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[Thugnificient]

This was in 2014-2015. ZeRo was 19-20 and the girl was 15. He denied the allegations but came forward earlier today.

His Twitter

His confession

Katie's side of the story

tl;dr. ZeRo exchanged inappropriate messages with a minor when he was in his late teens to early 20's. and she was 15. These messages were sexual in nature. She was accused of lying initially but ZeRo came forward and confirmed the veracity of her allegations.

This is a dark week for the Smash community.

I say we make Playstation All-Stars Battle Royal the primary party fighter now. Smash cannot be salvaged.

 

[CrysisFreak]

This was in 2014-2015. ZeRo was 19-20 and the girl was 15. He denied the allegations but came forward earlier today.

His Twitter

His confession

Katie's side of the story

tl;dr. ZeRo exchanged inappropriate messages with a minor when he was in his late teens to early 20's. and she was 15. These messages were sexual in nature. She was accused of lying initially but ZeRo came forward and confirmed the veracity of her allegations.

This is a dark week for the Smash community.

I say we make Playstation All-Stars Battle Royal the primary party fighter now. Smash cannot be salvaged.

Let's petition for a sequel lmao.
Let Sucker Punch do it after Tsushima, their games are quite responsive.

 

[DESTROYA]

It’s not the games fault for having so many shaddy people playing the game .
It’s the community itself.

 

[Thugnificient]

It’s not the games fault for having so many shaddy people playing the game .
It’s the community itself.

Yup but I'm honestly shocked there are so many of them. Was it a systemic thing or just coincidental? Did all these people know what was going on and coordinated or was it just a lot of sexual predators just happened to have a shared hobby?

 

[Caffeine]

Yup but I'm honestly shocked there are so many of them. Was it a systemic thing or just coincidental? Did all these people know what was going on and coordinated or was it just a lot of sexual predators just happened to have a shared hobby?

its a game for kids. and that was everyone thought going into this. this isnt coincidental at all. I looked at the list its like 65 people in this scene. the idea of a lot of kids play this gravitated the predators, and they knew there was next to no supervision at events.

 

[DESTROYA]

Yup but I'm honestly shocked there are so many of them. Was it a systemic thing or just coincidental? Did all these people know what was going on and coordinated or was it just a lot of sexual predators just happened to have a shared hobby?

Who knows but maybe they should have some sort of age restriction for these type of tournaments or more supervision.

 

[Azzurri]

What is it about the '1v1 fighting game genre' in general that brings out the worst of the worst in the gaming community.

 

[Thugnificient]

Who knows but maybe they should have some sort of age restriction for these type of tournaments or more supervision.

This. Also, the community events they organized were a mess. There's no freakin' way I'd let a 15-year-old sleepover in my house while there are a bunch of grown men around. Hell, I wouldn't let an underage kid not part of my family sleep in my house period lol.

 

[WouldYouKindly]

Cancel smash

 

[FloatingIslands]

Wow, didn't expect it.
He looked like a nice dude, but I guess you never know

 

[CrysisFreak]

Cancel smash

Either that or at least nerf all the trash characters.
Samuses, Links, Pika and the tard version, give proper endlag to swordies.
Just fucking fix the game. I HATE IT!

 

[iconmaster]

I say we make Playstation All-Stars Battle Royal the primary party fighter now. Smash cannot be salvaged.

You’re probably kidding but this may be why Nintendo has always been reluctant to embrace the FGC. You never know what it’s going to cough up and then you’re smeared by association.

 

[Thugnificient]

You’re probably kidding but this may be why Nintendo has always been reluctant to embrace the FGC. You never know what it’s going to cough up and then you’re smeared by association.

Absolutely. They’ve been pretty much proven right. Now if they had any plans to open up the online, they’ll seriously reconsider if not outright say fuck it.

 

[BattleScar]

You’re probably kidding but this may be why Nintendo has always been reluctant to embrace the FGC. You never know what it’s going to cough up and then you’re smeared by association.

If they had actually bothered to properly invigilate these competitions and showed interest in them, perhaps this shit wouldn't have happened.
I would like to think potential predators wouldn't have been quite so active if big boss Nintendo had personnel supervising at every event/competition. Might have avoided situations where minors were forced to house with suspect individuals.

 

[01011001]

What is it about the '1v1 fighting game genre' in general that brings out the worst of the worst in the gaming community.

that's simply an illusion that's down to the fact that there are way more players in the fighting game community compared to other games, and there's way more focus on individuals.
every year at evo, there will be thousands of registered players for multiple games. and they all get lumped together as the "Fighting game Community" other genres never get lumped up like this.

