Street Fighter V, Marvel vs. Capcom 2, and Mortal Kombat 11 have been pulled from EVO Online after sexual misconduct and pedophilia allegations came out against the Organizer and President of the event, Joey Cuellar. SonicFox, a big competitor in the fighting game scene, will not be taking part either.

Cuellar, in the early 90s, allegedly paid young boys hundreds of tokens to "take off their clothes" and "jump in the water hazard pools," according to Mikey (CrackPr0n) on Twitter.

This has caused Capcom and NetherRealm Studios to pull their games from the event. NetherRealm said, "We stand in solidarity with those who have spoken out against abuse. We will be pulling MK11 from EVO Online."

Capcom shortly afterward published a tweet, stating, "Out of respect to those who have been affected and to the current investigation,  we felt this was the appropriate course of action." The Japanese publisher also apologized to the players and the fans, who wanted to participate and watch the EVO tournaments. Mane6, the developer of Them's Fightin' Herdsis not taking part as well. Arc System Works and SNK have yet to respond at the time of this writing.

SonicFox, EVO's five-time champion across multiple fighting games (Injustice: Gods Among Us, Mortal Kombat X, and Dragon Ball FighterZ), will be dropping out of the event too. On Twitter, he commended the bravery of those affected, and that they have his support.

How these events will affect the future of EVO is unclear as Cuellar was the face of the tournament for decades. Since the news about him came out and others have backed Mikey's story, Cuellar has been suspended from the position, and the case is being looked into by a third-party investigation team. EVO said in a statement, "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."

Related: The Gaming Culture Of Making "Jokes" About Abuse Needs To Stop, Now

EVO 2020 (and then EVO Online after the COVID-19 outbreak ravaged the world) was supposed to have a commemorative 20th Anniversary invitational tournament for Marvel vs. Capcom 2, a game that has meant a lot for the fighting game community. However, now that Capcom has pulled out, this will likely be shelved entirely or be run by the publisher independently.

Misconduct allegations also came out against Assassin's Creed Valhalla director, Ashraf Ismail, last week. He apologized to those who were affected on social media and stepped down from his position.

Sources: Capcom, NetherRealm, Twitlonger

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