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Reckful

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Reckful
Bernstein in 2020
Born
Byron Daniel Bernstein

(1989-05-08)May 8, 1989
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
DiedJuly 2, 2020(2020-07-02) (aged 31)
Austin, Texas, U.S.
Years active2009–2020
Esports career information
GamesWorld of Warcraft
Asheron's Call
Hearthstone
Team history
2009–2011compLexity Gaming[1]
Twitch information
Channel
Followers906,000
(April 2024)

Byron Daniel Bernstein (May 8, 1989 – July 2, 2020), better known as Reckful, was an American-Israeli Twitch streamer and professional esports player. He was best known in the gaming community for his achievements in World of Warcraft and Asheron's Call.[2][3][4][5]

Personal life

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Byron Daniel Bernstein was born into a Jewish family to Itamar and Judith Bernstein in Los Angeles. He had two older brothers named Guy and Gary; Guy, the oldest, died by suicide when Bernstein was six.[6][7][8] Bernstein said he was a "nerdy kid that no one liked" in elementary school and was made fun of for his difficulty speaking English, which was his second language. Bernstein said he was a gifted student who was good at math, but being made fun of discouraged him from participating in school. When he got into high school, he made friends at school but said his life revolved around playing the video game Asheron's Call, which fell out of popularity while World of Warcraft was gaining popularity, and he fell into bouts of depression and attempted to kill himself at 16. He later dropped out of high school, also due to depression. He said that he recognized that video games were a form of escapism for him.[9]

Bernstein said his brother's death had a profound effect on his life and his subsequent struggles with depression. Bernstein was diagnosed with bipolar II disorder as a child.[10][11][12] Bernstein said that his family refused to let him try selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors because they believed Prozac led to his brother's death. During a trip to Amsterdam, he tried psilocybin mushrooms, which he said helped him for the first time.[8]

Bernstein died by suicide on July 2, 2020.[12][13][14]

Career

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Bernstein was a professional World of Warcraft player, best known for his innovative play style of the "rogue" class,[15] and a pioneer in video game live streaming on Twitch.[12] His popularity in the game began when he finished in the top 0.1% of the competitive ladder without the use of what were considered essential gameplay mechanics at the time. He finished in the top 0.1% of the player base multiple competitive seasons in a row. He competed in a handful of tournaments and won Major League Gaming's World of Warcraft tournament in 2010.[16]

In 2011, Bernstein released the gaming movie Reckful 3. It reached one million views within a week (as of January 2022, the video had over six million views).[17] He later won the WarcraftMovies top-skilled contest, in which players cast their vote for player of the year.[18] In 2012, he became a developer, operations manager and concept designer at Feenix, a gaming mouse company.[19] He created his YouTube channel in October 2012 and followed in November with his first video, Reckful 5 stack Taste for Blood.

In 2017, Bernstein was ranked fourth in The Gazette Review's list of top-ten richest streamers. He claimed to have a net worth of $1.5 million and was receiving up to 50,000 viewers per stream.[20][21]

Bernstein played poker and entered the 2016 Unibet Open London main event, but was knocked out early.[22] In November 2017, he played in a charity poker event sponsored by PokerGO.[23] The event was won by itsHafu.[24]

In May 2018, Bernstein began releasing a podcast called Tea Time with Byron, which features long-form interviews with notable guests in the gaming and streaming communities such as Pokimane and Hikaru Nakamura. A total of six episodes were released, the last one on March 31, 2020.[25][26]

Before his death, Bernstein was in the process of creating an MMO called Everland.[27]

In August 2020, Blizzard and World of Warcraft paid tribute to Bernstein with an in-game trainer, named after his online alias Reckful. The character is placed inside the Cathedral of Light, an in-game landmark where the community gathered to pay Bernstein a tribute following the news of his death.[28]

LAN achievements

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World of Warcraft

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  • 3rd Place MLG Dallas 2009[29]
  • 2nd Place MLG Orlando 2009[30]
  • 2nd Place MLG Columbus 2010[31]
  • 1st Place MLG Washington DC 2010[32]

Hearthstone

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  • 3rd–4th Place 2013 Innkeeper's Invitational[33]

