Reckful
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About
Byron "Reckful" Bernstein was a popular Twitch streamer and former professional eSports player best known for his achievements in MMORPG games World of Warcraft and Asheron's Call. On July 2nd, 2020, Reckful, who struggled with depression for a major part of his life, was found dead in an apparent suicide.
Online History
On November 10th, 2009, Byron "Reckful" Bernstein launched his Justin.tv (Twitch) account.[1][2] In 2009-2011, Reckful became a popular streamer on the platform, largely due to his eSports career as a professional World of Warcraft player. In 2010, team SFOTB, led by Reckful, became the first WoW team to reach 3000 arena rating cap.[3] On October 17th, 2010, Reckful, playing for Complexity Red, won MLG Washington DC WoW event, winning a $9,000 prize.[7]
Reckful reached rank one position in six PVP seasons of World of Warcraft between June 2008 and March 2013.[4]
On March 8th, 2011, Reckful[5] released World of Warcraft gaming movie "Reckful 3" which reached over one million views within one week and accumulated over 5.7 million views on YouTube in nine years.
On October 12th, 2012, Reckful launched his YouTube channel, accumulating a total of over 82.6 million views in eight years.
In 2017, Reckful was ranked fourth in a list of top most financially successful streamers.[6] In the following years, Reckful took several long breaks from his streaming activities, instead focusing on his mental health and the development of his MMORPG Everland, which he planned to release in 2020.[8] On June 3rd, 2020, he had over 920,000 followers on Twitch.[32]
Personal Life
Reckful was born on May 8th, 1989 to Itamar and Judith Bernstein. His older brother Guy Bernstein committed suicide when Byron was young, with Byron admitting that the event had a strong effect on his life and impacted his struggles with depression and bipolar disorder. In addition to gaming, Reckful was an avid photographer and an amateur poker player. He was friends with entertainer Andy Milonakis.
Reckful repeatedly admitted that he had a bipolar disorder and was struggling with depression for a major part of his life. In March 2015, Reckful broke up with his long-term partner and fellow streamer Jenna.[9] He had an on-and-off struggle with mental issues through the second half of 2010s, taking breaks[10] from streaming and taking psicilycibin[11] in an attempt to alleviate his depression.
Between November 2017[12] and to some point in late 2018 or early 2019,[13] Reckful dated fellow Twitch streamer Becca.
Prior to his death, Reckful had attemped suicide twice: first at the age of 16[14] and at another unknown period of his life.[15]
Death
On July 2nd, 2020, at 11:38 AM EST Reckful's ex-girlfriend Blue[16] reported that Reckful had committed suicide. This was then confirmed by Reckful's roommate.[17]
Two hours before his suicide was first reported, Reckful[18][19] proposed to his former girlfriend Becca via a tweet, writing that "he is comletely insane."
Following the report of his passing, Reckful's friends[20], family members,[21] and fellow[22][23] streamers made posts about his suicide. Shortly after it was reported, "Reckful" and "Byron" became the number 3 and 4 trending terms on Twitter, [24] with over 200,000 tweets being about him in the day following his passing.[25][26] Several news outlets reported on his death, including BBC, ESPN, and Forbes.[27][28][29]
On July 2nd, a screenshot of Andy Milonakis' tweet about Reckful’s suicide gained close to 60,000 upvotes on the subreddit r/LivestreamFail in two weeks.[30] On July 3rd, a clip of psychiatrist and Twitch streamer HealthyGamerGG (Dr. K) speaking passionately about Reckful and mental health gained over 28,000 upvotes on r/LivestreamFail in the same period.[31] The same day, YouTuber Streaming Disease uploaded an extension of the clip on July 3rd (shown below). The video received over a million views in two weeks.
On July 3rd, Twitch streamer and fellow WoW player Asmongold uploaded a video to YouTube showcasing in-game WoW funerals for Reckful, with well over 2,000 players appearing (shown below, left). The video gained over 770,000 views in two weeks. On July 15th, Twitch streamer Sodapoppin uploaded a tribute video to Reckful titled "Byron," receiving over 530,000 views in three days (shown below, right).
Blizzard paid tribute to Reckful by adding him as an NPC to the 2020 WoW expansion Shadowlands.[32]
Search Interest
External References
[3] SK-Gaming – Reckful and co hit 3k arena cap
[5] YouTube –
1:36 / 10:05Screenshot
Reckful 3 – 3000 Rating (117-4)
[6] Gazette Review – Top 10 Richest Gaming Streamers
[7] YouTube – 2010 Major League Gaming Pro Circuit Washington D.C.
[8] Twitter – @PlayEverland
[9] Reddit – Reckful explains
[10] Reddit – Byron talking about his depression/bipolar
[12] Instagram – byron.bernstein
[13] Reddit – IRL stream with Andy
[14] Twitch – Poki Podcast Ft Reckful
[16] Twitter – @BlueGoesMew
[20] Twitter – @andymilonakis
[21] Twitter – Gary Bernstein
[24] getdaytrends – July 2nd, 2020, 18:00
[25] getdaytrends – Reckful Worldwide
[26] getdaytrends – Byron Worldwide
[27] BBC – Reckful: Twitch and gamers pay tribute after star's death
[28] ESPN – Twitch streamer, former World of Warcraft pro Reckful dies at 31
[29] Forbes – Byron ‘Reckful’ Bernstein, Beloved Twitch Streamer And WoW Player, Dies At 31
[23] Reddit – The_seven_deadlysins
[33] WoWHead – Reckful Added As Rogue Trainer in Shadowlands
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Top Comments
iotacom
Jul 02, 2020 at 06:50PM EDT
Ten Shadows
Jul 02, 2020 at 05:50PM EDT