Nairoby Quezada

Last updated
Nairo
Nairoby Quezada
Nairo at Frostbite 2020 (cropped).jpg
Nairo at Frostbite 2020
Personal information
Born (1996-11-07) November 7, 1996 (age 24)
Nickname(s)Nairo
NairoMK
Career information
Games Super Smash Bros. for Wii U
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Career history
2015–2016 Team Liquid
2016–2020 NRG Esports
Career highlights and awards

Nairoby Quezada (born November 7, 1996), known by his gamertag Nairo, is an American former professional Super Smash Bros. player from Passaic, New Jersey. He was regarded as a top professional in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate , Super Smash Bros. for Wii U , and Super Smash Bros. Brawl . He primarily competed playing as Meta Knight in Brawl, Zero Suit Samus in Wii U, and Palutena in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. [1] [2]

Contents

Career

Quezada 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, Quezada suffered an early defeat in winners' bracket, before making his way through losers' bracket and finally finishing 4th. Quezada would later win Apex 2014 concluding with a Meta Knight vs. Meta Knight match ("ditto") against Gonzalo "ZeRo" Barrios. Quezada 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. [3] [4] [5] Quezada is known to play the opposite of his brother being very offensive and rarely opting to go on the defensive.

Quezada signed to play for Team Liquid in August 2015 and later ended ZeRo's 56-tournament winning streak at the 2015 MLG World Finals. [6] [7] [8] Quezada has won many national-level tournaments in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, including Paragon Los Angeles 2015, Umebura FAT, and MLG 2015. [9] [10]

Quezada was one of the eight players competing in the Pokkén Tournament Early Access Competition Invitational by The Pokémon Company and Nintendo. [11]

On August 16, 2016 Quezada left Team Liquid. [12] It was announced on August 23, 2016 that Quezada would be joining NRG Esports as their first Super Smash Bros. player. [13]

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. [14]

Allegations of sexual misconduct, blackmail and cut ties

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. [15] Nairo issued an apology hours later, claiming that his behavior was wrong, and that he "messed up tremendously". [16] He also stopped streaming on Twitch 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. [17] [18] Samsora denied the allegations against him.

On October 28, 2020, Quezada reactivated his Twitter 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 claims 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. Nairo claimed to have a 30-page document that includes details and evidence to clear his name. [19] 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, [20] [21] while other prominent players such as MkLeo and Maister tweeted their support. [22] [23]

On February 19, 2021, Quezada uploaded a video to his YouTube channel announcing that a legal agreement had been reached between both parties and he intended to return to competing and streaming. He has also submitted an appeal to his Twitch ban. [24] 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. [25]

Following Nairo's statement, tournament organizations such as 2GGaming and Collision would lift Nairo's ban from their events after processing his appeal. [26] [27]

Personal life

Quezada has a brother, Kelvin "Ksizzle" Quezada, who also plays Super Smash Bros. [28]

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References

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    Read: tl.gd/n_1srda66"
    (Tweet) via Twitter.
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