Sony Interactive Entertainment has partnered with the new esports company RTS to buy the Evolution Championship Series, or Evo, the long-running and increasingly popular fighting tournament. The acquisition comes less than a year after Evo Online was canceled after abuse was charged against one of Evo’s co-founders.
Evo’s statement on the description, posted on Twitter, acknowledged these allegations as one of the motives for the sale.
A message to our community. For more information visit https://t.co/6JHZCsJsXr pic.twitter.com/uj0NKRW30m
– EVO (@EVO) 18 March 2021
We want to reaffirm that harassment or abuse of any kind is not within Evo or any of our future events, and we take every precaution to ensure that members of our community will always be treated with the respect, dignity and decency you deserve .
To realize the trust you all placed in Evo, we realize that we need an experienced strategic partner who truly respects the spirit of the FGC.
Sony’s own message reflects the statement, announcing that Evo Online will return on 6 to 8 and 13 and 15 August. This is an online event due to the Covid-19 pandemic and includes Tekken 7, Street Fighter V: Champion Edition, Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate and Guilty Gear Strive.
Many of the developers withdrew their tournament last year after allegations of abuse against Joey “MrWizard” Cuellar, co-founder and CEO of Evo. The allegations were brought by a community member of the fighting game and date from the turn of the millennium at Southern Hills Golfland, a California arcade featuring a famous Street Fighter scene. He accused Cuellar of regularly offering large quantities of arcade tokens to boys between the ages of 12 and 16 if they would just jump into their underwear in the mini golf course’s water hazards. He further claims that Cuellar once made a bet about his penis size, which requires Cuellar to show his erect penis. The accused says he was then 17 years old.
Evo responded by removing Cuellar as CEO. In Evo’s statement today, Cuellar is not mentioned, but is referring to last year’s cancellation of Evo Online due to ‘circumstances … a former team member who was completely separated from our company.’
At the time of the allegations, Cuellar is making a public apology in a tweet that has since been removed. “I was young and reckless and did things I was not proud of,” he said. “I’ve grown and aged over the last 20 years, but that’s no excuse.”
The initial reaction to the acquisition was that Sony might make Evo an opportunity available exclusively for games available on Sony’s platforms, featuring popular fighting games such as Nintendo’s Smash Bros. Mark Julio of Evo would exclude. confirmed on Twitter that the event “is still open to all platforms.”