Smasher:Nairo

Nairo is an American former professional smasher who mained in Brawl,  in Smash 4, and  in Ultimate. He is the younger brother of. He is known for being among the youngest, yet one of the most successful overall Smash players to compete in tournaments. He was considered the best Brawl player in North America at the end of the game's active lifespan in 2014, and is still widely considered to be one of the best Brawl players in the world. He was also the best Smash 4 Zero Suit Samus and player in the world, and, before his retirement, the best Ultimate Palutena player and one of the best  players in the world.

In Brawl, Nairo was known for his highly aggressive Meta Knight style, which was at least partly responsible for his great proficiency against players. He frequently teamed with in doubles, where Nairo used his aggressive style to overwhelm opponents while ADHD created stage control with 's Banana Peels. The team was considered to be the most powerful doubles force in Brawl, having won, , , , and.

Throughout the entirety of Smash 4's competitive lifespan, Nairo was regarded as a top 5 player, placing no lower than 4th in all iterations of the PGR. In addition to Zero Suit Samus, he has also used Bowser,, , , , , , and even low tier characters such as and  at a very high level as well.

He was the only player to eliminate ZeRo in a Smash 4 tournament in 2015 and the first to double eliminate him, ending the latter's 56 win streak at. After losing in Winners' Semis to ESAM 1-3, Nairo climbed through the losers' bracket, beating Mr.R 3-0, Ally 3-1, and ESAM 3-0 in Losers' Finals with a surprising character choice of Dr. Mario. This marked the first time Nairo had taken a set from ESAM in Smash 4 as well. In Grand Finals, Nairo won the first set 3-2 and won the second set 3-1 against ZeRo's Sheik and Diddy Kong, ending ZeRo's winning streak. is debatably Nairo's most famous tournament run to this day, and was a defining moment in the history of Smash 4.

Nairo was ranked 1st on the 2018-2019 SSBBRank and 2nd on the Panda Global Rankings 100. He was formerly ranked 1st on the New Jersey Smash 4 Power Rankings, 2nd on the New Jersey Ultimate Power Rankings, and 4th on both the final Tristate Brawl Power Rankings and the Fall 2019 PGRU.

Nairo was signed on by from August 11th, 2015 through August 16th, 2016. On August 24th, 2016, Nairo signed with, renewing his contract with them on October 11th, 2017, then again on December 8th, 2019.

In July 2020, Nairo was accused of having a relationship with then-underage. Following this, NRG cut all ties with Nairo, and he was subsequently banned from competitive play and his streaming platform at the time, Twitch. After Nairo's ban, multiple new counts of information emerged regarding the controversy, which seemed to paint Nairo as a victim rather than an abuser as the allegations had claimed. Several smashers tweeted apologies in response to their initial reactions, with a large number of them requesting Nairo to be unbanned. A legal agreement was found in court, however the controversy remains largely unresolved. Despite several of his bans being overturned, he has yet to be unbanned on Twitch, and has quietly retired from competitive play.

Playstyle
Nairo, throughout his entire Smash career, had a playstyle that was defined by unrelenting pressure and a top-notch punish game.

In Smash 4
He mained and was known for his proficiency of her powerful up air ladder combos into her Boost Kick finisher. He pioneered her metagame and brought upon the style of aggressive pressure in order to bring her punish game into full effect. Throughout neutral, he has prowess in spacing and in the timing of her moves in order to be safe on the opponent's shield to compensate for the character's lack of neutral tools. He is also known to take risks and to make hard reads in order to quickly gain advantage over the opponent, notably with jump reads or a single grab in neutral. With the character, he has a touch of death and if there is rage and he manages to land a single hit or grab, with his ability to read DI and knowledge of kill percents, can annihilate an opponent's stock. This characteristic is highly noticed when he needs to make a comeback. Nairo is also very proficient at edge guarding and ledgetrapping, forcing his opponents into limited situations where he can take their stock. However, due to his risky and aggressive playstyle and his character's weaknesses, he is prone to getting shut down in the neutral with no opportunity to land a hit if the opponent plays defensively and doesn't get caught in Nairo's clutch. This is heavily emphasized through the many sets against his rival, where the latter's immoveable neutral proves to be difficult for Nairo to break through.

In Ultimate
He mained and played with heavy emphasis on combo game and edgeguarding. Some aspects of his play had been improved due to the switch of character, as now with Palutena's relatively safe grab compared to Zero Suit Samus's, Nairo had many more opportunities to access his strong punish game and to make up for his neutral. He still played, but due to the removal of her grab and ladder combos, he used her much less often and occasionally used her as a counterpick.

