Nairo (gamer)

Last updated
Nairo
Nairo at Frostbite 2020 (cropped).jpg
Nairo at Frostbite 2020
Personal information
NameNairoby Quezada
Nickname(s)Nairo
NairoMK
Career information
Games Super Smash Bros. for Wii U
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Playing career2010–2020
Team history
2015–2016 Team Liquid
2016–2020 NRG Esports
Career highlights and awards

Nairoby Quezada, better known as Nairo, is an American streamer and retired professional Super Smash Bros. competitive player. He is widely considered one of the best players in the history of Super Smash Bros. Brawl , Super Smash Bros. for Wii U , and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate . After starting his career on Brawl in 2011, he quickly established himself as one of the best players in the United States, and became regarded as one of the best Brawl players in the world the following year; he would remain seen as a top Brawl player for the rest of his career, and would achieve similar success on Wii U and Ultimate following their respective releases.

Contents

Nairo won a total of eighteen major tournaments: seven for Brawl, nine for Wii U, and two for Ultimate. [1] He also won eighteen Doubles Majors: four for Brawl, twelve for Wii U, and two for Ultimate; his frequent Wii U Doubles partner was ZeRo, while he teamed with a variety of players in other games. He primarily played Meta Knight in Brawl, Zero Suit Samus in Wii U, and Palutena in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. [2]

After the offline competitive Smash scene became inactive in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, Nairo was accused of sexual misconduct by former Smash player CaptainZack the following July, leading to Nairo getting banned from competing in the Smash community and streaming on Twitch, and being dropped from his esports organization NRG Esports. After Nairo published a public response in October 2020 denying the accusations, public opinion shifted in his favor and he was unbanned from competition; however, he claimed to have no intention to return to the competitive Smash scene, and, to date, has not done so, choosing instead to focus on streaming on YouTube.

Career

Nairo was raised in Passaic, New Jersey. [3]

Nairo gained national recognition for his skill in Super Smash Bros. Brawl at Apex 2012, defeating top players such as Yuta "Nietono" Uejima, before losing to Kenta "Otori" Ishikawa in Winners' Finals and Nietono in Losers' Finals, finishing 3rd out of 400 entrants. He won his first national-level Brawl tournament at SKTAR, defeating Eric "ESAM" Lew in winners' and grand finals. At Apex 2013, Nairo suffered an early defeat in winners' bracket, before making his way through losers' bracket and finally finishing 4th. Nairo would later win Apex 2014 concluding with a Meta Knight vs. Meta Knight match ("ditto") against Gonzalo "ZeRo" Barrios. Nairo is also known for frequently teaming up with Wyatt "ADHD" Beekman, often regarded as the strongest Brawl doubles team in the world, having won both Apex 2013 and 2014. [4] [5] [6] Nairo is known to play the opposite of his brother, being very aggressive and rarely opting to go on the defensive.

Nairo signed to play for Team Liquid in August 2015 and later ended ZeRo's 56-tournament winning streak at the 2015 MLG World Finals. [7] [8] [9] Nairo has won many national-level tournaments in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, including Paragon Los Angeles 2015, Umebura FAT, and MLG 2015. [10] [11]

Nairo was one of the eight players competing in the Pokkén Tournament Early Access Competition Invitational by The Pokémon Company and Nintendo. [12]

On August 16, 2016, Nairo left Team Liquid. [13] It was announced on August 23, 2016, that Nairo would be joining NRG Esports as their first Super Smash Bros. player. [14]

Nairo was also a surprise guest at the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Invitational at E3 2018. Nairo had expressed his disappointment in not being one of the featured players to be invited to compete in the invitational, despite being a top player in Wii U. He made a surprise appearance at the invitational, when he was challenged to play against Olivia Holt, Mike Daniels, and Ember Moon, playing in a 3 vs. 1 team battle (without friendly fire). Nairo played as Snake, and beat the 3 celebrities, despite being on a team by himself. [15]

Allegations of sexual misconduct, blackmail and cut ties

Initial allegations

In July 2020, former professional Smash player Zack "CaptainZack" Lauth posted an allegation that he and Nairo had a sexual relationship in 2017, while CaptainZack was a minor, and that Nairo had subsequently sent CaptainZack payments to entice the latter not to reveal the allegations. Nairo subsequently deactivated his Twitter and Instagram accounts. The morning after the allegation was posted, NRG Esports cut ties with Nairo. [16] Hours later, Nairo reactivated his Twitter account and issued an apology, claiming that his behavior was wrong, and that he "messed up tremendously". [17] After posting his apology on Twitter, he went silent for several months and eventually deactivated his Twitter account again. He also stopped streaming on Twitch (eventually receiving a ban from the platform) and attending tournaments.