References

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  1. ^ Miesner, Andrew. "Complexity Gaming". Complexity Gaming. Archived from the original on June 27, 2012. Retrieved June 28, 2012.
  2. ^ Kwok, Samuel. "ArenaJunkies Interview". ArenaJunkies. Archived from the original on June 21, 2012. Retrieved June 29, 2012.
  3. ^ Rapture, Jeff. "Curse Interview". Curse. Archived from the original on November 4, 2012. Retrieved June 29, 2012.
  4. ^ Enarce, Aleks. "Prestige Gaming Russia". Prestige Gaming Russia. Retrieved June 29, 2012.
  5. ^ Micayla, Elane. "IGN – AC Vault". IGN. Archived from the original on June 14, 2006. Retrieved June 29, 2012.
  6. ^ Grayson, Nathan (December 3, 2019). "Psychiatrist Brings Streamer To Tears During Confessional Stream". Kotaku Australia. Retrieved February 24, 2024.
  7. ^ Shafer, Ellise (July 2, 2020). "Byron 'Reckful' Bernstein, Popular Twitch Streamer, Dies at 31". Variety. Retrieved July 5, 2020.
  8. ^ a b "Talking Depression with Reckful". YouTube. HealthyGamerGG. December 4, 2019. Retrieved February 2, 2021.
  9. ^ Bernstein, Byron (January 13, 2020). Why Reckful dropped out of high school (Video).
  10. ^ Limbong, Andrew (January 13, 2021). "To Help Gamers on Twitch, Dr. K Balances Mental Health Advice With Medical Ethics". NPR. Retrieved March 12, 2022.
  11. ^ Wolf, Jacob (July 3, 2020). "Twitch streamer, former World of Warcraft pro Reckful dies at 31". ESPN. Retrieved March 12, 2022.
  12. ^ a b c "Reckful: Twitch and gamers pay tribute after star's death". BBC. July 3, 2020. Retrieved March 12, 2022.
  13. ^ Grayson, Nathan (July 2, 2020). "Twitch Streamer Byron 'Reckful' Bernstein Dies At 31". Kotaku. Archived from the original on July 2, 2020. Retrieved July 2, 2020.
  14. ^ Messner, Steven (July 2, 2020). "Prominent WoW and Hearthstone streamer Reckful has died at 31". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on July 2, 2020. Retrieved July 2, 2020.
  15. ^ "Late streamer Reckful immortalized as NPC in World of Warcraft: Shadowlands". InvenGlobal. August 6, 2020. Retrieved March 12, 2022.
  16. ^ Radford, Michael. "3000 Rating". SK Gaming. Archived from the original on March 20, 2018. Retrieved June 28, 2012.
  17. ^ Boubouille, Beau. "MMO Champion". MMO Champion. Archived from the original on March 28, 2012. Retrieved June 29, 2012.
  18. ^ Uzbeki, Sven. "Top Skilled". Warcraft Movies. Archived from the original on June 15, 2012. Retrieved June 28, 2012.
  19. ^ Adrian, Shayani. "Feenix Collection". Feenix Collection. Archived from the original on January 21, 2015. Retrieved June 29, 2012.
  20. ^ Deml, Jessica (September 8, 2017). "Top 10 Richest Gaming Streamers". The Gazette Review. Archived from the original on March 19, 2018. Retrieved March 19, 2018.
  21. ^ Asarch, Steven (October 28, 2017). "IRL STREAMING: SPONTANEOUS ENTERTAINMENT FOR AN AUDIENCE THAT'S ALWAYS LIVE". Newsweek. Archived from the original on March 19, 2018. Retrieved March 19, 2018.
  22. ^ Glatzer, Jason (March 3, 2016). "2016 Unibet Open London Main Event Day 1a: Jan Riha Leads the Pack". PokerNews. Archived from the original on March 20, 2018. Retrieved March 19, 2018.
  23. ^ Cross, Valerie (November 16, 2017). "Twitch Poker $100K Charity Invitational to Stream Live on Nov. 17–18". PokerNews. Archived from the original on March 20, 2018. Retrieved March 19, 2018.
  24. ^ Daniel Smyth (November 20, 2017). "Poker Pros Welcome Gamers in Charity Poker Event for Twitch Streamers". Cardschat. Archived from the original on March 20, 2018. Retrieved March 19, 2018.
  25. ^ "Tea Time with Byron on Apple Podcasts". podcasts.apple.com. Archived from the original on July 2, 2020.
  26. ^ xQc | Tea Time with Byron #1, May 26, 2018, retrieved July 1, 2021
  27. ^ Olivetti, Justin (July 6, 2020). "Everland was the MMO Reckful was building before he passed away". Retrieved July 9, 2020.
  28. ^ Carpenter, Nicole (August 6, 2020). "Blizzard immortalizes late World of Warcraft player Reckful in-game". Polygon. Retrieved August 9, 2020.
  29. ^ "MLG Dallas 2009". SK Gaming. Archived from the original on November 11, 2021. Retrieved July 3, 2020.
  30. ^ "MLG Orlando 2009". SK Gaming. Archived from the original on November 11, 2021. Retrieved July 3, 2020.
  31. ^ "MLG Columbus 2010". SK Gaming. Archived from the original on November 11, 2021. Retrieved July 3, 2020.
  32. ^ Miesner, Andrew (October 18, 2010). "MLG DC 2010 Recap". Complexity. Retrieved August 19, 2021.
  33. ^ "Innkeeper's Invitational". Hearthstone Wiki. Retrieved February 9, 2021.
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