EVO 2020 Has Been Officially Cancelled

Oh dear. On the bright side there’s still an event. This could at least get Japanese companies more interested in improving their NetCode with rollback and such since currently a lot of fighting games have had hideous online that hinders the experience.

This sucks but it is the right call.

It will be interesting to see how this works online and if it will still be exciting to watch

Oof, fighting games are the most unforgiving kind of game to play online. Best of luck to them.

Hmm, maybe I'll actually compete in EVO this year. Maybe...

I don't know about other games, but Smash Ultimate is definitely affected by poor net code. Online play is fine for casual matches (most of the time), but it definitely affects competitive play.

It actually makes me wonder, on a broader scale, how the lockdown is affecting competitive Smash. There are online tournaments going on, but will they be regarded with the same esteem as traditional tournaments? Will a top 8 finish count for anything in an online meta? Will current tournaments factor into the next PGR, and if so, how?

replaced with alot of cheaters also

let just hope one of those will release on switch !

Ouch. Not a very good look for the company. Safe to say I won't be attending even once.

Watching the entire fighting game community derail over the course of 24 hours was a sight to behold.

Yikes across the board 😬

One word for all this: Yikes.

Good luck recovering your brand from this. No seriously, I feel bad for everyone involved. The victims, the innocent workers, and the game devs who thought their games would be relevant again such as Them Fightin' Herds as it would've been their first EVO outing, and the Skullgirls devs as it would've been their first time at EVO in years. Shame that such sick people exist. Nobody is going to trust EVO going forward.

Wow, heavy news. I’m a little confused though. It seems he admitted to whatever happened, but did it happen 20 years ago, or did something more recent trigger the company firing him?

All because Sonicfox got added to Skullgirls

Now that’s what you call a Fatality. Dude’s f*cking finished.

@JR150 You’re spot on. People like him don’t think about how their actions affect countless other lives, it’s utterly unfair on the workers, players, fans and companies who’ll be affected by this. It makes you wonder though, with this many figures in the gaming industry being outed as predators recently, how many others have been getting away with it for years?

@nessisonett It also makes you wonder which allegations are true, and which are crying wolf.

Wait, so it seems like there's two totally separate issues here. The event being cancelled due to COVID-19, but also someone in the past doing something terrible?

Can these two very different issues get their own articles please?

@TG16_IS_BAE Literally who would bother crying wolf about some random CEO of a company like Evo? Let’s be honest, if you’re going to lie about something like that, you’d choose someone big enough to make it into the news. There definitely has to be a balance though between ‘innocent before proven guilty’ and not dismissing accusations outright. That’s the problem with stuff like this, a lot of the times the victims are gaslighted into believing that nobody will listen to them and so it goes unchecked for years, by which point nobody really will listen to them. All it takes is a few people to come forward and then if the person really is a bad apple, it might give others the strength to speak up. If it wasn’t for movements like MeToo, Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey would be living in the lap of luxury right now, simple as that. Institutions as old as the court system sometimes have miscarriages of justice but the justified convictions outweigh them massively.

@nessisonett Did I say anything about dismissing people coming forward with accusations? Might be worth noting that this particular CEO is all over the news right now...

@TG16_IS_BAE From what I've seen from the smash bros competitive community side of things (which the community is in complete shambles right now from all the revelations come to light), the allegations against Mr. Wizard were backed up by solid evidence.

However there were a few instances of allegations against smash bros players/community leaders that have been shut down pretty quickly though due to being found to be false, so at least in that case, crying wolf has not helped. This whole thing has just been horrifying though, and the insane amount/varying levels of notoriety of the people being outed for terrible things is just staggering. I only have seen the Smash community side, but I hear it's everywhere in the FGC.

@JayronAuron I’ve heard the same. It’s very sad to hear about stuff like this.

Nintendo’s decision to keep a healthy distance from esports is looking pretty good, huh?

