EVO Online Has Been Cancelled Following Sexual Abuse Allegations

EVO Online - the planned replacement for the previously cancelled EVO 2020 - has just been cancelled. EVO has published their official statement on the matter below:

There was a problem fetching the tweet

The cancellation comes after multiple allegations were made towards the EVO CEO, Joey “Mr. Wizard” Cuellar, which accused him of sexual abuse in the early 2000’s. Mr. Wizard was originally placed on administrative leave when the allegations first came out, but has since been cut from EVO as a whole. Prior to EVO Online’s cancellation, multiple companies such as Capcom and Bandai Namco had announced that they would not be participating in the event as a result of the serious allegations.

The allegations towards Mr. Wizard are just one of many relating to many big names in the FGC that have come out over the past few days. Other people accused of sexual misconduct include professional Smash Bros. player Nairoby “Nairo” Quezada and Smash commentator Cinnamon “Cinnpie” Dunson.


Editor’s Note: SmashBoards will be publishing an official statement on the many allegations of abuse and assault, both sexual and otherwise, that have come to light over the past few days. Please stay tuned.

 

All in ONE SINGLE DAY... Damn.

 

I already mentioned it in the editorial at the end but I'll say it again for more visibility: the SmashBoards editorial staff will be publishing a statement in regards to everything that has happened so far. Please stay tuned.

 

It's truly a shame that the hard work of countless people put to build up and legitimize a community is going down the toilet due to a few bad apples. Hopefully this is a situation where things are darkest before the dawn and the FGC bounces back.

 

It's truly a shame that the hard work of countless people put to build up and legitimize a community is going down the toilet due to a few bad apples. Hopefully this is a situation where things are darkest before the dawn and the FGC bounces back.

Sadly, it’s a little more than a few bad apples and, even then, these “bad apples” are movers and shakers in the community.

 

Sponsors arent gonna wanna touch evo or any smash tourney ever again

 

Sadly, it’s a little more than a few bad apples and, even then, these “bad apples” are movers and shakers in the community.

That's where the real heartbreak lies: some of these responsible for these actions are the very same ones who began championing the removal of such individuals from our community.

 

That's where the real heartbreak lies: some of these responsible for these actions are the very same ones who began championing the removal of such individuals from our community.

Basically...

Don’t do anything bad to anyone ever for any reason anywhere just don’t. Good philosophy to live by

 

I read the comments of the linked Tweet.
Very disturbing. People seem to dismiss anything if it involves someone or something they like.
They seem to not realize that only 3% of sexual assault allegations turn out to be false, which conversely means that any given allegation has a 97% chance of being true.
Sexual assault is far more common than people, especially men, know. 1 in 3 women have been sexually assaulted during their lifetime, and it happens to boys too.
"You waited too long" is not an excuse. I know a woman who was sold as a sex slave by HER OWN GODDAMNED FATHER to his co-workers when she was 4 years old.
Sexual assault is traumatizing. In a society where women are considered "impure" if they have sex at a young age, and men are considered "emasculated" if they let another man dominate them, in addition to the trauma of not being taken seriously, it is very hard to come out with their stories.
All allegations of abuse, sexual or otherwise, should be taken seriously.

 

I just educated myself on what’s going on in the Smash community and all I can say is holy ****. I never in a million years would have imagined that people like Nairo and D1 would end up in this situation.

I want off this crazy ride.

 

I have some concerns for 2020 onward, especially for the FGC...

 

After reading into the specifics, I can be more informed in my opinions.
As far as D1 goes, it seems to be a case of one's word vs another's.
I refer to the 97-3 ratio of false sexual assault allegations. Only 3% of sexual assault allegations turn out to be false, so statistically, it is far more likely that D1 is lying.
That being said, if D1 is telling the truth and both he and KTD were indeed drunk, that is, unfortunately a wash.
For a person to get someone drunk in with the intent to take sexual advantage of a person in their intoxicated state, that is, indeed, ****.
BUT, if they were both intoxicated, and KTD simply regretted the sex later, that is not ****. It is fundamentally sexist to place blame solely on the man for two people's drunken intercourse.
So if D1's side of the story is true, then the allegations do not hold up.
But as stated, the theoretical probably of a false sexual assault allegation is only 3%, so math favors KTD, but I hope this case gets investigated, and may the liar be punished.

