EVO executives have suspended tournament organizer Joey "Mr. Wizard" Cuellar from all upcoming competitions after some new allegations against the man came to light. In a post by competitor Mikey early this morning, Cuellar was accused of sexual harassment when Mikey was a minor. The account given paints an uncomfortable picture, so be warned before reading any further.
In a post on Twitter, Mikey recounts his youth at the arcade scene in the early 90s when Street Fighter II: Champion Edition was new. At the time, he was around nine-years-old and was looking to break into the fighting game community that was starting to blossom. He explains how the kids were all young and dumb and would often dare each other to do really innocuous things like shout obscenities, etc. This is where Cuellar comes in.
"Wizard was especially into this. He would pay people hundreds of tokens to do things like take off their clothes and jump in the water hazard pools for certain amounts of times. 99% of the time, it was young boys," Mikey writes. "We were teenagers with no money and 100-200 tokens (20-40$ worth of tokens) was a lot. So almost all of us did it without a second thought."
The rest of the account becomes a bit too graphic to reprint but shows a clear abuse of power by Cuellar. It may be too late to definitively prove this story, but others have brought up allegations against Cuellar in defense of Mikey's story. This is likely what pushed EVO into suspending him.
"We are aware of the accusations that have been made against Joey Cuellar. The behavior in these accusations runs directly counter to EVO's mission of building a safe, welcoming environment for all of our players and attendees," reads a Tweet by the organization. "We take this responsibility seriously. Accordingly, Joey has been placed on administrative leave pending a third-party investigation."
The news of Cuellar's suspension comes a little over a week after allegations against many noted industry figures were brought to light. With more victims stepping up to tell their stories, we hope that some serious change starts to take hold in the industry. There is no place for people like this in what is supposed to be a safe hobby for any and everyone.
Source: Twitlonger, VG 24/7