World of Warcraft community comes together to mourn Reckful

Alan Bernal
Reckful world of warcraft

The World of Warcraft communities came together across multiple servers to mourn the passing of Byron ‘Reckful’ Bernstein, who was a prominent figure in the MMO and Hearthstone landscape.

The Stormwind Cathedral, among other in-game hubs, has been a beacon for players to congregate and kneel for Reckful, 31, who died on June 2. His passing sparked confusion and sadness for friends, fans, and spectators.

Finding an outlet to express the way they feel, thousands of players across multiple WoW servers lined the pathway of the main hall to simply gather and show how much the streamer meant to them.

Zack ‘Asmongold’ caught wind of the tributes across Azeroth, and headed to Stormwind to see it for himself. He was speechless at the amount of people that showed up on his server.

Some servers had uniformed lines, others had a few rows of people, and some even had Horde peacefully gathered among the Alliance within the Cathedral’s walls. But all were there for Reckful.

A lot of these people only know how to play WoW and even then, although briefly, they stopped doing that after the news of the streamer’s passing had spread across the internet.

“I never f**king met him, but he has been a part of my life as long as I can remember,” one fan wrote. “Byron, I hope you have peace now, you deserve to be happy and feel good, more than anyone.. We didn’t just lose a legend, we lost a good man and a hero.”

These gatherings are happening all over World of Warcraft, across the global regions and within their many different servers. From retail to Classic, people are paying respects to the person that gave them countless hours of joy.

Reckful had a large presence on Twitch and was synonymous with WoW. From his streams in Arena to his YouTube videos that have amassed hundreds of thousands of views, Reckful had an influence on the community.

A pioneer in the streaming landscape and an elite Rogue player with 3000 rating in PvP, he will be remembered by his loving friends, family, and fans.

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About The Author

Alan is a former staff writer for Dexerto based in Southern California who covered esports, internet culture, and the broader games/streaming industry. He is a CSUF Alum with a B.A. in Journalism. He's reported on sports medicine, emerging technology, and local community issues. Got a tip or want to talk?