In September 2020, Tamim "tamim" Omary, a pro player and a friend of CaptainZack and fellow pro player Samsora, alleged that Zack was the one who initiated the relationship via non-consensual first contact while Nairo was asleep and requested the payments to stay silent, and that Samsora had pushed Zack into revealing the situation publicly for personal gain, with Omary stating that even though Samsora knew about the situation he continued to collaborate with Nairo on several occasions until the information was revealed publicly, and that "Zack had been in relationships with many adults, and Samsora ha[d] never cared" then. [18] [19] Samsora denied the allegations against him.

Response to the allegations

On October 28, 2020, Nairo reactivated his Twitter account and released a statement, claiming CaptainZack's allegations to be "completely false" as well as explaining the story from his perspective. Nairo detailed how CaptainZack allegedly sexually assaulted him by performing oral sex on him while he was asleep. Nairo claimed that he had told him to stop but CaptainZack refused and that he stopped once Nairo pushed him off. CaptainZack later allegedly blackmailed him into paying him 3 payments of $2000, $275, and $350. Nairo also explained the tremendous toll the initial and subsequent events had taken on his mental health. He claimed to have a 30-page document that includes details and evidence to clear his name. [20] While the initial response from the community was mixed, some pro Smash players such as James "VoiD" Makekau-Tyson and Brian "Cosmos" Kalu tweeted that they had seen the document, and corroborated Nairo's version of events, [21] [22] while other prominent players such as MkLeo and Maister tweeted their support. [23] [24]

Return to streaming and retirement from competitive play

On February 19, 2021, Nairo uploaded a video to his YouTube channel announcing that a legal agreement had been reached between both parties and he intended to return to streaming. He has also submitted an appeal to his Twitch ban. [25] Following this announcement, many players began requesting Nairo's ban from tournaments and Twitch be overturned, and the hashtag #UnbanNairo would start trending a few days later, reaching over 200,000 tweets and even managing to make it to the top of the trending list for a few hours. [26]

Following Nairo's statement, tournament organizations such as 2GGaming and Collision would lift Nairo's ban from their events after processing his appeal. However, Twitch has not unbanned his channel to this date. [27] [28]

On April 8, 2021, Nairo streamed for the first time in nearly a year, hosting his stream on YouTube, as he remains banned on Twitch. His stream peaked at over 26,000 simultaneous viewers, and he gained over 2,200 YouTube members in just over 6 hours. [29] After a month of streaming, Nairo has earned nearly 630,000 distinct viewers who tuned in at some point in his first stream. However, he has explicitly stated that while he will return to streaming and content creation, he has no interest in returning to the Super Smash Bros. community, indicating that he has officially retired from competitive play. [30]

Personal life

Nairo has a brother, Kelvin "Ksizzle" Quezada, who also plays Super Smash Bros. [31] He is of Dominican descent. [32]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mang0</span> American esports player

Joseph Manuel Marquez, known by his gamertag Mango, is an American professional Super Smash Bros. Melee player and streamer from Norwalk, California. Known for his aggressive, high-risk playstyle, he is widely considered one of the game's greatest players of all time, and is one of the "Five Gods" of Melee, along with Juan "Hungrybox" Debiedma, Adam "Armada" Lindgren, Kevin "PPMD" Nanney, and Jason "Mew2King" Zimmerman. Marquez began his career playing Jigglypuff, however he has primarily played Falco and Fox since 2011. He has been part of the Cloud9 esports team since 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mew2King</span> American professional esports player

Jason Sheldon Zimmerman, known by his gamertag Mew2King, commonly shortened to M2K, is an American professional Super Smash Bros. player from Cinnaminson, New Jersey. He has won more than 70 tournaments during his career, primarily in Super Smash Bros. Melee. Zimmerman is one of the "Five Gods" of Melee, along with Juan "Hungrybox" Debiedma, Adam "Armada" Lindgren, Kevin "PPMD" Nanney, and Joseph "Mang0" Marquez and is also widely considered one of the greatest Super Smash Bros. Brawl players of all time. He has also competed at a top-level in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Project M.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apex (tournament)</span>

