Former professional Super Smash Bros. Ultimate player Gonzalo “ZeRo” Barrios has been banned by Twitch following allegations of sexual misconduct. It’s unknown at this time whether or not this is a permanent ban, but ZeRo has apparently been stripped of his partner status. According to ZeRo’s former Tempo Storm teammates, ZeRo confessed to sending sexually explicit messages to minors, despite knowing the ages of those he was communicating with. ZeRo has faced additional allegations, since. In addition to his ban from Twitch and expulsion from Tempo Storm, ZeRo has also been banned from Facebook Gaming. The streamer has said that he will never again attend tournaments, and has deleted all of his Tweets.
ZeRo is not the only professional Super Smash Bros. player accused of predatory behavior. The last month has seen a number of allegations made against professional players and commentators within the game’s community. Cinnamon “Cinnpie” Dunson, Nairoby “Nairo” Quezada, and Jason “ANTi” Bates have each been accused of having sexual relationships with minors. D’Ron “D1” Maingrette also faces accusations of rape and sexual harassment. These are prominent members of the game’s community; Nairo was the fifth-ranked Super Smash Bros. player in the world.
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Following the many accusations made against these players and commentators, Nintendo released a statement to IGN condemning the alleged actions of these members of the Smash community.
“At Nintendo, we are deeply disturbed by the allegations raised against certain members of the competitive gaming community,” Nintendo’s statement to IGN reads. “They are absolutely impermissible. We want to make it clear that we condemn all acts of violence, harassment, and exploitation against anyone and that we stand with the victims.”
The allegations against members of the Super Smash Bros. community came during at a time where a number of other accusations have been made across the video game industry. Notably, several accusations have been made regarding employees of Ubisoft, prompting a statement from the company. Accusations of sexual misconduct against EVO CEO and co-founder Joey Cuellar led to the cancellation of EVO Online, and the fighting game tournament cutting ties with Cuellar.
ComicBook.com will update this post should new information come in.
To learn more about what you can do to prevent sexual violence, please consider donating to RAINN or visit RAINN’s website for a number of resources. If you or a loved one has suffered because of sexual violence, contact RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline.
