Reckless
The already fragile gaming community has been rocked by another tragedy today as Byron “Reckful” Bernstein has been confirmed to have died at the age of 31, as reported by his roommate, ex-girlfriend and others. The possible cause of death is suicide, which causes many sports and gaming personalities to share the suicide prevention hotline number if they need help (1-800-273-8255).
Reckful was a popular Twitch streamer and World of Warcraft player, one of the best players in the world, in fact, for a time. One of his biggest achievements was ranking at number one in six consecutive World of Warcraft seasons, and he has won many other tournaments and events related to the game.
Reckful channeled his skill and personality into a hugely successful follow-up on Twitch, where he would stream tens of thousands of viewers at once. At the time of writing, her channel is playing a replay of an old broadcast, and is being watched by more than 40,000 viewers. In addition to World of Warcraft, he was known for playing other Asheron’s Call to Hearthstone games. More recently, he had been working on a new developer game called Everland, which was due out sometime this year.
Social media has been a huge amount of support for Reckful’s family and loved ones as everyone has nothing but kind words to say about him. Reckful’s final Twitter posts from the past few hours seem to indicate some sort of heartbreak, but the overwhelming sentiment is that no one saw this at all, and the gaming community is heartbroken over the loss.
With nearly a million followers on Twitch, he leaves behind a large online community in addition to his loved ones. It is a tragedy, and again, if you are having suicidal thoughts, contact someone or the aforementioned phone line.
More details as they come, but for now, the gaming community remembers one of their own.
