Nairo strikes down ZeRo: 'I was confident'

October 19 2015

Today marks the magnificent triumph of Liquid Nairoby 'Nairo' Quezada over his friend and greatest rival, TSM Gonzalo 'ZeRo' Barrios, as Nairo took first place at the MLG World Finals 2015 in New Orleans, Lousiana this weekend. He took home $4000, a beautiful first place trophy, and the thought of contesting the world's best Smash 4 player.

In Smash 4, not only has Nairo taken the only fourth-set ZeRo ever lost since Sky William's invitational tournament last November, but he won two sets in a row to defeat ZeRo in the Grand Finals. Nairo broke ZeRo's streak of over 50 tournament championships and is now the only player to ever defeat him since he picked up Diddy Kong.

"I was confident in this set," Nairo said in an MLG post match interview. "He won all the other sets. I was consistent in landing more grabs I guess. I'm just speechless."

Commonly believed to be one of the worst characters, many questioned Nairo's decision to play as Dr. Mario for the tournament over Zero Suit Samus or even his other favorites such as Robin, Dark Pit, Zelda, or Palutena. He lost Winners Semis to Eric 'ESAM' Lew, but met him again in Losers Finals where he impressively 3-0'd him with the Doc, including a JV 2-stock on ESAM in game 3, where ESAM switched to Samus. In the post-tournament interview, Nairo said he played Dr. Mario a lot on For Glory, found him fun, and just decided to use him for the tournament.

When it was time to face ZeRo though, Nairo understandably switched back to his real main, Zero Suit Samus. Nairo gained the upper hand in the first set, forcing ZeRo to try out Diddy Kong. Nairo was fortunately able to prevent the reverse 3-0 from ZeRo by closing out the set. Later, ZeRo switched back to Sheik, but Nairo displayed an incredible finesse, getting grabs left and right and converting them into the signature up-air into Up B combos, grabbing many quick kills.

On ZeRo's very last tournament stock, Nairo punished ZeRo's failed attempt to grab a kill (by covering Nairo's jump option with an up air) with his very own up-airs. With over 130% in rage, and ZeRo's Sheik at a low % ideal for chaining up-airs, Nairo popped ZeRo off the top of Final Destination with not even the final and strongest hit of ZSS's Up B, but the second to last hitbox, taking the game with a 2-stock and ending the second Grand Finals set with a solid 3-1 score.

In the post-tournament interview, Nairo respectfully declared that ZeRo is still the best player and that winning one tournament from him doesn't immediately change that, but with such a strong performance with Dr. Mario and ZSS along with a feat that no other player has achieved, it may be just in due time that Team Liquid's Nairo truly takes over and becomes the best Smash 4 player. But for now, our star Nairo deserves some well earned rest!

A HUGE congratulations to our reigning champion Nairo for overcoming his biggest challenge yet! Just how far will he go? Stay tuned on Team Liquid Pro for the latest news!

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Writer // Yoshi Kirishima