HQ Trivia boss Colin Kroll is dead at 35 after an apparent drug overdose
Colin Kroll, the 35-year-old CEO and co-founder of mobile game sensation HQ Trivia, was found dead after an apparent drug overdose on Saturday night.
An NYPD official confirmed to The Daily Beast that authorities found Kroll in his bed, unconscious and unresponsive, shortly before midnight on Saturday. Police were there to perform a welfare check, though it's not clear who alerted them or when.
The unnamed official who confirmed the news -- which was first reported by TMZ -- also noted that narcotics and drug paraphernalia were found in Kroll's apartment, and that the death is being investigated as a narcotics overdose.
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Kroll was best known in recent years for the part he playing in building HQ Trivia, a free-to-play mobile trivia game in which all participants have a chance at winning cash prizes. The game's popularity peaked in 2017, though it's still around today and still trying out new ideas on its sizable audience.
Previously, Kroll and his HQ business partner Rus Yusupov made a name for themselves in tech as the founders of Vine. Twitter acquired the short-form video hosting service in 2012, only a few months after it launched, and it became a go-to source of memes and other examples of viral internet until Twitter shut it down in late 2016.
Yusupov expressed his sadness at the death of his friend and business partner in a Sunday afternoon tweet.
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HQ host Scott Rogowsky also paid tribute to Kroll.
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UPDATE: Dec. 17, 2018, 11:53 a.m. AEDT Added tweet from Scott Rogowsky.
Topics Gaming
Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.
