Smash Bros. Pro ZeRo Banned From Twitch For Preying On Minors

Super Smash Bros. streamer and esports pro ZeRo has been banned from Twitch for sending sexually explicit messages to minors. This is one of many ongoing situations involving Twitch partners being caught in or accused of sexual misconduct. Twitch gave a controversial statement last month about their investigations into all allegations and that consequences would be coming.

The Smash Bros. community has been experiencing a rash of allegations recently, including the ones towards Gonzalo Barrios, otherwise known as ZeRo. Top player Nairoby “Nairo” Quezada has also been accused of engaging in a sexual relationship with a minor. Amongst several others, D’Ron “D1” Maingrette, a prominent commentator and former Twitch employee, was accused of raping a community member. These and many other allegations have forced both the Twitch and Smash Bros. communities to look inward at what allowed this all to occur. Since, Twitch has been doing rounds of suspensions of those accused after their own internal investigations.

GameSpot reports that Barrios received this ban a week ago, per StreamerBans. It is currently unknown if this is a permanent suspension of his Twitch account or if it is possible that the ban will be lifted. Twitch has been issuing many bans without clear timelines. Most famously, their ban of Dr. Disrespect came with no set end date in sight, but also no guarantee of permanence. According to Commander Root, one of Twitch’s partners, Barrios has lost his own partner status with Twitch. Barrios has given a statement saying that he would eliminate all of his sponsorships and that he was done creating gaming content, although it is unclear if that wasn’t his only choice. Barrios’s own gaming organization Tempo has cut ties with him and is offering professional support to all of his victims.

Barrios has admitted to some of his predatory behaviors after several serious allegations. Since his final statement admitting guilt for the things he was accused of, several more allegations of sexual predation have come forward. Jacqueline “Jisu” Choe, a professional artist, Smash Bros. community member, and survivor of Barrios has said that Barrios’s confession was incomplete, “After 2 twitlongers, blatant lying, and several attempts of damage control via messaging figureheads and victims only for you to realize you’re finally screwed– you finally fess up. Except this isn’t all of it. I’ll be releasing my statement and everyone’s accounts soon.” After the second wave of allegations Barrios has deleted his previous tweets and his Twitter.

Barrios hasn’t streamed on Twitch since 2019, but all the same it’s a positive step to see that Twitch is giving consequences for its partner’s actions. He was also banned from Facebook Gaming and has a self-imposed ban from all Smash Bros. tournaments for life. It’s good to see a prominent streamer and esports pro receive consequences for heinous actions, but it wasn’t as straightforward as it should have been. It took a lot of allegations, several victims to comes forward, and a public admittance of guilt before Twitch banned him almost three weeks later. The community also didn’t handle it well, as Choe received death threats as a reward for her bravery coming forward. The gaming industry and community still have a long way to go for fixing their issues with mistreating women in gaming.

Source: GameSpot, StreamerBans

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