Blizzard has paid tribute to the late Twitch streamer and World of Warcraft legend Byron ‘Reckful’ Bernstein by adding him as an NPC in the Shadowlands expansion.
Wowhead reports that players can now find the NPC, named Rogue Trainer Reckful, in the Cathedral of Light, one of the main locations that thousands of WoW players gathered at to hold in-game vigils following the news of his death earlier this year. This is in fact the second NPC to bear the legendary player’s name after a trader named Byron Burnside was added to the game. Rogue Trainer Reckful is a much more personal tribute to his memory, however. The Reckful NPC has their own unique dialogue, in which they simply say: “I don’t train assassination rogues.” The player can then reply with the heartwarming response of: “It was good seeing you again.”
Popular WoW streamers such as ‘Esfand’ and ‘Asmongold’ commended Blizzard’s tribute to Reckful, saying it was “awesome” and “good to see.”
Good to see pic.twitter.com/niKlhxX95c
— Zack (@Asmongold) August 6, 2020
It’s awesome to see they did for Shadowlandshttps://t.co/bvkdKbOqtV pic.twitter.com/I6IXQu6dsL
— Grand Marshal Esfand (@EsfandTV) August 6, 2020
Reckful was one of the WoW community’s most famous names after holding rank one for six consecutive seasons and becoming the first player ever to reach a PvP rating of 3,000. He is also attributed with helping popularise livestreaming and had a huge following on Twitch.
Reckful was incredibly open with his fans about the state of his mental health, in particular his struggles with being bipolar. Prior to his death in July 2020, Reckful had been working on developing his own video game, Everland, which was designed for the goal of helping people “find friendship and a sense of community.”
