Gonzalo "ZeRo" Barrios attempted suicide last week and the Smash community seems to know they are responsible. 

ZeRo used to be one of the best Super Smash Bros. Ultimate players in the world. He was also quite famous on YouTube for his Smash content. He was also seen as a very nice person and often thought of as a role model. That all changed in 2020. 

When Nairoby "Nairo" Quezada was accused of grooming, ZeRo shared a TwitLonger where he apologized for not noticing the situation or doing anything to stop it. But a member of the Smash community responded that ZeRo was behaving inappropriately with her while she was 15, including harassing her at the Sky House and showing her hentai. 

At this point, other ZeRo fans came forward with their stories as well. The Smash community was torn, wanting to believe that ZeRo was just anti-social, awkward, and wasn't aware of their age at the time. He was only 19 himself. But then screenshots came out and it became clear ZeRo knew the girls were minors. He knew it was inappropriate to flirt with them. 

Ashamed, ZeRo announced a self-imposed ban from all Smash events. Twitch later banned his channel on the streaming platform. Tempo Storm dropped him from their organization. ZeRo basically disappeared. 

But the Smash community wasn't done. 

In Smash forums and groups all across the internet, Smash players — including pros — started relentlessly mocking ZeRo with memes and rants. Some posts talked about his "neckbeard" and made fun of his appearance. Others pointed at YouTube videos where he made sexual jokes about characters, parading it as proof that ZeRo was a creeper and a pervert all along. Others straight up called him a pedophile and demanded he be shunned from the community. 

I am not here to say what ZeRo did was okay. In fact, I find it disgusting. He deserved to be banned from Twitch. He deserved to be banned from tournaments and events. But why did the Smash community feel the need to continuously attack ZeRo after he was already chased out of the Smash scene altogether? 

The tweet from Venessa, ZeRo's former partner, admitting that the retired Smash legend had attempted suicide has since been deleted. But all of the replies remain. And most of them look like this one from Melee legend Adam "Armada" Lindgren: 

Venessa never shared why ZeRo attempted to take his own life. But from her sentiment about people "being more than their mistakes," it seems that the continued bullying from the Smash community after already losing his career, friends, and scene, was possibly too much for him. 

Just in case you thought this only happened when the news first broke, I'm here to inform you that the memes kept coming all year. It continued to be a source of entertainment for many people in the Smash community to joke about ZeRo's gross wrongdoings.

The taunting and mocking never ended. No, not even once the news broke up that ZeRo attempted suicide. That might have only fueled it more. Smash groups are full of images like the one below:

Again, what ZeRo did was wrong. It was predatory. And I personally don't care that he was young as well. That doesn't mean he should ask an underage girl to do inappropriate things with ice cubes. That doesn't mean he should harass 15-year-olds and force them to see hentai. It's awful. 

But guess what? The actions got him banned from Twitch and the pro Smash scene as a whole. Justice was served. So why is the Smash community continuing to harass him and mock him? It could be seen as another sense of justice. It could be just another form of entertainment for people. But either way, it's not needed and it's not helping. 

What is cancel culture anyway?

My co-worker shared a video with me earlier this week when they heard I was planning to write about cancel culture. And I recommend everyone else reading this to watch it too if you have time. But the main takeaway for me was a group of angry people shouldn't be the ones to cancel people. And this includes the Smash community. 

The first use of the term "cancel culture" was in the show Love & Hip Hop: New York. At one point, a music executive, Cisco Resato, says to Diamond Strawberry that she's "canceled." But the first popular recorded time a society participated in "cancel culture" was maybe the Salem Witch Trials, when a hysterical mob of clueless villagers claimed that women were witches if they had an opinion. 

That didn't end very well. 

In more recent times, cancel culture hasn't really been any better. A modern "canceling" is supposed to be done by a company that wants to make an employee a scapegoat. For example, if a record label signs an abusive, sexist person, instead of taking any of the blame, the record label will point to the person they signed and "cancel" them. 

We often view "cancel culture" as a social justice movement, where "sensitive snowflakes" want to cancel syrup, butter, and potatoes because they just want to be upset about something that offends them. But cancel culture is actually corporate.

There were no mobs of people that demanded Pepe Le Pew, the sexual assault skunk, to be booted from Space Jam. The company did it themselves as an act of "virtue signaling." Warner Bros. got to appear forward-thinking and get some press attention even though nobody asked for this. Of course, nobody should be complaining that Pepe is gone since he was creepy as hell. But I am willing to guarantee nobody was fighting for this when real issues are happening all over the country. 

Pepe Le Pew was a scapeskunk. Removing him from Space Jam was a super easy "fix" that made the company look good (in their eyes) without having to really do anything of importance. Back in Smash, Twitch banned ZeRo to seem like they cared about all the women who are constantly harassed by streamers and viewers on their platform. 

While Twitch still has real work to do, this seemed to take care of ZeRo. He lost his platform. He lost his fans. He lost his community. He paid the price for manipulating minors. But for some reason, the Smash community wanted to keep going. Cancel culture has become more than a company putting the blame on someone. It's become communities of people wanting to do the lynching themselves. 

This is possibly because they don't feel that companies are doing enough. Or they don't feel real justice was served and that ZeRo was able to walk free without jail time. But that doesn't give us the right to become the jury and the judge. That doesn't give us the right to bully people who have already faced consequences. 

