| ZeRo | |
|---|---|
.png) | |
| Personal information | |
| Name | Gonzalo Raúl Barrios Castro |
| Born | (1995-04-17)April 17, 1995 (age 29) Chillán, Chile |
| Career information | |
| Games | |
| Playing career | 2006–2020 |
| Team history | |
| 2012 | vVv Gaming |
| 2014 | Clash Tournaments |
| 2015–2018 | Team SoloMid |
| 2018–2020 | Tempo Storm |
| Career highlights and awards | |
(3 majors won)
(23 majors won)
| |
YouTube information | |
| Channel | |
| Years active | 2012–present |
| Subscribers | 819 thousand[1] |
| Total views | 365 million[1] |
Last updated: February 2025 | |
Gonzalo Raúl Barrios Castro[2] (born April 17, 1995), known by his gamertagZeRo, is a ChileanprofessionalSuper Smash Bros. player andstreamer. He was considered the bestSuper 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 asEVO 2015 andThe Big House 5. Prior to the release ofSuper Smash Bros. for Wii U, he was a top rankedSuper Smash Bros. Brawl andProject M player. His best known characters areDiddy Kong inSuper Smash Bros. for Wii U,Pit inProject M,Meta Knight inBrawl, andFox inMelee. He is the only player to have earned more than US$100,000 playingSuper Smash Bros. for Wii U competitively.[3]
ZeRo retired fromprofessional competition in January 2018 to focus onstreaming and "close the chapter" withSuper Smash Bros. for Wii U.[4] Following allegations ofsexting two minors in 2014, ZeRo's sponsors cut ties with him in July 2020 due to his admittance to the allegations.[5] In September 2022, ZeRo settled a defamation lawsuit he had filed against Jacqueline "Jisu" Choe in response to her allegations.[6][7][8]
ZeRo was born inChillán in 1995.[9][10] As a child, ZeRo was bullied and placed into a special needs program in school. Due to his family's financial issues and his own anxiety, he dropped out of school for three years. During this time, ZeRo received aNintendo GameCube and would playspeedruns onSuper Mario Sunshine, as well asSuper Smash Bros.Melee with his older sister.[11]
In 2006, ZeRo began competing inMelee tournaments in his Chilean hometown at a local game store.[12] In the following years, ZeRo regularly traveled between Chile, Argentina, and the United States to compete in regional and internationalSmash tournaments and events.[13]
In 2011, ZeRo' sister died at age 27 due to complications from a brain aneurysm.[11]
Between 2011 and 2012, after competing in various local and regionalMelee tournaments, ZeRo was sponsored by Los Angeles-based vVv Gaming. In 2012, he began competing in professionalesports events includingApex,[14] By early 2014, it was estimated that ZeRo was earning approximatelyUS$40,000 a year from a combination of prize money,sponsorships, andTwitch streams.[15]
ZeRo then qualified for theMLG Anaheim 2014 championship bracket and finished in 17th place. During this time, he was ranked byMelee it on Me as the 35th bestMelee player in the world.[16] In June 2014, he won theSuper Smash Bros. for Wii U invitational atE3, moving up through the winner's bracket and defeatingHungrybox in the game's first-ever official tournament.[17]
In November 2014, ZeRo criticized Diddy Kong's repetitive play style inSmash Bros. for Wii U, claiming that Diddy was "killing the game".[18] However, ZeRo later retracted the statement and stated that Diddy Kong was his favorite character to play with, which eventually led to Diddy being his main character in tournaments.[19]
AtEVO 2015, ZeRo defeated Mr. R in the largestSmash for Wii U tournament to date. In the following month,Team SoloMid announced ZeRo as the second player in theirSuper Smash Bros. division.[20]
AtThe Big House 5, ZeRo faced off in the grand finals againstTeam Liquid's Nairo. Despite a narrow escape from losses in the early tournament and a loss during the first set versus Nairo, ZeRo ended with a 3–2 win in the second set.[citation needed]
InMLG World Finals 2015, ZeRo defeated Nakat, StaticManny, Ally, and ESAM, moving on to challengeNairo for the winner's bracket grand finals. There, Nairo took two sets off of ZeRo, ending ZeRo's reign at 56 consecutive victories.[21]
ZeRo suffered from a growth on his middle finger in early 2016 that required surgical removal, and prevented him from playingSmash for several months.[22]
In November 2018, ZeRo simultaneously announced his return to professional competition forSuper Smash Bros. Ultimate and his signing to theTempo Storm esports team.[23] ZeRo announced a year later that he had signed an exclusive streaming rights deal withFacebook.[24]
On July 3, 2020, ZeRo announced that he would be retiring from professional competition following allegations ofsending sexual messages to minors when he was 19, and that he would also be ending all of his sponsorships. This includes an incident in 2014, where ZeRo allegedly asked "Katie", a 14-year-old girl at the time, to masturbate with ice and to take pictures.[25][26] ZeRo later made a statement on YouTube, saying he was sorry and was seeking therapy.[27] The following day, Tempo Storm announced that they would be severing ties with ZeRo,[25] with Facebook following suit on July 5, and Twitch on July 23.[28][29] When Inven Global asked the team's CEO, Andrey "Reynad" Yanyuk, if he saw "a world in which ZeRo is able to rehabilitate himself and potentially re-join Tempo Storm in some capacity", he responded:
"I don't know, I don't like to speculate about the future. I just take things one day at a time, you know? I think ZeRo is a very different person today than he was when he wrote some Skype messages at 19 years old. I think he's had a lot of personal growth over the past few years that I've personally seen, so I'm optimistic about his ability to recover."[30]
After months of silence, on March 23, 2021, ZeRo's then ex-girlfriend Vanessa announced on Twitter that he hadattempted suicide and was sent in for further care after being treated in a hospital.[31] On April 26, 2021, ZeRo updated to the community that he successfully recovered from the hospital and has no intention to attempt suicide again.[32] On November 16, 2021, ZeRo uploaded a video to YouTube, stating that he was returning to creating content and retracting his previous admission.[33] On November 30, 2021, ZeRo sued his former roommate Jisu for defamation regarding four allegations she made against him in 2020.[34] On September 9, 2022, ZeRo announced that a settlement had been reached in the lawsuit.[35]
On October 19, 2024, on a YouTube livestream, ZeRo announced that he was engaged.
ZeRo was considered the third bestBrawl player in the world by Clash Tournaments in the 2014 SSBBRank.[36]
ZeRo was ranked as the best Smash for WiiU player in the world on all 4 editions of the Panda Global Rankings (PGR) prior to his retirement
In 2016, ZeRo was featured in theGuinness Book of World Records Gamer's Edition for his 56 consecutiveSmash tournament victories.[37]
Guia hecha, escrita e ideada por ZeRo, Copyright © Gonzalo Raul Barrios Castro