Believed to be the largest player-driven event in World of Warcraft, thousands of players gathered for an in-game memorial to streamer Byron ‘Reckful’ Bernstein, who has recently passed away. Players gathered on the Cathedral of Light in Stormwind City and kneeled in unison.
Bernstein died by suicide earlier this week, He was a huge part of the WoW PvP community for years. Before youtube and twitch went popular, he used to contribute to WarcraftMovies creating content for the community later moving to twitch and holding a massive following of one million followers. He had also been working to create his own video game, called Everland. 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.
“Byron was someone who talked about his struggles to help make room for others to do the same, As we process this loss, we have to recognize that the stigma around mental health and treatment often prevents people from seeking and getting the help they need,” Twitch said in a statement.
His former partner, a gamer known as Becca, said – in a blog post – that Reckful was “amazing”.
“We need better support for those with mental needs. I remember Byron telling me how traumatized he was when he had the authorities called on him for being at risk of suicide,” she wrote.
Fellow WoW content creator Asmongold uploaded a full video of Reckful memorial, which you can watch below:
One of the mods for Bernstein’s channel is playing reruns of his old streams.
If you’re experiencing suicidal thoughts, or you’re concerned someone you know is, you can call the Suicide Prevention Hotline (800-273-8255) in the USA, or the Samaritans (116-123) in the UK, as well as find further resources for the US here, the UK here, and the rest of the world here.