The Smash community loves cancel culture a lot

It's not only ZeRo.

The Smash community wasn't just making fun of ZeRo because he had a neckbeard and watched hentai. No. The Smash community has done this every single time news has come out about a player that they don't like.

Nairo was mocked relentlessly and still is. Even though it's unclear if Nairo truly groomed a minor, the Smash community has decided he's guilty so that's that. They bullied him off social media and then, even when Nairo deleted all his accounts, they continued to make fun of him all over the place. 

Another top Smash player, Elliot Bastien "Ally" Carroza-Oyarce admitted to having a relationship with a minor. That's clearly a major problem. So Ally was kicked off of Twitch and banned from tournaments. Oh, and then bullied into being allegedly suicidal. 

We don't have to want Ally back. We don't have to want ZeRo back. We don't have to want Nairo back. It's fine if they all stay banned, we don't have to consume their content. But why bully them? Why harass them? Why continue to make memes, tweets, and posts that attack them? 

Predators don't deserve our sympathy. We don't have to change our opinions on any of the aforementioned canceled pros. We can think they are disgusting and dangerous to the Smash scene. But why keep saying it? Why keep posting about it? Why keep making jokes at their expense? 

The Smash community has to stop bullying the people they once sheltered, idolized, and stood up for just to feel better about themselves. Let's not pretend that the home-grown, often unregulated Smash scene didn't have a "bro code" protecting so many of the predators within the community. Let's not pretend these pros hid what they did from each other and weren't well aware (we've all read the TwitLongers by now). And let's not pretend fans didn't turn away from proof pre-2020 because they didn't care what an entertaining competitor did in their private life if it meant they could watch a good match. 

And you might argue that the Smash community only bullies predators. But that's definitely not true. The Smash community has tried to get Juan "Hungrybox" DeBiedma canceled many times. Why? Some people don't like him and find him annoying. 

When I shared a story about Hungrybox passing out due to being exhausted and dehydrated, many people said he deserved it. Some people were joking. Some weren't. Either way, the Smash community felt it was appropriate to express satisfaction that Hungrybox passed out just because they found his videos unfunny and said he was loud. 

And this is nothing new. Before EVO 2018, Hungrybox hurt his wrist. His coach, Luis "Crunch" Rosias, later told me that Hungrybox received a lot of responses applauding the injury. A lot of people prayed he wouldn't recover in time for EVO. Why? Oh, they just felt Jigglypuff was boring. So that made it okay to joke about Hungrybox remaining injured for a big tournament. 

And if this sounds just "funny" to you or seems "meh," that's because the Smash community is so used to this behavior that it feelsnormal. This is just seen as some good ol' fashioned "trolling."  So let me say this: It's not normal to say these kinds of things to people. 

Or how about when Melee pro Jason "Mew2King" Zimmerman had to share very personal and uncomfortable details he wanted to keep private just to clear his name after the Smash community tried to cancel him for allegedly jerking off during a stream? The situation was so unfortunate that the accuser even came forward to apologize for starting the barrage of hate and fake rumors against Mew2King.

It's great he apologized. But meanwhile, Mew2King has now shared very private and hurtful things about his life and body just to end the Smash community's endless harassment after they heard the accusation and immediately decided to all come together to cancel Mew2King for something he couldn't even physically do. 

The Smash community used to be considered one of the most toxic communities in all of gaming. But in the past few years, the community has allegedly fought against this image. Even some pros have stated they have seen improvements. But if you ask others in the scene, it's only gotten worse. The Smash community is apparently just as toxic as ever. 

In an interview with Saleem "Salem" Akiel Young, I was told the Smash community is even worse now. Just look at how they reacted to Nairo's return — how quick they were to cancel him. The response to the article? Trying to get Salem banned from tournaments and shunned by the community for his involvement in the Nairo situation. 

I am not here to say Salem is innocent or guilty. I am here to say that it's not up to us if Salem is banned. Some tournament organizers have started to ban Salem due to his involvement with that drama. And that's fine. But is it necessary to share the banning over and over and over again on social media, stating what Salem deserves and demanding even more punishment? 

The Smash community needs to stop bullying people just because they don't like them or don't agree with them. The Smash community even needs to stop bullying people who have done illegal things and harmed others. Even if you secretly believe that ZeRo deserves death for what he did, why do you have to make a meme mocking his suicide? Why do you have to write paragraphs about how much you hate him? 

The Smash community is just as toxic as ever — and cancel culture is partially to blame. There are other issues, of course, but this has brought out the worst in the community. And it needs to stop. 

In its essence, modern cancel culture is about a company and community choosing to no longer consume someone's content because of something bad they did. It should not be about bullying that person into suicide. Whether you agree with corporate cancel culture or not, at what point do we call out this angry mob-like mentality for the self-righteous gaslighting that it truly is?

If you or anyone you know are struggling with suicidal thoughts and need to speak with someone who can help, please reach out to a suicide prevention helpline:

United States: 1-800-273-8255

United Kingdom: 116-123

Brazil: 212339191

Canada: 18662773553 (outside Montreal), 5147234000 (in Montreal)

Complete list of suicide prevention numbers