Wow serious allegations, so shutting down an event and putting people out of work who had nothing to do with it, must be a huge accomplishment for the parties involved. Jumping the gun aren't you there evo? It hasn't even gone to court yet, just mindless blabber on a website full of cancer.

@Fido007
Joey Cuellar publicly admitted to engaging in sexual misconduct with minors.

There is no way EVO Online wasn't going to be canceled.

@Fido007
Please do research before you make the very sort of assumptions you're against.

@Heavyarms55 agreed, and while I still am none the wiser about what actually happened with this Cuellar guy, I still can read an article about Captain America playing Fortnite!

@westman98 well then that's a different story, With so many allegations you hear on the news from twitter recently, it just seemed like bandwagoning at this point, so it's little hard to take things like that seriously. The only thing I think about is all the people who now have no job and have to find work in one of the hardest times in recent history.

It's due to high level smash pros knowing how to process 20 things at once in game so how you expect em to also process no fiddle kiddle

Guess his "core values" weren't up to scratch.

It’s actually pretty simple: video games are loved by people of all ages from kids to adults, and these huge events/tournaments bring in all age ranges. When pedophiles are a part of the community, they wind up being able to find easy prey because the children are brought to these big “grown up” establishments and are out of their element.

I don’t want to do this explanation injustice so I’ll just say that basically these events are big enough that they bring in enough people that it winds up covering up sexual misconduct of all ranges. This doesn’t have to be the case and I hope that all of these people speaking up now will cause a change, but that’s a good breakdown of why this happens.

I honestly wish I could articulate how angry I am.

I really dislike the Smash competitive scene and the idolizing of its big players.

I thought it was obnoxious for them to tell Nintendo they should invest because they don’t make good money.

With all that’s coming to light, hopefully victims gets some sort or justice.

Burn it all to the ground.

I'm not gonna dignify that with a response. Go back to twitter.

Out society is going in a very scary direction.

This guy has not been charged with anything, and has not be found guilty of anything but this multi million dollar event gets cancelled due to cancel culture.

And off the back off this allegation dozens of more people get accused. And it's literally impossible to verify and tell who's legitimately guilty and who's innocent. You can throw a name into the hat and destroy someone's life and reputation with a single tweet.

This is very troublesome and scary and nobody really seems to care becusse they're obsessed with "cancelling" people and they think this good.

@durr living up to the name I see

@somebread I actually hope you get falsely accused someday. And it destroys your life. You deserve it for supporting this *****.

A girl you talked to at a party comes out 12 years from now and says you abused her. Good luck.

@durr if i deserve it, so does Mr. Wizard, pretty simple
(though it helps he admitted to it)

EVO is never coming back from this lol. Let the great cleanse commence 👋👋

@durr You can pretend these guys are innocent. Let's hope it's not any of your family that gets victimized and ignored.

@durr

I'm a big "let's wait for things to play out before jumping on someone" person, but, at least in this particular case, the accused has basically admitted that the accusations are true.

I find it curious how you automatically side with the alleged (and admitted) abuser by labeling the accusations "false."

Also, let's not wish false accusations on people, please.

@JR150 Not just him, some commentator named Cinnipie has also been accused of doing vile acts to Puppeh when he was only 14 years old. Looking at some footage of them both, I have to believe him. The girl got way too close to this kid, and the way she was staring at him was very creepy. She was lusting for this kid, preying on him. Disgusting.

It just goes to show you that evil comes in different shapes and sizes, and everyone has skeletons in their closets

I mean, I wasn't excited to see "Them's Fighting Herds" at EVO online anyway, so.....

But yeah, I think the right call was made since since apparently Joey admitted that he was doing and saying suspect stuff.

@SSJW Happens all the time out of spite and revenge. Humans are very well nuanced beings, but can also be driven by jealousy or prejudice. The negative phrase, “gold digger” was coined for a reason, with some people going after others to get money.

There are also very real, and very scary cases of assault. Both instances have, and very sadly, still happen and one does not negate the other.

