Sexual harassment allegations against Joey “Mr. Wizard” Cuellar resulted in the cancellation of the fighting tournament Evo Online. Only hours before the start of the tournament, player nicknamed Mikey “Crackpr0n” Pham shared a troubling story allegedly involving Cuellar in a sexual harassment scandal.
The Fighting Tournament Evo Online Cancelled, President Involved in Sexual Harassment Allegations
The world famous fighting game tournament Evo Online was cancelled less than 24 hours prior to start. The tournament was cancelled because of sexual harassment allegations towards the company president Joey “Mr. Wizard” Cuellar. As a result of the allegations, Cuellar was placed on administrative leave and Evo announced that he is removed entirely from the organization. Keeping in mind that Cuellar is no longer a part of Evo, Tony Cannon, who was a co-founder, is now going to take control as a company CEO. Furthermore, Evo announced that it is taking actions to completely free Cuellar from all of his responsibilities.
Evo’s announcement on Twitter said that progress doesn’t happen without the brave people who speak up against injustice. The company said it was “shocked and saddened by these events.” Furthermore, Evo noted that changes will be made towards a stronger and safer culture. In conclusion, the company said that the event is cancelled and all players who purchased a badge will receive a refund. Evo pointed out that an equivalent in donations will be made towards Project HOPE.
Cuellar’s Sexual Harassment Allegations
Not even a day before the start the famous fighting tournament, troubling allegations appeared on Twitter. Player nicknamed Mikey “Crackpr0n” Pham shared a story outlining inappropriate behavior by Cuellar. According to Mikey, Cuellar behaved inappropriately towards him and many other teenage boys back in the 90s and 00s.
According to Mikey’s story Cuellar allegedly paid him and many other boys to jump into a pool only wearing their underwear for certain amounts of time. With that being said, Cuellar allegedly “would pay people hundreds of tokens” for such actions. Mikey also outlines that back then, for teenagers without money, 100 or 200 tokens which was the equivalent of 20$-40$ was a lot. Mikey deemed his actions young and wild, taking many crazy bets that often getting paid. But so did the other boys which were allegedly paid by Cuellar.
Jump in a pool for 10 minutes for 40$? Hell yeah!”. We never really thought of it in a predatory way.”
said Mikey in his story.
Mikey also shared details of an alleged encounter which he had with Cuellar. Cuellar allegedly paid Mikey $20 to see his penis. According to Mikey’s story, this was yet another crazy bet which came from an argument regarding the average size of Asian men’s penises when erect. Mikey’s story continues where he outlines that it was years after that when he found out that Cuellar was homosexual. Mikey did say that his memory of the encounter wasn’t traumatizing. But the reason for him speaking out was in order to: “prevent things like this from happening in our community again.“
Following the Allegations, Gaming Giants Withdrew from the Tournament
Although that Evo announced that the tournament was cancelled, following the allegations towards Cuellar, game giants announced their withdrawal. NetherRealm Studios has announced the withdrawal of Mortal Kombat 11. The company announced on Twitter: “We stand in solidarity with those who have spoken out against abuse. We will be pulling MK11 from EVO Online.”
The gaming colossus Capcom also announced that the company is pulling their Street Fighter V event from the tournament line up. Capcom announced on Twitter that given the alleged accusations against the tournament organizer Joey Cuellar, it would be withdrawing from Evo 2020. Capcom noted that this action is driven by their respect towards the affected parties. In conclusion Capcom said: “We apologize to the players and fans who were looking forward to these tournaments.“