As far as Nairo's... hoo boy, I'll save that for a later post, as I have some spicy opinions on that one.

 

I can't believe this, like, I THOUGHT WE WERE PAST ALL OF THIS! But nope! Stuff like this makes me not go on social media and talk about this, for two reasons:

1. I'm so annoyed it happened in the first place, so I'm not gonna comment.
2. Even if I did comment, I have a tendency of saying the wrong thing without thinking properly! (this isn't one of those times, I'm legit mad)

 

I hope Smash can recover from this but lets not kid ourselves this is going to change how people view the E-Sports scene.

 

I don't want to sound like a doomer... But this would be the end of FGC, future events will be created with more scrutiny and sponsors will start to go away. Good bye big events. Good bye hype.

The Fighting Game Revolution is over.

 

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EVO Online - the planned replacement for the previous cancelled EVO 2020 - has just been cancelled. EVO has published their official statement on the matter below:

There was a problem fetching the tweet

The cancellation comes after multiple allegations were made towards the EVO CEO, Joey “Mr. Wizard” Cuellar, which accused him of sexual abuse in the early 2000’s. Mr. Wizard was originally placed on administrative leave when the allegations first came out, but has since been cut from EVO as a whole. Prior to EVO Online’s cancellation, multiple companies such as Capcom and Bandai Namco had announced that they would not be participating in the event as a result of the serious allegations.

The allegations towards Mr. Wizard are just one of many relating to many big names in the FGC that have come out over the past few days. Other people accused of sexual misconduct include professional Smash Bros. player Nairoby “Nairo” Quezada and Smash commentator Cinnamon “Cinnpie” Dunson.


Editor’s Note: SmashBoards will be publishing an official statement on the many allegations of abuse and assault, both sexual and otherwise, that have come to light over the past few days. Please stay tuned.

Trying to spread the word on this. I'm calling out Vro for his abusive behavior. You can see the thread on reddit

https://www.reddit.com/r/smashbros/...tory/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share

 

This situation in a nutshell: https://youtu.be/79TVMn_d_Pk?t=114

 

After reading into the specifics, I can be more informed in my opinions.
As far as D1 goes, it seems to be a case of one's word vs another's.
I refer to the 97-3 ratio of false sexual assault allegations. Only 3% of sexual assault allegations turn out to be false, so statistically, it is far more likely that D1 is lying.
That being said, if D1 is telling the truth and both he and KTD were indeed drunk, that is, unfortunately a wash.
For a person to get someone drunk in with the intent to take sexual advantage of a person in their intoxicated state, that is, indeed, ****.
BUT, if they were both intoxicated, and KTD simply regretted the sex later, that is not ****. It is fundamentally sexist to place blame solely on the man for two people's drunken intercourse.
So if D1's side of the story is true, then the allegations do not hold up.
But as stated, the theoretical probably of a false sexual assault allegation is only 3%, so math favors KTD, but I hope this case gets investigated, and may the liar be punished.

As far as Nairo's... hoo boy, I'll save that for a later post, as I have some spicy opinions on that one.

Take these stats with a grain of salt. It isn't so clear cut. You can't calculate guilt.

 

Who could have seen these allegations coming?

 

Nintendo had already pulled out of Evo online, correct? So we're not expecting a statement from them on this?

 

Nintendo had already pulled out of Evo online, correct? So we're not expecting a statement from them on this?

I don't think Nintendo was involved with it to begin with and regardless Ultimate was cut from the EVO lineup back in May. I wouldn't expect a response from them. The closest thing we got is the Nairo showcase video on the official Nintendo channel being privated, which I think speaks volumes for how Nintendo wants nothing to do with this giant mess (and honestly I don't blame them for wanting to distance themselves from this).

