This year’s edition of the popular fighting game event Evo Online has been canceled, organizer Evo has announced. The cancellation comes in the wake of allegations of misconduct involving minors against co-founder Joey Cuellar. The event was set to start on July 4th as a month-long series of online-only competitions, the format having been rejigged in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
EVO published an official statement on Twitter that reads as follows.
”Over the past 24 hours, in response to serious allegations recently made public on Twitter, we have made the first in a series of important decisions regarding the future of our company. Effective immediately, Joey Cuellar will no longer be involved with EVO in any capacity. We are currently working towards his complete separation from the company and have relieved him of all his responsibilities.
Going forward, Tony Cannon will act as CEO; in this position, he will take a leadership role in prioritizing greater accountability across EVO, both internally and at our events.
Progress doesn’t happen overnight, or without the bravery of those who speak up against misconduct and injustice. We are shocked and saddened by these events, but we are listening and committed to making every change that will be necessary in making EVO a better model for the stronger, safe culture we all seek. As a result, we will be cancelling EVO Online and will work to issue refunds for all players who chose to purchase a badge. We will donate the equivalent of the proceeds as promised to Project HOPE.”
Earlier this week, allegations against Cuellar surfaced courtesy of scene regular Mikey “Crackpr0n” Pham, who painted a picture of disturbing predatory behavior towards teenage boys in the 90s and 00s.
My own story in the FGC
Read: https://t.co/DJbPt0GrQZ
— Mikey~ CrackPr0n (@PyronIkari) July 2, 2020
EVO quickly responded to the allegations, announcing that Cuellar had been ‘placed under administrative leave pending a third-party investigation.’
https://twitter.com/EVO/status/1278573278118899712
A wave of studios pulled their games from Evo Online, including the likes of Bandai Namco, NetherRealm, and Capcom. Joining the studios were scene regulars such as castors James Chen, Stephen Lyon, and Maximilian Christiansen, as well as respected players such as SonicFox.
Although Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was not set to feature at Evo Online, Nintendo has also joined the chorus of developers condemning the former co-founder’s actions.
”At Nintendo, we are deeply disturbed by the allegations raised against certain members of the competitive gaming community. They are absolutely impermissible. We want to make it clear that we condemn all acts of violence, harassment, and exploitation against anyone and that we stand with the victims.”
Cuellar published a statement shortly afterward, seemingly acknowledging the accusations.
”I’m sorry. I never meant to hurt anyone. I was young and reckless and did things I’m not proud of. I have been growing and maturing over the past 20 years, but that doesn’t excuse anything. All I have been trying to do is become a better person. Once again, I’m truly sorry.”
With players, studios, and casters pulling out left, right, and center, the cancellation of the event soon followed in the early hours of today.
We spoke to Hazel Southwell, Editor of our sister site Esports Verdict, on how she felt about the recent wave of news coming out in this area of the industry. Here’s what she had to say:
“Although it’s incredibly distressing to witness the scale of abuse, exploitation and manipulation that’s dogged esports from a grassroots level to its enormous industry today, it is heartening to see organisations and sponsors, as well as players, taking a stand to address the problems. As with far, far too many of the previous accounts, the descriptions of Joe Cuellar’s actions hinge on people having the power to grant access to the sport – in this case, financially, but we’ve seen iterations of everything from expertise to event badges. So although it’s disappointing to lose an event that is one of esports’ biggest annual moments and massively important for the players who’ll lose the chance to showcase their skills this year, there’s just no appropriate way it could have gone ahead with confidence in safety, even with Cuellar fired and the event online only.
It’s been, now, weeks of extremely unpleasant revelations in esports – across almost every series and event and game. We know, unfortunately, that there is an endemic problem of predation within esports (as with many industries) and that some of that has not only been exploited out of the power structures in esports, but done by people who themselves built those structures. That’s deeply troubling. However, there is an opportunity now – and perhaps that’s why so much is now coming forwards – while events are forced to adapt to very changed conditions generally, where we can put safeguarding against this as key.
Any sport has barriers to entry but those should be skill and commitment as a player, and enthusiasm or curiosity as a fan, and insight as casters, analysts, or media. If we allow people to hold the keys to the sport on any other basis, it’s not only unfair but facilitates this kind of exploitation. We have to diversify the people who hold that power, to place better checks on how it evolves and work towards greater accessibility rather than gatekeeping, to broaden both who can feel safe and able to grow in esports and also what we can be confident in being able to offer as safely run events.”