2010-2014: The rise in Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Nairo's first competitive Smash game was Brawl, where he made himself known regionally by placing well at KTAR tournaments. However, it wasn't until 2012 where he became well-known on a national level; at, he defeated top players such as and ultimately paced 3rd out of 400 entrants. A few months later, he got his first national victory at, where he defeated twice.

For the rest of Brawl's main competitive lifespan, Nairo consistently placed in the top 3 and made top 8 at every tournament he attended aside from. His most notable victory during that period was at, where he managed to defeat and , two of the best Meta Knights in the world, to place 1st. This victory has since been memorized in his fanbase thanks to the sub-only emote nairoApex. Due to his outstanding placements, Nairo was recognized as one of the best Brawl players in the world by the end of the game's lifespan and subsequently was ranked 1st on the 2014 SSBBRank, being tied with.

Despite Brawl's decline and his focus on other Smash games, Nairo continued to enter Brawl events and dominate the metagame, with a win streak starting with and ending with. He was ranked 1st on the next two iterations of the SSBBRank.

2014-2015: Continued Success in
In the early metagame of Smash 4, Nairo initially started as a main, first using him at  where he beat  (called DEHF at the time) 2-1, but was eliminated by, placing 7th at the event. He later picked up, using her at and  in conjunction with both  and Dark Pit; however, ZSS became the character he was known for.

His strong results continued in 2015, placing 9th at, 7th at and 2nd at. At CEO 2015, he was defeated by in both Winners Finals and Grand Finals. He also had two 3rd place finishes at both and.

He placed 2nd at, losing again to ZeRo who reset the bracket in Grand Finals 3-0 then won the second set 3-2.

His losing streak to ZeRo continued until, where he made arguably one of the most historical moments in Smash 4's history, as he upset ZeRo in grand finals, breaking his 56 win streak, the only time ZeRo lost a tournament during 2015. His strong results continued as he gathered 1st place finishes at, , , , and.

It wasn't until where this streak ended, as he was upset 2-0 by  in pools. Despite being eliminated early on, he made a strong losers run. He defeated players such as, , , , and before Dabuz eliminated him 3-0, placing 5th overall.

2016-2017
In 2016, he continued his strong results, although he had a few lower placings, most noticeably with. This was his worst placement in a Smash 4 tournament to date, being sent to losers round 1 by 2-1 and then being eliminated from the tournament by  2-1, placing 49th. However, this did not mean much, as a month later he placed 1st at, beating Ally 3-2.

Similarly, he placed 17th at and 13th at, but then won 1st place at , taking out 6WX 3-1, both  and Mr.R 3-2, and Dabuz 3-1.

Afterwards, he finished 7th at, 2nd at where he lost to ESAM 3-2 in Grand Finals, 4th at both  and , and ended the year with  where he placed 5th after losing to ZeRo 3-1.

Nairo became a much stronger player in 2017, as after his 17th placement at, he won both Umebura Tokaigi Qualifiers and , defeating Ally and many top Japanese players such as , , and.

Not long after, he placed 3rd at where he defeated  2-0,  and  3-1, before being sent to losers by ZeRo in a 3-0 set. In losers, he won against 3-2 and Dabuz 3-0 before losing to ZeRo again in a 3-1 set during losers finals.

At he was able to place 1st at the event, defeating players such as  3-2, VoiD 3-0,  and ZeRo 3-1, and Fatality in a close 3-2 set in Grand Finals.

At, he defeated and  3-0 before being sent to losers by Larry Lurr 3-1. In losers, he won against CaptainZack again in another 3-0 set before being eliminated by 3-1, ending with a placement of 4th.

Nairo later attended and took out many players such as CaptainZack 3-0, Ally and Dabuz 3-1, and ZeRo and Larry Lurr 3-2. His two losses were both from, in a 3-0 and 3-1 set, giving him a placement of 4th.

After losing 2-1 to at, Nairo went on a lengthy losers run. He defeated 2-0,  3-1,  3-0,, VoiD, and  (called Shoyo James at the time) 3-1,  3-2,  and MkLeo 3-1, and placed 1st after winning in two 3-2 sets against ZeRo in Grand Finals.

Another great placement happened at, where he won against 2-1,  and Larry Lurr 3-2, Salem 3-1 until losing to both ZeRo and Tweek 3-1, ending his tournament run at 3rd place.

At, he defeated WaDi 3-0 and Kirihara 3-1 before being sent to losers bracket by Salem 3-2. In losers, he beat VoiD 3-0, Tweek and komorikiri 3-1 before losing to Salem again in a close 3-2 set in Grand Finals, placing 2nd at the event.

