this for me. I wish I could pay them back for everything they've done...and all of you as well for making this dream come true."

Borderlands 3 is scheduled to come out on September 13.

Thanks, Polygon.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.