After months of silence, former Super Smash Bros. pro Nairoby “Nairo” Quezada returned to social media today and announced he’s taking legal action against Zack “CaptainZack” Lauth, claiming that everything Lauth said about him was “completely false.”
In July, Quezada was accused of being in a sexual relationship with Lauth when Lauth was 15 and he was 20. But Quezada has now made a full statement on the situation, explaining that he had no part in instigating anything with Lauth and claiming he was manipulated by the younger Super Smash Bros. player into complying.
In a lengthy post made to his Medium page, Quezada detailed the events of CEO Dreamland 2017 where Lauth stayed with Quezada and the story of sexual interactions began for both sides.
In the case of Lauth’s original statement, he alleged that he and Quezada had somewhat mutual sexual interactions. But Quezada has now taken his stance, claiming that Lauth raped him that night in his hotel room before actively blackmailing him into another sexual encounter.
According to Quezada, who said he can’t provide full details due to some of the information being compiled for official court documents, Lauth needed a place to stay at CEO Dreamland 2017 on April 15. Quezada’s room was allegedly his last shot or “he’d be stranded.” Quezada agreed to let him stay and the two slept in separate beds, but Quezada allegedly woke up to Lauth molesting and later performing oral sex on him while he was too scared to act.
“We slept in our own separate beds, but I woke up to Zack molesting me,” Quezada said. “I freaked out, terrified, but my body froze up and he forcefully performed oral sex on me. I yelled at him to stop, but he refused, and he only stopped once I managed to push him off me. I was so shaken up by everything—what he just did, his betrayal of my trust in letting him stay—that I just shut down.”
After he rebutted further attempts from Lauth to re-engage in some form of intimacy, Lauth threatened to go public with the encounter, according to Quezada. Lauth allegedly blackmailed Quezada into another attempt at oral sex, where Lauth “gave up midway out of annoyance at how unwilling” Quezada was.
Lauth allegedly tried this again a month later in May at Momocon 2017, but Quezada said he snapped at him. The younger player apologized, according to Quezada, saying he wouldn’t press the issue further and would “‘take the bullet’ should it come to that.”
In May 2019, rumors of the pair’s interactions started floating around in the competitive scene. Lauth reassured Quezada that he had never leaked the information, but none of the stories he was hearing included his side of the story, only Lauth’s, according to Quezada.
“I was too ashamed to tell anyone and feared that nobody would believe me,” Quezada said. “I knew something terrible had happened to me at CEO Dreamland, but I didn’t know exactly what and Zack had put the fear in me that it was my fault. I started working out because I thought this happened to me because I was weak. I was in a state of constant severe anxiety and depression that I kept hidden from everyone else. I suffered alone and in silence, believing it to be my only choice in a situation where I felt so helpless and powerless about my future.”
Quezada claims he never paid Lauth “hush money,” allegedly confirming another report from Smash pro Tamim Omary, who was a big source of information for Lauth’s other underaged relationship with former Smash pro Elliot “Ally” Carroza-Oyarce.
“On August 13th, 2019, after Zack’s sponsor dropped him, Zack asked me for money,” Quezada said. “I was resistant to the idea, but he asked again later via text. His insistence, combined with how I’d just seen proof that Zack had blackmailed Ally and how he blackmailed me two years prior, meant to me that the only option I had was to comply.”
Quezada said he made three payments to Lauth: $2,000 on Aug. 13, 2019, $275 on Jan. 13, 2020, and $350 on Feb. 24, 2020. Quezada claims none of those payments said anything along the lines of telling Lauth to “do his part by staying quiet.” Quezada explained how crushing it was that despite all of the good faith he showed Lauth over the years, it meant nothing. He said he broke down after the allegations against him came out.
Now, after months of silence and counseling, Quezada has made it clear that his stance is Lauth raped him and blackmailed him after the fact.
“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,” Quezada said. “I never imagined I could be a victim of rape and never even thought of what sexual assault looked like to a male victim. I was encouraged to seek therapy and currently, I have two therapists that I have been with for months. They, as professionals, taught me much about sexual assault and reaffirmed that what happened to me was rape.”
Quezada detailed his struggles over the last three months, including the fact that basically the entire Smash community abandoned him and believed his manipulator, costing him his friends, professional team, ability to compete in events, and his Twitch stream. Quezada also said he’s in the process of getting help but that he was contemplating suicide throughout this period of time.
“The Nairo everyone saw and talked with on stream or at tournaments was honestly the real me,” Quezada said. “I have never abused my position and power to hurt others. I loved nothing more than bringing a smile to people’s faces through my streams, no matter what they were going through, and giving back to the community. I honestly felt that making other people happy was my purpose in life.”
Quezada offered his thanks to those friends and fans who reached out to check on him despite everything going on and said he’s glad he didn’t do anything too drastic in response.
Notably absent from his statement, Quezada didn’t say anything about the corresponding tweets both he and Lauth made about the situation before Lauth came out with his initial allegations on July 2. This is likely because a detailed version of the reasoning is included in the 30-page document explaining the full timeline with evidence that Quezada has reportedly compiled for legal uses, which he said needs to be kept private.
Quezada said more information will probably be coming in the future. But because of legal reasons, he said he can’t share more details. He added that if Lauth or anyone else escalates this further, his attorney will respond with legal action.
Published: Oct 28, 2020 02:47 pm