Gonzalo Barrios, known by his gamertag ZeRo, is a Chilean former professionalSuper Smash Bros. player and streamer. He was considered the best Super Smash Bros. for Wii U player in the world throughout his career. ZeRo had a record-breaking 56-tournament winning streak from 2014 to 2015, in which he won several high-profile tournaments including EVO 2015 and The Big House 5. In the past, he has been a top ranked Super Smash Bros. Brawl player. He is best known for playing as Diddy Kong in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, Pit in Project M, Meta Knight in Brawl, and Fox in Melee. He is the only person to earn more than US$100,000 playing Super Smash Bros. for Wii U competitively.
Life and career
2005–2011: Early life and ''Super Smash Bros.'' tournaments
Barrios was born in Chillán, Chile, on April 17, 1995. As a child, Barrios 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, Barrios received a Nintendo GameCube and would play speedruns on Super Mario Sunshine, as well as Super Smash Bros.Melee with his older sister. In 2006, Barrios began competing in Melee tournaments in his Chilean hometown at a local game store. In the following years, ZeRo regularly traveled between Chile, Argentina, and the United States to compete in regional and international Smash tournaments and events. In 2011, Barrios' sister died at age 27 due to complications from a brain aneurysm.
2011–2018: vVv Gaming and rise to professional ''Smash'' tournaments
Between 2011 and 2012, after competing in various local and regional Melee tournaments, ZeRo was sponsored by Los Angeles-based vVv Gaming. In 2012, he began competing in professional esports events including Apex, By early 2014, it was estimated that ZeRo was earning approximately 40,000 a year from a combination of prize money, sponsorships, and Twitch streams. ZeRo then qualified for the MLG Anaheim 2014 championship bracket and finished in 17th place. During this time, he was ranked by Melee it on Me as the 35th best Melee player in the world. In June 2014, he won the Super Smash Bros. for Wii U invitational at E3, moving up through the winner's bracket and defeating Hungrybox in the game's first-ever official tournament. In November 2014, ZeRo criticized Diddy Kong's repetitive play style in Smash Bros. for Wii U, claiming that Diddy was "killing the game". 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. At EVO 2015, ZeRo defeated Mr. R in the largest Smash for Wii U tournament to date. In the following month, Team SoloMid announced ZeRo as the second player in their Super Smash Bros. division. At The Big House 5, ZeRo faced off in the grand finals against Team Liquid'sNairo. 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. In MLG World Finals 2015, ZeRo defeated Nakat, StaticManny, Ally, and ESAM, moving on to challenge Nairo for the winner's bracket grand finals. There, Nairo took two sets off of ZeRo, ending ZeRo's reign at 56 consecutive victories. ZeRo suffered from a growth on his middle finger in early 2016 that required surgical removal, and prevented him from playing Smash for several months.
In January 2018, hours after ZeRo was once again ranked 1st on the Panda Global Rankings v4, ZeRo announced his hiatus from the Smash competitive scene, citing a need for variation in his life and goals. However, during this time he continued to be active in the Super Smash Bros. community and continued streaming on his Twitch channel. On November 7, 2018, ZeRo simultaneously announced his return to competitive tournaments for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, as well as his signing to the Tempo Storm esports team. On December 2, 2019, ZeRo announced that he has signed an exclusive streaming rights deal with Facebook. On July 3, 2020, ZeRo announced via Twitter that he would be banning himself from attending future Smash tournaments following allegations of sexting two minors when he was 19, to which he later confessed to, and that he would also be ending all of his sponsorships. ZeRo later made a statement on YouTube, saying he's sorry and is seeking therapy. The following day, on July 4, 2020, Tempo Storm announced that they will be severing ties with ZeRo, with Facebook following suit on July 5, and Twitch on July 23. 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."
Awards and honors
ZeRo was considered the third best Brawl player in the world by Clash Tournaments in the 2014 SSBBRank. In 2016, ZeRo was featured in the Guinness Book of World Records Gamer's Edition for his 56 consecutive Smash tournament victories.