EDIT: Ok so it turns out they did release a statement to IGN about this whole thing.

https://twitter.com/CLASH_Chia/status/1278976561358790657

 

I still want to know who exposed Mr. Wizard, Nairo, and Cinnamin Dunson. Was it Skai Jackson? She's made it her mission to expose people's past on Twitter. Because of her, Hartley Sawyer won't return to The Flash Season 7 to resolve Ralph Dibny's storyline with Sue.

This post is very troubling, as it shows an obvious malicious bias based solely on identity rather than credibility.
While I understand that SOME (extremely few) people will falsely accuse people to destroy their reputation, it is so rare that it must never be the default assumption that the accuser is lying, especially if the behavior of the accused person matches the actions of which they are being accused.

 

Nintendo had already pulled out of Evo online, correct? So we're not expecting a statement from them on this?

They gave a response to IGN:

"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."

 

I'm not saying she's lying. Hartley Sawyer DID write those controversial racist tweets that she dug up. Problem is, he wrote them years ago before he was ever hired on The Flash, and he was only fired recently. A similar thing has happened to James Gunn as the director of Guardians of the Galaxy when Mike Cernovich resurfaced his jokes about pedophilia. How long ago did these guys commit the acts of sexual assualt? Because if people are getting fired over old tweets that they regret, what does that say about forgiveness?

 

I still want to know who exposed Mr. Wizard, Nairo, and Cinnamin Dunson. Was it Skai Jackson? She's made it her mission to expose people's past on Twitter. Because of her, Hartley Sawyer won't return to The Flash Season 7 to resolve Ralph Dibny's storyline with Sue.

There’s a megathread here: https://smashboards.com/threads/evo...ed-following-sexual-abuse-allegations.505939/

Please do some research.

 

I'm not saying she's lying. Hartley Sawyer DID write those controversial racist tweets that she dug up. Problem is, he wrote them years ago before he was ever hired on The Flash, and he was only fired recently. A similar thing has happened to James Gunn as the director of Guardians of the Galaxy when Mike Cernovich resurfaced his jokes about pedophilia. How long ago did these guys commit the acts of sexual assualt? Because if people are getting fired over old tweets that they regret, what does that say about forgiveness?

Here is a list of allegations, who made the allegations, and why. Please do research before you make assumptions that have very little factual basis.

https://www.reddit.com/r/smashbros/comments/hjfv0y/summary_of_sexual_and_nonsexual_allegations/

 

The moral of the story? Don't be a perverse POS. Just don't.

For a person to get someone drunk in with the intent to take sexual advantage of a person in their intoxicated state, that is, indeed, ****.
BUT, if they were both intoxicated, and KTD simply regretted the sex later, that is not ****. It is fundamentally sexist to place blame solely on the man for two people's drunken intercourse.

So glad to see that there are still sane and reasonable people out there. I've always been of the exact same logic regarding this and it makes me throw up in my mouth when people immediately assume that when two drunken people do stupid things, the man is exclusively at fault cuz rEaSoNs. Though, apparently in the case of D1, both MVD and Esam have come out proving that he lied about being drunk and unable to remember what happened.

 

Dang, that's a lot of people accused. But most of those stories are set in the past. Can't we move on from them? We can never change what we did. We can only try to be better in the future. We all have stuff we regret doing. Stuff we have gotten in trouble for. Nobody is perfect. Look at all those people toppling monuments. A lot of those statues were up to glorify the good those people did, but people are vandalizing and destroying property for the bad they did. How are we going to survive with any mistakes we made?

 

Dang, that's a lot of people accused. But most of those stories are set in the past. Can't we move on from them? We can never change what we did. We can only try to be better in the future. We all have stuff we regret doing. Stuff we have gotten in trouble for. Nobody is perfect. Look at all those people toppling monuments. A lot of those statues were up to glorify the good those people did, but people are vandalizing and destroying property for the bad they did. How are we going to survive with any mistakes we made?

I imagine it's because they were given the benefit of the doubt some years ago, and they decided to use it for bad stuff, not all of them of course, some of them commited mistakes, but others now have to bring a cross in their backs for believing they would be above other people.