Apex is an annual esports tournament held in New Jersey that is focused on Super Smash Bros. The event's first incarnation was in 2009 with Jesus "Jman" Fernandez as the champion of Super Smash Bros. Melee and Elliot "Ally" Carroza-Oyarce as champion of Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Each year the event grew with more competitors entering. Apex 2014 garnered 629 entrants and was the 2nd largest tournament for Melee at the time after EVO 2013. Though the tournament initially focused on Brawl, the feature game has since switched to Melee due to its popularity. In 2010, an event for Super Smash Bros. for the Nintendo 64 was added. In 2014, the fan modification of Brawl, Project M was added for singles only. Project M has recently been removed as an official event out copyright concerns under Nintendo of America sponsorship and Third Party relations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Armada (gamer)</span> Swedish Super Smash Bros. player (born 1993)

Adam Lindgren, known by his handle Armada, is a Swedish professional Super Smash Bros. player from Gothenburg. He is widely considered one of the greatest Super Smash Bros. Melee players of all time and the greatest Melee Peach player of all time. Lindgren has won several major tournaments: he is a three-time champion of GENESIS, two-time champion of EVO, two-time champion of Apex and one-time champion of The Big House. Considered one of the "Five Gods" of Melee, alongside Jason "Mew2King" Zimmerman, Joseph "Mango" Marquez, Juan "Hungrybox" DeBiedma, and Kevin "PPMD" Nanney, Lindgren was ranked one of the top two Melee players in the world every year from the beginning of formal rankings in 2013 until his retirement from singles tournaments in 2018, with Lindgren ranked as the number one Melee player in the world in 2015 and 2016. A 2021 list by PGstats ranked Lindgren as the second-greatest Melee player of all time. Lindgren retired from professional Melee singles tournaments in September 2018, citing declining interest in the game, although he still occasionally enters doubles tournaments teaming with his brother Andreas "Android" Lindgren. He also runs a YouTube channel with over 125,000 subscribers.

Kevin Nanney, also known by his gamer tag of PPMD and formerly known as Dr. PeePee, is an inactive American professional Super Smash Bros. Melee player. Nanney is one of the "Five Gods" of Melee, alongside Jason "Mew2King" Zimmerman, Joseph "Mango" Marquez, Adam "Armada" Lindgren, and Juan "Hungrybox" DeBiedma. He is a two-time champion of the Apex tournament series and was ranked as one of the top six players in the world from 2010 to 2015, after which he was removed from rankings due to inactivity. Nanney uses Falco and Marth and is known for his intelligent and patient playstyle. A 2021 list compiled by Melee Stats, which was hosted on PGstats, ranked Nanney as the seventh-greatest Melee player of all time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leffen</span> Swedish professional gamer

William Peter Hjelte, better known by his gamer tag Leffen, is a Swedish professional fighting game player and streamer. Although mostly known as a Super Smash Bros. Melee player, he has also competed in Dragon Ball FighterZ, Guilty Gear Strive, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. In Melee, Hjelte plays the character Fox, and is considered one of the best players in the world, having been ranked as one of the top seven Melee players in the world every year since 2014. A 2021 list compiled by PGStats ranked Hjelte as the sixth greatest Melee player of all time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ZeRo</span> Chilean esports player

Gonzalo Raúl Barrios Castro, known by his gamertag ZeRo, is a Chilean professional Super Smash Bros. player and streamer. He was considered the best Super Smash Bros. for Wii U player in the world throughout his career, with a record-breaking 56 consecutive tournament wins in the game from November 2014 to October 2015, including high-profile tournaments such as EVO 2015 and The Big House 5. Prior to the release of Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, he was a top ranked Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Project M player. His best known characters are Diddy Kong in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, Pit in Project M, Meta Knight in Brawl, and Fox in Melee. He is the only player to have earned more than US$100,000 playing Super Smash Bros. for Wii U competitively.

