The Twitch streamer and well-known WoW player Byron “Reckful” Bernstein passed away last night at the age of 31. This is reported by people from his environment. Spontaneously, thousands of players gathered in World of Warcraft, pilgrimaged to the Cathedral in Stormwind, and commemorated their hero. Condolences are coming from Twitch, Blizzard, and many prominent streamers.
Reckful was probably one of the most famous WoW players ever. He was the highest-ranked PvP player in WoW for 6 consecutive seasons and won several tournaments. However, in 2014, he was permanently banned from WoW due to accusations of account sharing.
The news of Reckful’s death spread across the internet last night. An ex-girlfriend and his roommate confirmed the death of the legendary player and streamer. They stated that he took his own life (via twitter).
Reckful had over 920,000 followers on Twitch and dedicated himself mainly to strategy games like the trend around Auto Chess. He was last seen live on Twitch a month ago, where he played chess and was in Just Chatting. The 31-year-old was also working on his own game “Everland”.
As the news of Reckful’s death spread, thousands of players spontaneously pilgrimage to the Cathedral in Stormwind or to the NPC “Byron Burnside” in the town of “Bridgeport” – the NPC in WoW is modeled after him.
There are many impressive scenes and images where players mourn for Reckful.
The fan site WoWhead shows mourning players on various servers.
The Twitch streamer Asmongold is moved as he walks into the Cathedral of Stormwind and sees how many players have gathered to commemorate Reckful’s life:
WoW team writes: Rest in Peace
The WoW team has published a message of mourning and refers to Reckful as one of the WoW players who will be most remembered.
He shall rest in peace.
The Twitch streamer Asmongold was live on air when the news of Reckful’s death spread. His WoW stream subsequently reached over 120,000 viewers.
Asmongold decided that every “dollar he earned that night” would be donated to suicide prevention aid.
Twitch streamers see Reckful as a great inspiration
Some well-known streamers commented on Reckful’s death, calling him an inspiration and a legend:
- The currently popular streamer xQc calls him a “great inspiration to himself and a lot of other people and streamers” (via twitter).
- The WoW streamer Sodapoppin says: “Byron, you deserved something much better. Life isn’t fair […] You are and will always be a legend in my life” (via twitter).
- The Hearthstone expert Amaz writes: “Reckful was one of the first streamers I subscribed to on Twitch, and even though we haven’t talked much in recent years, I enjoyed talking to him, especially back in the Hearthstone days at events and gatherings” (via twitter).
Twitch itself calls him a “streaming pioneer”: He would have pushed the entire industry forward.
Reckful was also someone who had always spoken about his problems so that others could do so as well.
Reckful had been talking about his bipolar disorder for years.
Shortly before his death, he wrote a love message to his ex-girlfriend, the streamer “BeccaTILTS”, asking if she would marry him. Later, he apologized to everyone who had to deal with his madness.
Becca has since responded: She did not see the marriage proposal before it was too late. She says Reckful was “bigger than life, too big for this world” (via twitter).
If you are troubled by dark thoughts, you can contact the telephone counseling service at the numbers 0800/111 0 111 and 0800/11 0 22 – this is nationwide and free of charge.
