Smash Ultimate pro Nairo denies CaptainZack’s abuse allegations, claims he was victim of sexual assault

Smash Ultimate pro player Nairoby “Nairo” Quezada has denied allegations of sexual abuse against him from Zack “CaptainZack” Lauth in a lengthy statement. 

Back in July, CaptainZack claimed he had a consensual sexual relationship aged 15 with Nairo, who was aged 20 at the time. 

The allegations led to Nairo being banned from Twitch and dropped from esport organisation NRG, but three months later, the Smash player has posted a statement on Twitter stating he’s taking legal action with a 30-page document detailing the full timeline of events. 

In a Twitter post released on Wednesday 28th October, Nairo claims CaptainZack’s allegations are “completely false”, and wrote an apology for the allegations while in a “panicked, emotional state”. 

“When it came out and I saw how everyone threw me aside so quickly, everything I’d been repressing broke me,” the statement reads. “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.”

My Statement

Text Version: https://t.co/0AVoxFU92Jpic.twitter.com/vT9wyoeNJW

— Nairo (@NairoMK) October 28, 2020

Nairo claims he was never in a relationship with CaptainZack to begin with because he’s heterosexual, saying Zack is “touchy with his friends”. 

In his version of events from CEO Dreamland in April 2017, Nairo claims he reluctantly let CaptainZack stay in his hotel room because “he’d be stranded otherwise” after a problem with the hotel booking. 

Nairo has claimed he was a victim of sexual assault 

Staying in separate beds, he states Nairo woke up to CaptainZack performing oral sex on him, and continued to do so despite telling him to stop. 

He later claims CaptainZack repeatedly blackmailed him into further sexual encounters, saying he threatened to expose him if he didn’t go through with it. 

“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,” the statement adds. “I never imagined I could be a victim of rape and never even thought of what sexual assault looked like to a male victim.”

He added: “I have lost all of that: my friends, my team, my ability to compete, my Twitch stream, my future. I lost my entire life to these horrible lies and thought of ending it all, but I’m now glad I didn’t continue to go down that path. 

“To my closest friends who stuck by me and to the few people who reached out to me, you have no idea how grateful I am to you. You are the reason I am still here today.”

Nairo is planning to take legal action against CaptainZack’s claims while undergoing therapy. CaptainZack has yet to respond to the new accusations.

CaptainZack's allegations came out amid an abundance of abuse accusations within the Smash community earlier this year, which the community is still largely rebuilding from.