Fighting game tournament organizer Evo has dismissed its co-founder and president, Joey Cuellar, from the company following an accusation that he acted inappropriately around a young boy in the 1990s and 2000s.
Cuellar was initially placed on administrative leave last Thursday. “We are aware of the accusations that have been made against Joey Cuellar,” the company wrote on Twitter at the time. “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. We take this responsibility seriously. Accordingly Joey has been placed on administrative leave pending a third party investigation.”
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Late Thursday, Evo issued another statement on Twitter, noting that Cuellar had been dismissed. “Over the past 24 hours, in response to serious allegations recently made public on Twitter, we have made the first of a series of important decisions regarding the future of our company,” wrote a spokesperson for Evo.
“Effective immediately, Joey Cuellar will no longer be involved with Evo in any capacity. We are currently working towards his complete separation from the company and have relieved him from all his responsibilities.”
Twitter user and gaming competitor Mikey, who goes by the handle of @pyronlkari, shared his experience with Cuellar in a lengthy post on Twitlonger — which allows for more than 280 characters — Thursday morning.
Mikey identified Cuellar, whom he met after visiting the Southern Hills Golfland arcade around 1992, by his gaming tag MrWizard. Mikey wrote that MrWizard 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 percent of the time, it was young boys.”
Another accusation concerned MrWizard making a bet about the size of his genitalia. Mikey wrote that he was 17 at the time, and that the incidents involving MrWizard did not “leave any kind of weird trauma or anything,” though they did influence him.
“But this is what happened to me nearly 19 years ago,” wrote Mikey. “I recognize how stupid I was in the situation for not realizing it, even though I also recognize how it’s not my fault for not being able to recognize it.”
View Evo’s latest statement below.
— EVO (@EVO) July 3, 2020
July 4, 9:35 a.m.: Updated to reflect that Cuellar has been dismissed from Evo.
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