Evo Online canceled after misconduct allegations against event co-founder EVO[jwplayer apa2cPQs]Evo Online has officially been canceled following sexual misconduct allegations leveled at event co-founder Joey \u2018MrWizard\u2019 Cuellar, organisers announced on July 2. The company also confirmed Evo\u2019s former president \u201cwill no longer be involved with Evo in any capacity.\u201d \u201cOver the past 24 hours, in response to serious allegations recently made public on Twitter, we have made the first of a series of important decisions regarding the future of our company,\u201d the event\u2019s July 2 statement read. \u201cEffective 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.\u201d Finally, the tournament organizers confirmed they would be canceling Evo Online. The TOs confirmed they would issue refunds to all players who purchased a badge, and will be donating the equivalent of the proceeds to Project HOPE. https:\/\/twitter.com\/EVO\/status\/1278859734099963904 The event\u2019s shock cancellation comes less than 24 hours after Evo\u2019s now-former CEO Joey Cuellar was placed on administrative leave following sexual misconduct allegations publicly leveled against him earlier this week. On Thursday, Cuellar was accused of inappropriate behavior with multiple boys over the past 20 years, beginning in the 1990s. The allegations mainly related to Cueller\u2019s interactions with underage boys at tournament events. One account alleged he handed out tokens at the local arcade to entice underage boys to jump into a pool in their underwear. The news was followed by a number of high-profile game devs, including Capcom, Bandai Namco, and NetherRealm, announcing their intentions to withdraw from the event to \u201cstand in solidarity with those who have spoken out against abuse.\u201d We stand in solidarity with those who have spoken out against abuse. We will be pulling MK11 from EVO Online. \u2014 NetherRealm (@NetherRealm) July 2, 2020 Five-time Evo champion Dominique \u2018SonicFox\u2019 McLean was also among the registered stars who declared they would no longer play in the online-only tournament following the news surrounding Cuellar. They told ESPN they \u201ccould not, in good conscience, participate in an event with the allegations of one of the primary hosts of said event\u2026 it doesn\u2019t sit right with me.\u201d Cuellar responded to the allegations with a short statement on Twitter on July 2. He said he was \u201cyoung and reckless,\u201d and had done \u201cthings [he was] not proud of.\u201d He added he \u201cnever meant to hurt anyone.\u201d \u201cI\u2019m sorry\u2026 I have been growing and maturing over the past 20 years, but that doesn\u2019t excuse anything. All I have been trying to do is become a better person. Once again, I\u2019m truly sorry,\u201d he wrote in his public statement on Thursday. https:\/\/twitter.com\/MrWiz\/status\/1278846403716866048 Evo has confirmed Tony Cannon would step in as acting CEO in the interim following Joey Cuellar being removed from the company\u2019s leadership structure. They also stated Cannon would prioritize \u201cgreater accountability across Evo, both internally and at our events\u201d as part of his new leadership role.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Evo Online canceled after misconduct allegations against event co-founder EVO[jwplayer apa2cPQs]Evo Online has officially been canceled following sexual misconduct allegations leveled at event co-founder Joey \u2018MrWizard\u2019 Cuellar, organisers announced on July 2. The company also confirmed Evo\u2019s former president \u201cwill no longer be involved with Evo in any capacity.\u201d \u201cOver the past 24 hours, in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66530\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}