Professional Super Smash Bros. competition involves professional gamers competing in the Super Smash Bros. series of crossover fighting games published by Nintendo. Organized tournament competition began in 2002 with Super Smash Bros. Melee, released for the GameCube in 2001; however, in the series' native Japan, there have been tournaments as early as 1999 with the original Super Smash Bros. for the Nintendo 64. Later tournaments have featured the other games in the series, with the two largest and most popular Smash Bros. scenes revolving around Melee and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for the Nintendo Switch. Smaller scenes exist for the original game and Project M, a popular fan modification of Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii, and to a lesser extent, Brawl itself. Major Smash Bros. tournaments include the GENESIS, Evolution Championship Series (EVO), Super Smash Con and The Big House annual series. Major League Gaming (MLG) has also previously included Smash Bros. games in its Pro Circuit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Genesis (tournament)</span> Series of Super Smash Bros. tournaments

Genesis, stylized as GENESIS, is a series of annual Super Smash Bros. tournaments occurring in the San Francisco Bay Area of the US state of California. The first Genesis tournament took place in 2009 in Antioch at the Contra Costa County Fairgrounds.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Community Effort Orlando</span>

Community Effort Orlando is an annual fighting game event held in Daytona Beach, Florida. Prior to 2018, CEO was held in Orlando, Florida. Introduced in 2010 and organized by Alex Jebailey, the event is known for its strong ties to the fighting game community. Fighting game players compete in a wrestling ring during the event's tournaments, and CEO has been a mainstay of the Capcom Pro Tour since its establishment in 2014. An annual side-event titled CEOtaku was initiated in 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tweek (gamer)</span> American professional esports player

Gavin Dempsey, also known as Tweek, is an American professional Super Smash Bros. player.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alpharad</span> American YouTuber, esports personality, and musician (born 1995)

John Jacob Rabon IV, better known by his online name Alpharad, is an American YouTuber, esports personality, and musician. He is best known for his gaming videos on the Super Smash Bros. series along with his participation in the fighting game community as a tournament organizer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MkLeo</span> Mexican professional Super Smash Bros. player

Leonardo López Pérez, better known as MkLeo and sometimes Leo, is a Mexican professional Super Smash Bros. player. He is widely considered the best Super Smash Bros. Ultimate player in the world, and is number one in the Panda Global Rankings for the first and second half of 2019. Prior to the release of Ultimate, he was ranked as the best player in the world at Super Smash Bros. for Wii U for the first half of 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zackray</span> Japanese professional Super Smash Bros. player

Sota Okada, also known by his gamer tag zackray, is a Japanese professional Super Smash Bros. player. As of the end of 2019, he was ranked the seventh best Super Smash Bros. Ultimate player in the world and the highest ranked player from Japan. In October 2019 he won The Big House 9, becoming the first Japanese player to win a premier-tier tournament held outside of Japan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samsora</span> American professional esports player

Ezra Samsora Morris, better known as Samsora, is an American former professional Super Smash Bros. player from New Orleans, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marss</span> American professional esports player

Tyler Martins, also known as Marss, is an American professional Super Smash Bros. player. In Super Smash Bros. for Wii U he won several minor tournaments but failed to take any of the premier-events, and was ranked as the 16th best player of all time in the game. In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate he has fared considerably better, winning several premier tournaments and claiming 3rd and 5th in the rankings for the first and second half of 2019, respectively.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dabuz</span> American professional esports player

Samuel Robert Buzby, also known as Dabuz, is an American professional Super Smash Bros. player. In Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, he won several major tournaments and was ranked between 3rd and 6th best player in the world throughout the game's competitive history. In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, he was ranked 7th and 9th best for the first and second halves of 2019, respectively.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glutonny</span> French professional Super Smash Bros. player

William Belaïd, commonly known as Glutonny, is a French professional Super Smash Bros. player. He is the highest ranked Super Smash Bros. Ultimate player from Europe. In Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, he was ranked the 70th best player in the world of all time. In Ultimate, he was ranked 14th and 8th best in the world for the first and second halves of 2019, respectively. In April 2022 he won Pound 2022, becoming the first European player to win a major Ultimate tournament outside Europe.

