Zoomaa

Content Creator · Ex-Pro

Retired Call of Duty pro turned FaZe creator — six-time major champion, co-host of The Flank.

451KTwitch followers

The FlankCo-host

About Zoomaa

Thomas "ZooMaa" Paparatto took the long way to esports — through two torn ACLs. A promising young soccer player whose knees ended his athletic career before it began, he turned to Call of Duty to fill the competitive void and discovered he was a natural. What followed was an eight-year professional career at the very top of competitive CoD: four years with FaZe Clan, a starring role in the Call of Duty League's inaugural season with the New York Subliners, six major tournament wins, and a reputation as one of the finest SMG players of his generation. Then, in January 2021, a recurring thumb injury forced him into early retirement at 25 — and he reinvented himself as one of CoD's most important voices.

The second act has arguably been bigger than the first. Since retiring, ZooMaa has built "The Flank" — the podcast and live show he co-hosts with BenJ Nissim — into essential viewing for the competitive CoD community: pro-level insight, insider access, and the credibility of a man who has actually been in the server when it mattered. After two years with the Subliners organization as a player-turned-creator, he returned home in 2023, rejoining FaZe Clan as a content creator. He now also owns and coaches the Stallions, his own Challengers team, developing the next generation of pros.

From the pitch to the server

ZooMaa's origin story is a study in competitive transference. Soccer was the first love and the first plan — until two ACL tears closed that door for good. Call of Duty started as rehab for the competitive itch and quickly became an obsession. His talent was obvious early: he placed top 12 at his very first event, UMG Philadelphia 2014, where his raw ability caught the eye of veteran James "Crowder" Crowder, who gave him his big break with Denial Esports. Months later, he was on the winning roster at UMG Dallas 2014. The soccer player was gone; the pro was here.

The athletic background shaped the player he became. ZooMaa competed with a physicality rare in esports — an SMG slayer whose game was built on aggression, map control, and the kind of clutch factor you cannot teach. Teammates described a competitor who treated every round like it mattered, because to him it did: he had already lost one career to his body, and he played like he knew how fragile the second one was.

The FaZe years

FaZe Clan signed ZooMaa in April 2015, and for the next four years he was a fixture of the most famous roster in Call of Duty. The highlights are the stuff of CoD lore: an event MVP award after a ten-map thriller against OpTic's dynasty squad in the CWL Stage 1 finals during the World War II season; a $10,000 Code Red Blackout tournament win alongside Asim in late 2018, sealed with a loser's-bracket run for the ages; six major championships and nearly $400,000 in career winnings. He was never the flashiest name on those FaZe rosters, but ask anyone who played against him: ZooMaa was the problem.

When the franchised Call of Duty League launched, ZooMaa made the leap with the New York Subliners, helping the team win its Week 11 home series in the inaugural season. He was 25, in his prime, and seemingly set for the CDL era. Then the thumb gave out.

The injury and the goodbye

The retirement statement, posted January 19, 2021, was one of the rawest in esports. Years earlier, while on FaZe, ZooMaa had developed weakness in his thumb and wrist that required surgery — "one of the hardest things I ever had to do both physically & mentally," he wrote, describing the stress and anxiety of the recovery. The injury returned, and competing through the pain was no longer possible: "I don't enjoy competing when I can't be the ZooMaa everyone knows and loves and feel like it's not fair to myself or to my team to go through all that again, potentially causing more damage to my hand."

The CoD community understood. This was a player stopped in his prime by his body — the second time, counting the ACLs. But ZooMaa's goodbye came with a caveat that proved prophetic: "I'm not sure what the future holds and will explore all options as I love this game too much to walk away completely." He never walked away. He just changed seats.

The Flank and the second act

"The Flank" is ZooMaa's answer to the question every retired pro faces: what do you do with everything you know? The show — part podcast, part watch party, part pro roundtable — brings active players and insiders onto the stream for the kind of conversation only someone with eight years in the league can lead. It quickly became appointment viewing for the competitive scene, the rare piece of CoD content that pros watch too. FaZe recognized the value: when ZooMaa's time with the Subliners organization ended, the clan brought him home as a content creator, closing a circle that started in 2015.

He streams regularly on Twitch, where recent tracking shows him live for 160+ hours a month — the work ethic of a pro, redirected. And through the Stallions, the Challengers team he owns and coaches (plus Stallions Black), he has become a developer of talent, the veteran in the room for kids chasing the career his body would not let him finish. It is the most natural evolution imaginable: the competitor who lost two careers to injury, making sure the next generation gets every chance he did.

Why he matters

ZooMaa matters because he is the complete arc of modern esports in one career: the athletic transplant, the dynasty years, the cruel injury, and the reinvention as media and mentor. Six majors and an MVP tell you how good he was; The Flank and the Stallions tell you what he became. In a scene that chews through talent, Thomas Paparatto found the rarest thing in competitive gaming — a second act that matters as much as the first. The CoD world still runs through ZooMaa; he just calls the games now instead of playing them.