Super Smash Bros champion Nairo says 'I was raped' after Twitch ban over pedo allegations, here's what happened
After months of being accused of having sexual relations with an underage Twitch streamer who competed at Super Smash Bros, Nairo has broken his silence about what really happened in 2017, the night that Zack (CaptainZack) confessed that he had initiated sex. Zack, in his statement which was released on July 2, said, "I started playing in smash tournaments when I was 12 years old. 3 years later, when I was 15 years old, I had my first sexual encounter at a smash tournament. CEO Dreamland 2017 Friday night, April 14th, was the first time anything happened with Nairo, him being 20 years old at the time. Luckily I recorded all of my actions with someone on discord. They're verifiable with timestamps that coincide with others who I had messaged."
Zack also said that he had no intention of canceling Nairo, however, that is exactly what happened. Twitch also canceled their partnership with Nairo who is also banned from Twitch. He had also shared screenshots of chats in which he is texting his friends about how he had initiated sex and how events had led to him giving Nairo a blowjob. In his statement, Zack explained that the reason he was coming out was to ensure that people understand that despite the fact that he had initiated all of this, he was a minor.
Twitch Super Smash Bros community is filled with 15-year-old children competing and gaming at different tournaments and with a number of claims of sexual harassment, assault and allegations, there is a problem. It is this problem that Zack hoped to highlight. He shared screenshots of messages that he had sent to his friends about how he had approached Nairo and every step has been recorded in this claim. Nairo was 20 at the time of this incident.
After this, Nairo had disappeared from the gaming scene until October 28 when the former Twitch streamer had released a statement in which he claimed that he was raped. He recorded his perspective of what really happened and wrote, "Zack’s allegations are all completely false. When it came out and I saw how everyone threw me aside so quickly, everything I’d been repressing broke me. If my friends weren’t willing to hear out my side, why would anyone else? In my panicked, emotional state, I just gave up, told a friend to write a vague apology, and posted it."
He further added, "The truth is I was never in a relationship with Zack nor was I ever interested in him. Zack is touchy with his friends, leaning on them and lying on their laps, so I never thought deeply about it." He also shared what happened on the day of the incident and wrote, "Saturday of CEO Dreamland (April 15th, 2017), Zack and his friend told me that they booked their hotel incorrectly and now needed a place to stay for the rest of the weekend. His friend had already found someone to stay with, but no one would take Zack and they told me he’d be stranded otherwise. With that reason, they told me I was his last option and so I reluctantly agreed to let Zack stay in my room."
He also added how he woke up to Zack molesting him and added, "We slept in our own separate beds, but I woke up to Zack molesting me. I freaked out, terrified, but my body froze up and he forcefully performed oral sex on me. I yelled at him to stop, but he refused, and he only stopped once I managed to push him off me. I was so shaken up by everything — what he just did, his betrayal of my trust in letting him stay — that I just shut down."
Nairo then explained what he believed is the truth behind the claims of paying Zack to shut up about all that happened. "On Sunday, Zack attempted to touch me again without warning and I rejected him, listing that this was illegal and that I felt disgusted about yesterday. He kept pressuring me despite my pleas and when I told Zack to leave, he threatened to expose me, saying he’d tweet out that we did sexual things. I couldn’t believe it and begged him to stop this, but Zack held that over my head. He blackmailed me into the second encounter of oral sex, which he gave up midway out of annoyance at how unwilling I was. He had me under his thumb after and I had no choice but to not get on his bad side because of his threats."
Nairo also claimed that he was raped by the then 15-year-old and said, "After the allegations came out, I was so crushed at how my silence had been worthless in the end and broke down, eventually opening up to my brother and closest friends about my story. That was when I learned that what happened to me did have a word. I was raped."
He then shared, "The cold, hard truth was that Zack had raped me and blackmailed me with that this entire time because I didn’t understand what happened to me. I never imagined I could be a victim of rape and never even thought of what sexual assault looked like to a male victim. I was encouraged to seek therapy and currently, I have two therapists that I have been with for months. They, as professionals, taught me much about sexual assault and reaffirmed that what happened to me was rape. They told me that freezing up and feeling powerless is a common reaction among victims and that survivors of sexual assault can go months and even years without fully understanding what happened to them. Most importantly, they told me that my rape was not my fault."
Nairo also explained that he is taking the legal route to sort through the allegations made by Zack.