These are the player numbers of EVO 2019:

Smash Bros. Ultimate - 3492
Street Fighter V - 1929
Tekken 7 - 1885
Samurai Shodown - 1719
Mortal Kombat 11 - 1567
Under Night - 1156
DragonBall FighterZ - 1191
Soul Calibur 6 - 742
BlazBlue:CTB - 640

that's 14.321 players in just that 1 tournament. there might be some overlap, where some players play in multiple games. so even if we say 1000 poeple do that, it's still a huge number for a single tournament.

 

[nush]

Might have avoided situations where minors were forced to house with suspect individuals.

Not specifically Smash but the after hours stuff is where all these sexual assaults occur. Nintendo are not going to be chaperoning these kids 24/7. That's the parents responsibility.

 

[Mistershine.]

Did he ask her if she wanted to






Smash?

 

[MastaKiiLA]

Don't send dick pics. Don't flirt with people outside of Tinder-style apps, that you can reasonably assume are of legal age. This is why Pokemon Go makes communicating with friends almost impossible. They really don't trust their target audience.

 

[Slings and Arrows]

20 yr old male and 15 yr old girl? That's wrong.

 

[GymWolf]

more like Smasher fifteen

Spoiler

 

[Michele]

I think this is being blown out of proportion. I'm not saying I side with him fully, but there's one thing to consider.

Read again what Zero said. As I said, his actions isn't okay, but it's important to remember that he HAD NO PRIOR KNOWLEDGE THAT THESE TWO GIRLS WEREN'T OF AGE. Yes he did act immediately in Katie's case when she revealed she was in freshman, but how could he know in Laura's case (she didn't reveal herself underage, then years later said she was).

That's all, I'm not going to hate him at all. I'm just saying I don't think it's right to judge immediately without reading the full story. If you don't want to side with Zero, then at least don't be too harsh on him. He did choose to distance himself from Smash community. While yes, unfortunately the ice thing is true, he is also trying to "punish" himself for that.

 

[Enjay]

I say we make Playstation All-Stars Battle Royal the primary party fighter now. Smash cannot be salvaged.

Oh hell no if smash players are rapists there's no telling what ps all star players are into. Probably cannibals.

 

[Nymphae]

The FGC is fucking cancer, I don't get why this is such a problem with this scene. Don't see this shit with Tetris players lol.

 

[IntentionalPun]

Read again what Zero said. As I said, his actions isn't okay, but it's important to remember that he HAD NO PRIOR KNOWLEDGE THAT THESE TWO GIRLS WEREN'T OF AGE. Yes he did act immediately in Katie's case when she revealed she was in freshman

He does not deny it at all with the Katie girl.... so what are you talking about?

 

[iconmaster]

He does not deny it at all with the Katie girl.... so what are you talking about?

That’s not quite the same as admitting it. I too would like ZeRo to clarify whether he only found out later. (He’s not required to give me anything, of course.)

 

[Armorian]

20 yr old male and 15 yr old girl? That's wrong.

Legal in most of Europe

 

[loktaiextatus]

The FGC is fucking cancer, I don't get why this is such a problem with this scene. Don't see this shit with Tetris players lol.

Because the ladies dont complain when you can drop the LONG BAR ALL DAY LONG.

 

[Michele]

That’s not quite the same as admitting it. I too would like ZeRo to clarify whether he only found out later. (He’s not required to give me anything, of course.)

Zero has already clarified in one of the documents that he found out she was underage when she said she was in her freshman year of high school. There is a possibility it may have been said before the age reveal, but I find Katie's claims a bit suspicious. We'll see.

Please note that I am not defending him, so don't lump me up with that person. I'm only saying what I wanted to say.

 

[01011001]

Legal in most of Europe

even in the US this would be a grey area.

 

[Slings and Arrows]

Legal in most of Europe

Most of Europe is ex-commies, ex-Nazis, Donkey fuckers and the French. We have no lessons to learn from them

 

[IntentionalPun]

That’s not quite the same as admitting it. I too would like ZeRo to clarify whether he only found out later. (He’s not required to give me anything, of course.)

Well that person appears to be claiming he did deny it but I can't find it in anything in the OP.

 

[01011001]

Most of Europe is ex-commies, ex-Nazis, Donkey fuckers and the French. We have no lessons to learn from them

and most of the US is backwards ass idiots that want to ban science from schools because of their fucked up religion and actually believe the earth is 6000 years old and the sun orbits us.

so yes, you got a lot to learn

 

[Fuz]

Legal in most of Europe

Still shitty, though.

 

[iconmaster]

Zero has already clarified in one of the documents that he found out she was underage when she said she was in her freshman year of high school.

Found this:

I was also completely unaware she was underage until she told me, and that obviously made me feel extreme regret and I felt disgusted immediately.

