2020 Smash Community Sexual Misconduct Allegations

Overview

2020 Smash Community Sexual Misconduct Allegations refers to several allegations of sexual misconduct made against prominent members of the Super Smash Brothers community, including Nairoby "Nairo" Quezada, Cinnamon “Cinnpie” Dunson, Zero, D1 and Richard "Keitaro" King over the course of several days in July of 2020. Each was accused by a different person of having a sexual relationship with a minor in the community. Others have been accused of sexual misconduct as well, leading to calls for reform of the culture in the Smash community.

Background

On July 1st, 2020, Smash player Troy "Puppeh" Wells posted a TwitLonger^[1] story detailing his experiences with Smash commentator Cinnamon "Cinnpie" Dunson, alleging that she would kiss, cuddle, and have oral sex with her in the summer of 2016, when he was 14 and she was 24.

On July 2nd, CaptainZack posted a TwitLonger^[2] story detailing sexual experiences he had with Nairo, claiming Nairo had offered to pay him to keep their relationship a secret.

The same day, rumors began swirling about Smash commentator Richard "Keitaro" King and a player known by the handle Shiva. Shiva said most of the rumors were true,^[3] and Keitaro^[4] posted a TwitLonger story detailing how she got drunk at a party and began to initiate sexual contact with him which he "went with."

Developments

As of July 2nd, 2020, Cinnpie is yet to respond to the allegations made by Puppeh. Nairo has deleted his Twitter and Instagram accounts. Pro player Samsora^[5] posted texts he got from Nairo where Nairo told him "goodbye" (shown below, left). @Slasher^[6] reported Nairo had been let go by his sponsor, NRG (shown below, right).

In response, prominent members of the Smash community including Leffen,^[7] Zero,^[8] and Alpharad ^[9] voiced their shock and disgust (shown below).

Leffen also posted a video responding to the allegations (shown below).

D1 Allegations

On July 2nd, 2020 a Twitter user by the name of KTDominate posted a twitlonger, accusing Smash commentator D1 of statutory rape at the 2016 charity event "Smash the Record 2016" and telling friends about the experience. Hours after the accusation, Maingrette released a statement, publicly apologizing to KTDominate about the situation, stating that he had no recollection of the situation that had happened and that it was both their fault that such event occurred. Despite the apology, Jestise "MVD" Negron, a fellow competitor who was involved in mediating the situation between both parties, released receipts stating that Maingrette knew of the situation that had occurred and was lying about it. Another competitor, that of Eric "ESAM" Lew, released a statement about his account of what transpired, that of which contradicted Maingrette's apology. Due to the allegations at hand, Maingrette has been banned from all events sponsored by 2GG for the time being.

Zero Allegations

On July 2nd, 2020, Twitter user @JisuArtist^[10] accused popular Smash player Zero of showing her graphic sexual imagery when she was underage. At first, Zero denied this in a Twitlonger post,^[11] but apologized the following day in a second Twitlonger post.^[12] On July 3rd, an account named "Katie" accused Zero of talking inappropriately with her when she was underage.^[13] In his second Twitlonger post, Zero says he did not know she was underage and upon learning she was, ceased contact with her.

On July 4th, Zero posted a third Twitlonger^[14] post fully apologizing and saying he was not going to make any more videos. "I really want to atone, and I just want this discussion to stop. I'm not a good person, and it doesn't matter how terrible my life was, I did terrible things and that's the end of it. I don't deserve for people to defend me," he wrote. JisuArtist^[15] tweeted, "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."

Zero's gaming organization Tempo released a statement saying they were cutting ties with him.^[16]

Return To YouTube

On November 16th, 2021, ZeRo returned to YouTube with a video responding to the allegations.

In an upload to his channel, he recanted his confession and denied all allegations. ZeRo claims that the stress brought on by the allegations and his inability to disprove them caused him to spiral into depression and self-sabotage by confessing. He says his confession was intended to be a suicide note. ZeRo attempted suicide in March 2021.

“My confession is nothing more than a suicide letter that I wrote during a tremendous mental breakdown. I had fully planned to take my life right after posting that document because I pretty much lost all faith in that scenario,” ZeRo said.

ZeRo's return appears to be prompted by a pair of videos from YouTuber Technicals, each of which is roughly an hour-long, that investigate the wave of allegations from last year and present evidence that challenges the allegations against Sky Williams and ZeRo, in particular.

Sky Williams

Many of the allegations related to the Smash community were connected to "Sky Houses," which were houses belonging to Sky Williams, a well-known player and streamer of Smash. Several properties served as the "Sky House" during the 2010s. Keitaro's incident and Zero's allegations both were alleged to have taken place at Sky Houses. On July 3rd, 2020, Williams stated he would be addressing the allegations and the role his properties played in an upcoming statement.^[17]

On July 5th, JisuArtist^[21] posted a massive document detailing her allegations against Zero and the inappropriate behavior occurring at Sky House. In it, she stated that she believed Williams knew "he was next" and was trying to stop information about him coming out. She also stated that she had been rooming with an unnamed person who abused her and that Williams did nothing to stop it. She was the only minor in the house.

On July 6th, digital artist Melissa "ffSade" Yabumoto, who lived at four of the Sky Houses, released a Google Doc^[18] detailing life at the houses. She described conditions as very cramped and Sky enforcing strict rules, at one point threatening to break something of value for every member of the house unless he received $350 in cash as punishment for an unannounced visitor entering the home (shown below).

Later that evening, Williams streamed for two hours talking about the allegations and life at Sky House.^[19] He admitted that his threat to break things was "trash" and he regretted it.^[20] Regarding JisuArtist's allegations, Williams stated, "Even if I was convinced she was being abused, I wasn't smart enough or strong enough to take definitive action, especially we didn't have proof of their sexual activity yet." His stream cut off after two hours.

Sky Williams' House

Following the stream, Twitter users joked about Williams' house by comparing it to maze-like maps in video games. For example, user @barndingus^[22] compared the house to the Rocket hideout from Pokémon Red and Blue, gaining over 150 retweets and 1,400 likes (shown below, left). User @MildConviction^[23] compared it to an M.C. Escher painting, gaining over 160 retweets and 920 likes (shown below, right).

Allegations of sexual abuse at Sky Williams' residence date back to 2016. On March 30th, 2016, Redditor SmashCapps posted "MacD Sexual Assault Allegations" in the /r/smashbros^[26] subreddit. The thread catalogs a number of allegations against MacD between September 2014 and May 2015.

They wrote:

I am here to share allegations against McCain "MacD" LaVelle for sexual assault. I am also here to discuss how this happened under Sky Williams’s own roof and how he was not only negligent in reporting the activity, he actively pushed the victim to not report anything.

A police report is being filed. MacD was first asked privately to stop but continued assaulting this person as well as other people.

Nairo Defense

On October 28th, 2020, Nairo posted a denial of CaptainZack's allegations on Twitter and Medium,^[24] saying that he had hired a legal team and accused Zack of raping him. His statement was supported by multiple members of the Smash community.^[25]

Search Interest

External References