Reckful
Twitter/@byron
The already fragile gaming community has been rocked by yet another tragedy today, as it’s been confirmed that Byron “Reckful” Bernstein has died at the age of 31, as reported by his roommate, ex-girlfriend and others. The suspected cause of death is suicide, causing many gaming and esports personalities to share the number for the suicide prevention hotline if you need help (1-800-273-8255).
Reckful was a massively popular Twitch streamer and World of Warcraft player, one of the top players in the world, in fact, for a time. One of his crowning achievements was placing rank one in six consecutive seasons of World of Warcraft, and has won many other tournaments and events involving the game.
Reckful channeled his skill and personality into a hugely successful following on Twitch, where he would stream for tens of thousands of viewers at a time. At the time of this writing, his channel is currently playing a replay of an old stream, and it’s being watched by 40,000+ viewers. In addition to World of Warcraft, he was known for playing other games from Asheron’s Call to Hearthstone. More recently, he had been working on a new game as a developer called Everland, which was set to arrive some time this year.
Social media has been an outpouring of support for Reckful’s family and loved ones, with everyone having nothing but kind words to say about him. Reckful’s final posts on Twitter from the last few hours do seem to indicate some sort of distress, but the overwhelming sentiment is that no one saw this coming at all, and the gaming community is heartbroken over the loss.
With nearly a million followers on Twitch, he leaves behind a huge online community in addition to his loved ones. It’s a tragedy, and again, if you are having suicidal thoughts, please reach out to someone, or the aforementioned hotline.
More details as they come, but for now, the gaming community remembers one of their own.