With allegations of sexual abuse against Evo president and co-founder Joey "MrWizard" Cuellar coming to light in the past 24 hours, the organizers have now cancelled the event and removed Cuellar from his position. The event was due to start this weekend.
Among the claims, which date back nearly 30 years, were those of scene veteran Mikey "Crackpr0n" Pham, who gave a detailed account of Cuellar's transgressions when he was still legally a minor.
While Pham was the only detailed source of the claims, other FGC community members have mentioned on social media that Cuellar's behaviour had been known in the scene for years.
This led to the organizers announcing an investigation into the claims, and has ultimately led to Cuellar's removal.
One of the earliest to announce their withdrawal from the event was multiple-time Evo champion Dominique "SonicFox" McLean, leading several other personalities to also distance themselves from the event. Prominent FGC organizations also joined McLean in withdrawing support for the event.
The publishers soon joined the boycott, and this would ultimately become too much for Evo 2020 to realistically take place.
The future of Evo as yet remains unclear, with sentiment in the community running deeper than just this year's event and Cuellar's behaviour.
Cuellar has since apologied for his behaviour in a tweet, but the community doesn't appear to be accepting.
The removal of Cuellar is just one of a raft of allegations coming to light in the FGC right now, with several prominent Smash players also facing allegations of rape and sexual abuse in the past day.
Jason "Anti" Bates and Nairoby "Nairo" Quezada were swiftly removed from T1 and NRG respectively, while Richard "Keitaro" King Jr., D'Ron "D1" Maingrette and Cinnamon "Cinnpie" Dunson all faced allegations.
A document created by professional Smash player Rasheen "Dark Wizzy" Rose includes several allegations against members of the Smash community, with more than 25 people currently listed.
Opinion
The open nature of FGC events has created close, passionate communities over the years, and the overwhelming support for those coming forward with their stories has been a light in the darkness of recent days.
However, the nature of FGC events has also created a kind of 'wild west' environment, where there's no official oversight on conduct as a whole and players are largely left to manage themselves at events. They often share hotel rooms and socialise together, and for younger players or new players to the scene this can create dangerous opportunities for these predators.
The sheer number of people coming forward is disturbing. Stories of last year's Evo 2019 party are also doing the rounds on social media, and they all just highlight the passive nature of some organizers in overseeing their events in their entirety.
It's clear more responsibility needs to be taken. Some tournament organizers, such as Alex Jebailey of CEO, have always been very quick to issue bans when it comes to abuse, racism and sexism in order to protect the community, and other TOs often follow suit in extending those bans to their events. This responsibility also needs to extend to others in the scene -- especially those who command respect as veterans -- with abuse allegations being called out vigilantly instead of buried.
Without a unified code of conduct for participants and personalities alike, the fear is that this will just continue to happen. It's time for real change, and now.
After the Las Vegas-held Evolution Championship Series was cancelled, organizers SRK have announced that Evo 2020 will now be replaced by Evo Online. However, a host of top games have been removed from the lineup.
