Former competitive Super Smash Bros. player Gonzalo “ZeRo” Barrios more or less dropped off the face of the earth after confessing to multiple instances of sexual misconduct last year. ZeRo stopped uploading content and banned himself from future tournaments in a confession posted to TwitLonger on July 4, 2020. Many might have assumed it was the last that most people would hear from the pro gamer.
However, the professional Super Smash Bros. player is back on YouTube and is now making accusations of his own. The Chilean streamer now claims that his confession was a “suicide note” made during a depressive episode brought on by the allegation. ZeRo now denies the allegations, claiming they are part of what he calls a coordinated plot to “assassinate his character.”
ZeRo is one of several Super Smash Bros. players accused of sexual misconduct. Specifically, he faces multiple accusations of sending sexually explicit images and texts to underaged girls. This includes an incident in 2014 where ZeRo, then 19, allegedly asked a 14-year-old girl to send him pictures of herself engaging in sexual acts. Additionally, two of ZeRo’s accusers reportedly received death threats from his fans after coming forward.
The Super Smash Bros player confessed to most of the allegations in July 2020, though he denied having sex with anyone underage. ZeRo also asserted that his actions weren’t born out of malice but resulted from severe “social awkwardness.” Said confession resulted in Zero losing his sponsors and receiving a permanent ban from streaming platform Twitch. ZeRo later needed to be hospitalized after attempting suicide a few months after publishing the confession online.
ZeRo recanted his confession in a video published on his YouTube channel on November 16, denying all allegations. He claims that he’d struggled with depression for some time and the stress of the allegations pushed him toward suicidal thoughts. The former professional Smash Bros. player claims that his depression led him to deliberately self-sabotage by making a false confession. He says that at the time, he lacked any evidence to prove his innocence and felt the best option was to confess and apologize. He says he fully intended to kill himself after releasing his confession.
The renewed denial comes after YouTuber Technicals released a pair of videos about the case. Both are close to an hour long and present evidence to challenge several of the allegations against ZeRo. The streamer now claims that he was the victim of a campaign of character assassination orchestrated by his accusers. ZeRo asserts that he never sent or received sexually explicit messages to or from underaged girls and accuses anyone who says otherwise of lying.
The streamer says he’s now retained legal counsel and is involved in a lawsuit against several relevant parties. ZeRo didn’t elaborate further, saying this will be his last time discussing the case outside of court. Hopefully, the ongoing lawsuit determines once and for all who is telling the truth. Either way, it appears that the gaming world just can’t escape what seems like an ongoing series of sexual misconduct accusations.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is available on Nintendo Switch.