I personally don't support cancel culture, but I can definitely see why it's exists, you don't want to have people that makes you constantly fear they'll suddenly do something bad because they're definitely capable of doing so for their past story.

 

And I don't want to lose my job over what I've said or done in the past, and then not be able to get a new job because of my reputation. There is a reason for laws against double jeopardy. And a lot of super hero stories about second chances and redemption. Sure, maybe a lot of these people got away with it when they did it. But there really should be rules against firing people over stuff years in the past. They should only be fired or banned if they did it again, not when someone digs up old posts or when an old victim comes and tells too late.

 

Dang, that's a lot of people accused. But most of those stories are set in the past. Can't we move on from them? We can never change what we did. We can only try to be better in the future. We all have stuff we regret doing. Stuff we have gotten in trouble for. Nobody is perfect. Look at all those people toppling monuments. A lot of those statues were up to glorify the good those people did, but people are vandalizing and destroying property for the bad they did. How are we going to survive with any mistakes we made?

Literally everything we do is "in the past".
There is a certain moral code of conduct that people adhere to.
If you get a person drunk to take advantage of them sexually, that's ****.
While I am an extremely lenient person who believes that ALL people are capable of changing, even serial killers, that does not mean that their actions are any less wrong.
I personally know victims of sexual assault who have NEVER publicly opened up, but they've privately told me about the constant fear of being ***** again.
It takes courage to come out, especially against public figures, as fans of those public figures will doubt you, accuse you of lying, and some will even outright stalk and bully you simply because you dared stain the good name of a person with whom they share a parasocial relationship.

I got a little secret for all the naysayers:
1 in 3 women have been sexually assaulted in their life. 1 in 3 days in any given area (on average) will have rain.
So why is it so easy to believe someone when they say that it's a rainy day but so hard to believe a woman saying that she's been sexually assaulted?

I guarantee you, if you are a woman, you know a **** victim. And if you're a man, as your mother, sister, girlfriend, etc if they know a **** victim. The answer will always be yes.

 

Dang, that's a lot of people accused. But most of those stories are set in the past. Can't we move on from them? We can never change what we did. We can only try to be better in the future. We all have stuff we regret doing. Stuff we have gotten in trouble for. Nobody is perfect. Look at all those people toppling monuments. A lot of those statues were up to glorify the good those people did, but people are vandalizing and destroying property for the bad they did. How are we going to survive with any mistakes we made?

And I don't want to lose my job over what I've said or done in the past, and then not be able to get a new job because of my reputation. There is a reason for laws against double jeopardy. And a lot of super hero stories about second chances and redemption. Sure, maybe a lot of these people got away with it when they did it. But there really should be rules against firing people over stuff years in the past. They should only be fired or banned if they did it again, not when someone digs up old posts or when an old victim comes and tells too late.

You seem to be speaking generally about people losing professional opportunities due to things they've done in the past. I could refute your argument (as an employer it's just new knowledge about the character of your employee that your background check failed to reveal, totally normal to fire someone in this case), but the method you're using here is flawed in the first place. This way that you're engaging is complete nonsense, because these are very specific examples, with an opportunity to examine them case-by-case and determine if consequences are appropriate. If you have no interest in discussing them with specificity, you are not actually engaging in any sort of discourse about the topic at hand.

These are heinous acts of evil that have ruined lives, it's not like somebody said something 5 years ago that seems kinda racist or sexist under more modern scrutiny. They were in powerful positions and abused that power to perpetrate these acts. They should be held accountable for them and prevented from doing so again. Removal from those positions and those spaces in which they operated is the absolute bare minimum response. Whatever nonsense examples you're bringing up (Who mentioned Hartley Sawyer before you? No one) are completely irrelevant. And just as a side note, bringing up confederate monuments of all things (literally monuments to systemic racism, slavery and traitors to the United States) is a wild choice to try to make your point.

 

And I don't want to lose my job over what I've said or done in the past, and then not be able to get a new job because of my reputation. There is a reason for laws against double jeopardy. And a lot of super hero stories about second chances and redemption. Sure, maybe a lot of these people got away with it when they did it. But there really should be rules against firing people over stuff years in the past. They should only be fired or banned if they did it again, not when someone digs up old posts or when an old victim comes and tells too late.