Since I decided that continuing to talk to her was disgusting upon learning her age, I didn’t know what I could do to stop communication and not make her feel terrible about it which was something I was concerned about. I felt uncomfortable but felt the need to not be cutting or ghost. Looking back this is a very clear lack of judgment from me and just stopping right there and then, even if being too direct, was the only option and I see that today very clearly.

 

[Armorian]

Still shitty, though.

I agree, body of 15 yo girl is pretty much shaped but mind is still childlike for the most part. Everything below 15 is just wrong IMO.

 

[Thugnificient]

Legal in most of Europe

I would assume most of these countries also have a law regarding age difference such as a 3 years gap maximum in relationships involving a minor.

ie a 17 and 15-year-old can both consent. A 24 and 15-year-old can't.

 

[Slings and Arrows]

and most of the US is backwards ass idiots that want to ban science from schools because of their fucked up religion and actually believe the earth is 6000 years old and the sun orbits us.

so yes, you got a lot to learn

I'm English.

 

[its_Ditz]

.

 

[Batiman]

I think this is being blown out of proportion. I'm not saying I side with him fully, but there's one thing to consider.

Read again what Zero said. As I said, his actions isn't okay, but it's important to remember that he HAD NO PRIOR KNOWLEDGE THAT THESE TWO GIRLS WEREN'T OF AGE. Yes he did act immediately in Katie's case when she revealed she was in freshman, but how could he know in Laura's case (she didn't reveal herself underage, then years later said she was).

That's all, I'm not going to hate him at all. I'm just saying I don't think it's right to judge immediately without reading the full story. If you don't want to side with Zero, then at least don't be too harsh on him. He did choose to distance himself from Smash community. While yes, unfortunately the ice thing is true, he is also trying to "punish" himself for that.

She was 15 dude. At some point you should stop and question whether this girl is of age. Anyone could use this excuse anytime someone has sex with a minor. It’s not “I didn’t know”. It’s your responsibility to know as an adult.

 

[GreatnessRD]

So did she reveal her age before or after he sent the wild messages.

 

[iconmaster]

So did she reveal her age before or after he sent the wild messages.

ZeRo says after, but he continued talking to her even so. The most charitable take would be that he completely changed his approach after learning her age, but I wouldn’t expect anyone to be satisfied with that. I’m unsure whether I am.

Edit: it doesn’t line up with the record anyway. See below.

 

[IntentionalPun]

Found this:

Sooo... he's told she's 14 on Tuesday September 23rd.

And on the 25th says this:

And again on the 25th:

He says at best flirty, at worst, sexual, shit to a 14 year old girl 2 days after explicitly being told she was 14.

 

[iconmaster]

Sooo... he's told she's 14 on Tuesday September 23rd.

And on the 25th says this:

And again on the 25th:

He says at best flirty, at worst, sexual, shit to a 14 year old girl 2 days after explicitly being told she was 14.

You’re right. Oof.

 

[Armorian]

Sooo... he's told she's 14 on Tuesday September 23rd.

And on the 25th says this:

And again on the 25th:

He says at best flirty, at worst, sexual, shit to a 14 year old girl 2 days after explicitly being told she was 14.

You can't defend this shit.

 

[iconmaster]

You can't defend this shit.

Bleach it away

 

[Mistershine.]

I would assume most of these countries also have a law regarding age difference such as a 3 years gap maximum in relationships involving a minor.

ie a 17 and 15-year-old can both consent. A 24 and 15-year-old can't.

The age of consent in the UK is 16, and if he/she is down to bone an octogenarian then that's gross, but legal.

 

[The Pleasure]

Cancel smash

Room smells better already.

 

[Thugnificient]

The age of consent in the UK is 16, and if he/she is down to bone an octogenarian then that's gross, but legal.

Interesting. Doesn’t work like that in Canada. They must be within 3 years of one another and the older one cannot hold a position of authority over the younger one.

 

[Mistershine.]

Interesting. Doesn’t work like that in Canada. They must be within 3 years of one another and the older one cannot hold a position of authority over the younger one.

A teacher/student relationship would cost the teacher their job, and any future teaching position, but they'd avoid jail.

 

[IntentionalPun]

You can't defend this shit.

Yeah that's why he's apologizing so much in between his little defenses.

He's basically trying to claim he ended it after finding out she was 14; which at best... took a few days and included some flirting, which he is apologizing for but trying to avoid pointing out that some of it is when he knew she was 14.

He'd also seen a picture of her and her 14 year old friends before all that... have trouble believing you wouldn't at least strongly suspect she was underage, should be the first damn thing you ask not start talking about how "adorable" she is (talking himself like a 14 year old girl TBH, it's creepy.)