Streaming sensation and World of Warcraft pro Byron “Reckful” Bernstein died on Thursday at age 31.
Sudden death of Bryon Reckful Bernstein
The World of Warcraft community is now short on one member, professional player Reckful.
His death was confirmed by his girlfriend, who said he committed suicide.
In addition, many of his fans expressed their grief on social media.
Reckful had almost a million Twitch followers and amassed more than 250,000 YouTube subscribers.
Namely, he was known for broaching sensitive subjects in his online communications, something that endeared him to his many followers.
Reckful was best-known for his World of Warcraft streams on Twitch. Furthermore, he was attempting to launch his own video game, Everland, later this year.
His sudden death raised some alarms with social media posts on Thursday.
Twitch said Reckful was a “streaming pioneer” and that it was “devastated” to hear of his death.
Mr Bernstein had built his following in part by playing World Of Warcraft.
Reasons for his suicide
Anyhow, in January, he shared a video on YouTube in which he talked about his own struggle with depression and said he had lost one of his brothers to suicide.
A Twitch statement stated that Reckful was someone who talked about his struggles to help make room for others to the same.
Additionally, by processing this loss, we have to recognize that the stigma around mental health and treatment often prevents people from seeking and getting help.
His former partner, a gamer known as Becca, said – in a blog post – that Reckful was “amazing”.
She added that we need better support for those with mental needs. She remembers Byron telling her how traumatised he was when the authorities called on him for being at risk of suicide.
Anyone that knew him knew how much it scared and affected him. This can not be how people feel about the places that should be keeping them safe.
For some, this was also a way to raise awareness of the stigma surrounding mental health. Reckful had openly discussed his personal struggles on his platform.
Today, many prominent members of the gaming community are talking about how people need to be kinder to each other. Furthermore, they are questioning what more needs to done to help people with their mental health.