Could disgraced Smash pro ZeRo return? Tempo Storm CEO weighs in

Former Super Smash Bros pro and content creator Gonzalo ‘ZeRo’ Barrios was dropped by his team Tempo Storm after allegations of him being inappropriate with underage girls surfaced. Now, Tempo Storm’s CEO has discussed ZeRo’s future and the team’s approach to his dismissal.

Notably, when ZeRo was removed from Tempo Storm, the team made a point to extend a support line to victims and Barrios himself.

In a Twitter post, the team stated they would be connecting with the Smash icon with professional counsel and rehabilitation resources to ensure his behavior doesn’t continue.

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Now, in an interview with Inven Global, the team’s CEO Andrey ‘Reynad’ Yanyuk addressed whether it was at all possible for ZeRo to rejoin the team and if he will be able to rehabilitate himself.

Could ZeRo rejoin Tempo Storm?

“I don’t like to speculate about the future. I just take things one day at a time, you know?” he stated. “I think ZeRo is a very different person today than he was when he wrote some Skype messages at 19 years old.”

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While that may not seem like a very lengthy reply, he never ruled out the possibility that ZeRo returns. “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.”

Yanyuk also explained where the idea to provide support to victims and ZeRo himself came about.

“I think that in America people tend to equate punishment to rehabilitation. I don’t think there is much purpose in punishing people for the sake of punishing them,” he explained. “If somebody does something that is not okay, then the important thing is to make sure it doesn’t happen in the future.”

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He further added that he believes rehabilitation is a good solution when applicable. “Despite the allegations and his actions under or organization when he was younger, ZeRo was wonderful to work with, to be honest. We’re very disappointed, but it didn’t feel right to just callously cut ties with somebody in a public way and leave it at that.”

It will be interesting to see what the future holds for ZeRo. At the time of this posting, the Smash Ultimate content creator has deleted all of his tweets and remained silent on social media since “coming clean” to the allegations.