Twitch streamer Byron 'Reckful' Bernstein dies at 31, upset fans dig up hate tweets and slam cyberbullies
Popular Twitch streamer, Byron Bernstein, who was known as "Reckful" in the gaming community, died on July 2 at the age of 31 based on reports from his roommate, ex-girlfriend, and others, according to Forbes. The reports also suggest suicide as the suspected cause of his death.
Reckful was one of the top World of Warcraft players in the world. He has won many tournaments and games. Recently, he was working as a developer for a new game called Everland. His official YouTube channel has over 259,000 subscribers. The news regarding his passing left his fans devastated, who took to Twitter to not only grieve the loss of their favorite gamer but also blame cyberbullying as the reason for Reckful's death.
One Twitter user noted that despite the majority of Twitch users indulging in discussions surrounding online bullying following Reckful's death, they will go back to harassing other users once the topic fades. "90% of the Twitch people talking about how online harassment and bullying is bad and affects your mental health right now because of Reckful's suicide will go right back to calling Alinity a dumb ETHOT and telling her to kill herself and delete her twitch in less than a week," read the tweet.
Adding to the previous tweet, another user said, "See, we do these things where we talk about change and then a couple months later, everything just goes backwards in time until we get the next Byron or the next Etika and that cycle kinda just goes on repeat”. Desmond "Etika" Amofah was another Twitch Streamer who committed suicide in 2019. Etika had stated in his final video that he was "mentally troubled". The video was taken down from YouTube.
Meanwhile, one user on Twitter called out Livestreamfails for "driving its content creators over the edge". One internet user noted, “This is the facts people need to hear. Before Reckful tragically took his life there was an entire thread at the top of LSF judging/flaming him for proposing on twitter. LSF loves to upvote/hate on anything they can get their hands on regardless of the validity of the posts."
Many devastated fans have shared tweets remembering Reckful for what an amazing player and a good human he was. "I am still at a loss of words...Reckful was one of the first persons I looked up to and he made me happy watching him play games, especially hearthstone. I don’t know if I would have chosen my path without seeing great persons like Reckful. Rest In Peace Reckful."