If you're talking about a bottom-tier job like flipping burgers at Burger King, then I could start to agree with this statement.
I firmly believe in second chance laws where even the most despicable people should be given opportunities to work to make their own living. That is a basic human right.

But where you lose me is that these are EXECUTIVE jobs. Jobs where you have authority over others, even women.
The old adage is, "With great power comes great responsibility."
This is completely true. If you use your social authority to abuse people, then you forfeit your right to continue being in positions of authority, as you have proven yourself unable to handle your position responsibly.
This goes for CEOs, managers, community organizers, celebrities, and even medium sized public figures.
These are all positions where a person can abuse their power to solicit non-consensual sex, and we must punish these behaviors whether it be through legal means (jail) or social means (cancelling).

 

Sponsors arent gonna wanna touch evo or any smash tourney ever again

They will, just not for a little while for the time being.

 

Going forward, what sort of changes can be made to prevent this sort of thing from happening again? Looking into it, I see that there's supposedly a code of conduct for Smash tournaments, but not being familiar with the competitive scene, I'm not sure how closely it's followed, how many people are actually willing to report what they know, or if there are any obvious blind spots.

 

And I don't want to lose my job over what I've said or done in the past, and then not be able to get a new job because of my reputation. There is a reason for laws against double jeopardy. And a lot of super hero stories about second chances and redemption. Sure, maybe a lot of these people got away with it when they did it. But there really should be rules against firing people over stuff years in the past. They should only be fired or banned if they did it again, not when someone digs up old posts or when an old victim comes and tells too late.

How long ago is considered the past? If you had something dark in your past and you kept it hidden from your employer then the trust between you and your employer is broken and thus you open the door to doubt. If you were willing to lie about X, why should I trust you? How do I know you didn't lie on your resume ether? That kind of thing that can't be tolerated so the company has a civil responsibility to fire you or it will reflect bad on their company. Want to avoid stuff like that? You come clean from the start. Nairo and Zero lied and their trust from the community is lost, so its for the best if they retire from the scene.

 

I read the comments of the linked Tweet.
Very disturbing. People seem to dismiss anything if it involves someone or something they like.
They seem to not realize that only 3% of sexual assault allegations turn out to be false, which conversely means that any given allegation has a 97% chance of being true.
Sexual assault is far more common than people, especially men, know. 1 in 3 women have been sexually assaulted during their lifetime, and it happens to boys too.
"You waited too long" is not an excuse. I know a woman who was sold as a sex slave by HER OWN GODDAMNED FATHER to his co-workers when she was 4 years old.
Sexual assault is traumatizing. In a society where women are considered "impure" if they have sex at a young age, and men are considered "emasculated" if they let another man dominate them, in addition to the trauma of not being taken seriously, it is very hard to come out with their stories.
All allegations of abuse, sexual or otherwise, should be taken seriously.

I'm not on social media. Were the comments dismissing sexual assault or just people angry EVO Online was cancelled?

 

How long ago is considered the past? If you had something dark in your past and you kept it hidden from your employer then the trust between you and your employer is broken and thus you open the door to doubt. If you were willing to lie about X, why should I trust you? How do I know you didn't lie on your resume ether? That kind of thing that can't be tolerated so the company has a civil responsibility to fire you or it will reflect bad on their company. Want to avoid stuff like that? You come clean from the start. Nairo and Zero lied and their trust from the community is lost, so its for the best if they retire from the scene.

Wait ZeRo too?

 

I knew fighting games were slowly dying, but man if this isn't still a huge hit against the genre. Will it be the final nail in the coffin ?

 

Going forward, what sort of changes can be made to prevent this sort of thing from happening again? Looking into it, I see that there's supposedly a code of conduct for Smash tournaments, but not being familiar with the competitive scene, I'm not sure how closely it's followed, how many people are actually willing to report what they know, or if there are any obvious blind spots.

Rivals of Aether have already taken the first step, and after this I expect similar policies to appear at both future Smash and FGC events going forward.