References

  1. ↑ Álvaro Morillas Correa (2015-10-24). "Nairo elimina al mejor jugador de Super Smash Bros. for Wii U". viciojuegos.com. Retrieved 2015-11-22.
  2. ↑ Arash Fekri (2015-08-20). "Super Smash Bros 4: Nairo Has a New Team, Game Offered at a Discount!". Master Herald. Retrieved 2015-11-22.
  3. ↑ Hice, Jessica. "Elite video gamers played on arena big screens at halftime of Kings game", The Sacramento Bee , March 25, 2017. Accessed April 19, 2023. "Nairo, originally from Passaic, New Jersey, is the third-ranked 'Super Smash Bros.' player in the world."
  4. ↑ Alex Strife. "Apex 2012 Results". smashboards.com. SmashBoards. Retrieved 2015-11-23.
  5. ↑ Alex Strife. "Apex 2013 Results". smashboards.com. SmashBoards. Retrieved 2015-11-23.
  6. ↑ AlphaZealot. "Apex 2014 Results". smashboards.com. SmashBoards. Retrieved 2015-11-23.
  7. ↑ Eric Van Allen (2015-10-19). "Super Smash Bros. Pro Loses After Epic 53-Tournament Win Streak". Paste Magazine. Retrieved 2015-11-22.
  8. ↑ Hernandez, Patricia (2015-10-05). "World's Best Smash Bros. Player Makes Awesome Comeback After Almost Burning Out". Kotaku. Retrieved 2015-11-22.
  9. ↑ Womack, Barrett (22 November 2015). "ZeRo on MLG, Nairo and the Next Chapter". Red Bull. Retrieved 2015-11-22.
  10. ↑ Chaobo. "Liquid Nairo wins Umebura F.A.T." teamliquidpro.com. Team Liquid. Retrieved 2015-11-23.
  11. ↑ Nicholas Taylor (5 September 2015). "Paragon LA 2015 results feat. Mango, Leffen, Hungrybox, Mew2King, Westballz". eventhubs.com. Eventhubs. Retrieved 2015-11-23.
  12. ↑ ssf1991 (10 March 2016). "Nintendo Has Introduced The Pokken Tournament Early Access Competition Trainers". mynintendonews.com. My Nintendo News. Retrieved 2016-03-11.
  13. ↑ Erfanian, Sasha. "Nairo leaves Team Liquid". theScore eSports. Retrieved 17 August 2016.
  14. ↑ Wolf, Jacob (23 August 2016). "NRG Esports picks up Super Smash Con winner Nairo". ESPN. Retrieved 23 August 2016.
  15. ↑ "Super Smash Bros. Invitational - 3vs1: Olivia holt, Ember Moon, Mike Daniels vs. Nairo - E3 2018 HD". YouTube . Retrieved 22 April 2021.
  16. ↑ Michael, Cale (2 July 2020). "Nairo accused of having sexual relationship with 15-year-old CaptainZack, deletes social media accounts". Dot Esports. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
  17. ↑ Quezada, Nairoby (2 July 2020). "I'm not making excuses. My behavior was wrong. I was wrong. I messed up tremendously". Twitter. Archived from the original (Tweet) on 7 July 2020. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
  18. ↑ {{Cite tweet|number=1305621643482615816|user=tamim2938029181|title=Regarding Samsora and Zack
    "Regarding Samsora and Zack". twitlonger.com. September 14, 2020.
  19. ↑ Michael, Cale (15 September 2020). "CaptainZack allegedly lied about taking 'hush money' from Nairo". Dot eSports. Retrieved 17 September 2020.
  20. ↑ "My Statement". Twitter. October 28, 2020.
  21. ↑ "VoiD's statement". Twitter. Retrieved 2020-11-08.
  22. ↑ "Cosmos' statement". Twitter. Retrieved 2020-10-29.
  23. ↑ "MkLeo's comments". Twitter. Retrieved 2020-10-29.
  24. ↑ "Maister's comments". Twitter. Retrieved 2020-11-08.
  25. ↑ Quezada, Nairoby. "Update: On Moving Forward". YouTube. Retrieved 2021-02-19.
  26. ↑ "Nairo trending".
  27. ↑ "2GG lifting Nairo's ban".
  28. ↑ "Collision lifting Nairo's ban".
  29. ↑ "Nairo peaks at over 26,000 viewers in his first stream since July - Dot Esports". 9 April 2021.
  30. ↑ "[VOD] - Nairo - Hey (April 8th)". Nairo (gamer). Retrieved 8 May 2021.
  31. ↑ CT Chibo. "#SSBBRANK 1 – 3 : THE GRAND FINALE". Clash Tournaments. Archived from the original on 2014-12-30. Retrieved 2015-11-23.
  32. ↑ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine : "Those Random, Deep-Rooted School Memories..." YouTube .
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.