He later placed 4th at another 2CCG event,, in which after winning against Kirihara 3-1, he was sent to losers by Tweek 3-1. His losers run had him win against Abadango 3-0 and WaDi 3-2 before KEN eliminated him in a 3-1 set. These two events and a few other 2GGC tournaments allowed Nairo to qualify for where he placed 10th.

His last tournament of 2017 was where he was one of 10 players invited to the event by VGBootCamp. He placed 2nd out of the 16 entrants after losing to Salem in Grand Finals.

2018: The Last Year of Smash 4 and Slight Decline
Following ZeRo's retirement, Nairo was one of the contenders for the number one spot alongside MkLeo. At, despite falling to before Top 8, Nairo was able to make an impressive losers run, defeating , , and  before falling to , placing 4th. After that, Nairo continued to be a tough competitior for the throne, as he consistently placed in the top 4 at every major he attended, even claiming victory at tournaments such as and, defeating MkLeo at both. MkLeo, in turn, defeated Nairo at both and. For the first few months of the season, it wasn't clear whether MkLeo or Nairo would come out on top.

However, Nairo eventually fell behind, placing 17th at the two biggest tournaments of the season: and, losing to Light and Mr.R in the former and Abadango and Elegant in the latter. Due to those placements, Nairo was ultimately ranked 4th - the first time he was not top 3 - behind, , and , players who had a more consistent season.

Nairo's overall performance continued to decline as he fell to MVD and Zenyou at, placing 33rd, his second worst placement at a Smash 4 major. Furthermore, Nairo failed to defend his title at both and, breaking his two-year win streak at both events. At MomoCon 2018, he was defeated by and, placing 4th, and at Super Smash Con 2018, he was defeated by  and , placing 5th.

With Ultimate on the horizon, Nairo stopped attending major tournaments after Super Smash Con 2018.

These shortcomings, however, did not overshadow Nairo's previous achievements. When the PGR 100 was released, Nairo was ranked the 2nd best Smash 4 player of all time, right behind.

2018-2019: Transition into Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
In the early metagame of Ultimate, Nairo continued his status as a top player. He switched his main to while occasionally using  as his secondary. He quickly became known as the best Palutena player, placing 2nd at both and, as well as 5th at , defeating players such as , , and  along the way.

His best performance of the first season was at. Despite being sent to losers by right before top 8, Nairo teared through the losers bracket, defeating, , ,  (in a famous reverse 3-0 with ), and , before resetting the bracket against Marss. He lost the reset, placing 2nd.

However, his overall initial results, while impressive, weren't as good as his Smash 4 days. Similarly to the first season of 2018, Nairo placed 17th at the 2 biggest majors of the season, and, falling to  and  in the former and  and  in the latter. Although he continued to consistenly make top 8 at big tournaments, he failed to take 1st place at any of them besides a victory at the C-tier, with his strongest performances at majors being a 4th place finish at and a couple of 5th place finishes at both  and. Nairo continuously fell to familiar foes, most notably Marss. By the end of the season, Nairo was ranked 8th, the first time he was not ranked in the top 5 in any global ranking.

Fortunately, things turned around for Nairo in the second season. Despite starting off the season with a 17th at, losing to Mr.R and Marss, Nairo made top 6 at every tournament he attended up until the final major of the season. In addition, he started winning sets against several of his bracket demons, such as Marss at and. His best achievement was finally claiming victory at a major, doing so at Mainstage, where he defeated MkLeo after he reset the bracket, becoming one of 6 players to defeat MkLeo that season. When the season was over, Nairo returned to the top 5, being ranked 4th.

2020: The Last Year of Competition
Nairo started the third season strong, having claimed his second victory at a super major at, defeating top players such as , , and double eliminating Dabuz after he sent Nairo to losers.

Following this, he would place 9th at and. In the former, he was defeated by in the winners quarterfinals and infamously lost to  in the losers side top 8 qualifier. In the latter, he was defeated by in the winners quarterfinals and subsequently eliminated by  in the losers side top 8 qualifier.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Nairo only made appearances at the and tournaments in, citing a dislike for Ultimate online.

Sexual misconduct allegations, ban, and repudiation of allegations
On July 1st, 2020, amidst a wave of sexual harassment and assault allegations in the community, a rumor began spreading that Nairo and had a sexual encounter. Initially, both brushed it off, with CaptainZack stating that he made it up to impress his friends. However, the next morning, CaptainZack released a Twitlonger where he confirmed the rumors, saying that it happened when he was fifteen and Nairo was twenty, and that he was paid by Nairo to stay silent about the situation. Following this, Nairo deactivated his Twitter account and his brother confirmed that "Nairo is done." Nairo eventually reactivated his Twitter and posted a statement apologizing for his actions, saying that he would no longer be active on social media. He deleted his social media accounts but created a protected dummy account that had his original Twitter username of NairoMK.

