Over the past few weeks many people within the video games industry have come forward against major companies or individuals with allegations of sexual misconduct or toxic work cultures. These allegations have crossed many companies from publishers such as Ubisoft and EA to social media outlets and streaming sites such as Twitch. Recently, many members of the fighting game community have come forward with allegations of sexual assault and abuse from key players of titles such as Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, some of which claim they were under age when their abuse occurred.
One of the most notable figures frequently mentioned was Joey Cuellar, president of EVO, the most popular fighting game convention in the world. Some of these accusations claimed that Cuellar paid multiple under age fighting game players free arcade tokens to jump into a pool in nothing in their underwear. In response, EVO announced that it would be putting Cuellar on administrative leave while it awaited the results of a third-party investigation into the accusations. The organizers have since fully cancelled the upcoming EVO Online event, which was scheduled to take place from July 4th. Cuellar has also been fired from his position, effective immediately.
This comes after multiple sponsors and players pulled their involvement from the event, such as the likes of NetherRealm announcing that Mortal Kombat 11 would no longer be part of the event, while players such as Dominique "SonicFox" McLean, announced that they would be no longer participating either. This has prompted Nintendo, which was initially set to participate in the event before it moved to an online format with a Super Smash Bros. Ultimate tournament, to release a statement in response to the allegations surrounding both the fighting game community and EVO.
Speaking to IGN, a spokesperson from Nintendo stated "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."
While Super Smash Bros. Ultimate had previously been removed from the show's lineup when the physical event was cancelled due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Nintendo, along with several other video game publishers, had remained a sponsor of the event and was likely to support multiple players participating on other tournaments as part of EVO 2020. It seems like Nintendo will continue to distance itself from the event due to these allegations and Cuellar's firing, as EVO tries to rebuild itself moving towards 2021.
EVO Online 2020 was originally scheduled to take place from July 4th to August 2nd 2020.
Source: IGN