@westman98 The only public admission I was able to find was him saying he did crazy things and is trying to be a better person. Not exactly an admission to anything specific, though it’s extremely damning. Were you able to find something more specific?

@MsJubilee To be fair, being accused of something doesn’t prove the case against you. However, I’m open to seeing this persons admission, at least. Did they admit to their allegations, like Cuellar did?

@durr I agree with your overall sentiment, because amid all the noise, there are legitimate claims. It must be some kind of litigation nightmare to have to find ways to prove something that happened decades ago.

In the case of Cuellar, he chose to admit to “doing crazy things 20 years ago and trying to be a better person since,” so while that’s a start, it’s still not definitive proof.

I’m not trying to victim shame, but I’m also not trying to jump the gun, either. I’ve met victims of assault in real life (unfortunately) where the proof is impossible to deny, but those were very severe cases that left physical evidence, very sad to say.

I think we need a higher standard for protecting and supporting people who have been assaulted, so that they have more courage to report their case. I also think we need more than a couple of tweets on twitter before we completely exile a person.

I think the situation with Cuellar is still being investigated, and even with this one I’m willing to wait and see what happens before passing my own judgement.

Man, I always liked watching matches at EVO. But this was definitely the right call. If EVO never comes back then I understand.

Seems a bit extreme to cancel the whole event. Oh well, it's not like Sonic Battle was going to be at EVO.

@TG16_IS_BAE
When the accusations involve criminal activity with minors, anything outside of outright denial with substantial proof is going to end your professional career.

@westman98 This is very true.

@SSJW I’m not actually talking about anybody referenced in the article. The accused seems to be admitting to the accusations, as it is highlighted in the article above. You should clarify such things before engaging in an argument.

So was this twenty years ago? I’m not supporting it, but I feel the internet is too harsh sometimes.

@BabyYoshi12 Quick test for hot takea on internet forums. Would you take your opinion to your local bar and loudly share it with everyone? Now imagine it, go down there and say "I think if paedophiles haven't molested anyone for 20 years then they should face no consequences"

@YorkshireNed He should definitely get some consequences, and he probably even deserves to be fired. As he mentioned, he was young and reckless, and yet the internet still goes too far. Just because everybody is bored they go and decide to ‘cancel’ every single celebrity who did anything wrong in their life.

So he deserves to be punished, but the internet doesn’t need to be, well, the internet.

@YorkshireNed You inferred just a little bit too much there buddy. Asking a question and stating the internet is harsh is very different from your weird example. Yes, let’s all go to a place filled with drunk people and try to have discourse. Brilliant.

Nintendo majorly dodged a bullet here. Imagine being responsible for creating a beloved game only for it to become a nesting ground for child molesters and rapists with the whole community asking for you to support them and Nintendo being reluctant enough to see the problem with a lax community only held up by online connectivity and a single minded obsession of the game. If I were Nintendo, it'd be better to blow it up rather fostering more of these kinds of sick and twisted people and start from the ground up.

This EVO scandal has reinforced my thoughts on one thing, that the phenomenon of cancel culture is outright stupid and is mostly done by hypocritical moral busy bodies who want everyone to like them. Even if you are skeptical to all alegations, others will not be as skeptical as you and will resort in outrage first before thinking. The community is dead. It will never hold any weight to its name ever again.

@nessisonett harvey weinstein has hardly lived in misery after this. He has powerful friends in his circle, friends who the supporters of his accusers have connections to.

@link422007 Not really sure what you’re inferring to be honest but I’d have to argue that Weinstein’s life is invariably worse than it was before all this came out.

Hardly. His reputation is in ruins but his power has barely diminished. He's not in jail, for one, not even compensating his victims. MeToo was a good idea, but it is made less credible by false accusations. Then again, good ideas should not be left to the interpretation of other people.

@Ralizah "I find it curious how you beleive innocent until proven guilty"

That says a lot more about you than me really. Pretty scary. And this is how most people think nowadays.