The allegations sparked an overwhelming amount of backlash against Nairo, as many people who looked up to him before were disappointed in his actions. In the early morning of July 2nd, Nairo was dropped by his long-standing team NRG. Following this, the 2GGaming panel banned Nairo from all of their future events, alongside several others accused of sexual misconduct during this time. Twitch also banned and unpartnered Nairo on September 10th.

The allegations, however, became questionable after several statements from CaptainZack's TwitLonger, including the hush money, were revealed to be manipulated information following Tamim (aka )'s TwitLonger on September 14th. Furthermore, on October 28th, Nairo released a more detailed statement refuting CaptainZack's side of the story, claiming that he had woken up to Zack forcefully performing oral sex on him (which was corroborated by Tamim's statement), that he had briefly froze before pushing Zack off, and that Zack had blackmailed him into one other sexual encounter as well. He ended his statement saying that he had an attorney in case Zack continued to push his case, and that he was also seeking therapy for the trauma caused by Zack. Nairo also stated that he had a 30-page document with evidence for the entire situation which several other players, including and, have confirmed. As a result, a number of players started to recant their disapproval and advocate to lift the ban.

On February 19th, 2021, Nairo uploaded an update video, stating that everything was resolved and that he was considering returning to streaming, understanding that there would be people who'd be apprehensive towards his return. Following Nairo's statement and multiple social media movements by the community to unban Nairo, tournament organizations and  lifted Nairo's ban from their events after processing his appeal,  while the Super Smash Bros. Global Ban Database also took his name off of their list. In spite of this, Twitch has yet to overturn their ban on Nairo, which also put a hold on any possible tournament activity since other Twitch channels could get in trouble for featuring someone banned from the platform on stream. As such, Nairo has resumed streaming on YouTube since April 8th, 2021.

Trivia

 * Nairo, along with, are the only competitive players to have won a major in three different Smash games before their retirements, with wins in Brawl, Smash 4, and Ultimate.
 * Between 2011 and 2015, Nairo failed to take a set from Ally in Brawl singles for four years, However, at Apex 2015, Nairo managed to take a set off Ally for the first time in winners semifinals, although he ultimately lost both sets to him in Grand Finals.
 * Starting with SKTAR in 2012, Nairo held a perfect record against in Brawl for three years. However, at Super Smash Con 2015, ESAM finally defeated Nairo for the first time and went on to Grand Finals only to lose to.
 * Ironically, in Smash 4, ESAM had a perfect record against Nairo. However, at MLG World Finals 2015, Nairo beat ESAM for the first time in Smash 4 in Losers Finals.
 * Pound 2016 was Nairo's worst placing in a Smash tournament, getting 49th place in singles after getting sent to losers bracket by 's, and being eliminated by , a Japanese  player, in a huge upset.
 * Similarly, Nairo's worst doubles placing in any Smash tournament was 2GGC: Greninja Saga, placing 17th with.
 * Nairo was featured on Road to EVO: Nintendo Minute along with and . The video has since been made private.
 * Nintendo released a short Player Perspective video covering Nairo's run at ; this video was also made private.
 * Nairo competed in the Super Smash Bros Ultimate World Challenge Cup that took place during the Nintendo Live 2019 event in Kyoto as part of the Dream Team. His participation has since caused official coverage of the event in general to be either made private or edited.


 * The Dream Team was interviewed during Nintendo Minute's coverage of the event. This interview, as well as other footage from the World Challenge Cup, has since been cut out. The closed captioning was updated to reflect these edits a few weeks later.


 * The original live stream of the World Challenge Cup has been made private on YouTube and removed from niconico.
 * A Japanese video summarizing the events of the second day of Nintendo Live 2019 was made private. The video of the first day's events, in which Nairo did not appear, is still public. The event playlist was also modified to remove these videos.
 * A highlights reel uploaded by Nintendo of Europe has been made private.
 * Nairo is known for his frequent trash-talking in his YouTube content, especially against his stream snipers or "bots".


 * TSM Zero vs Liquid Nairo - Smash 4 Grand Finals - MLG Finals
 * LVL Up Expo - Liquid' Nairo (ZSS) Vs. 2GG | VoiD (Sheik) SSB4 Grand Finals
 * KTAR XVIII: Nairo (ZSS) vs VoiD (Sheik) Losers Semis
 * Midwest Mayhem 9 LOSERS FINALS - NRG | Nairo (Bowser, ZSS) vs P1 | Tweek (Donkey Kong, Cloud)

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

 * Collision 2019 Losers Semis | Nairo (Ganondorf) vs Light (Fox) - Smash Ultimate