While Evo Online was canceled following sexual harassment and pedophilia allegations against former CEO Joey “Mr. Wizard” Cuellar, AnimEVO 2020 is pushing ahead.
Registration for the online event is live now for almost all of the 34 games, but the tournament organizers have also made it clear that the event will be re-branding after this year to distance itself from the Evo brand.
Because the tournament is starting on Aug. 7, there isn’t enough time for the TOs to update the event’s branding and get all of the graphics remade before things kick-off. The re-branding process will instead begin right after the tournament ends on Aug. 31.
“Our team of volunteers have always worked independently of EVO to give the communities of underrepresented games a platform to shine and come together,” TO 956 Productions said. “While our collective team comes from a wide variety of backgrounds, we all come together to state that the actions of Joey ‘Mr. Wizard’ Cuellar are against what we stand for.”
In regards to the actual event, due to money handling issues, several games with paid signups (such as Garou Mark of the Wolves, Samurai Shodown V Special, and Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Heritage for the Future) have postponed their registration. Though, the AnimEVO staff hope to get those issues resolved soon.
Anyone who wants to participate in any of the Anime fighters simply needs to register for their game(s) of choice on the event’s Smash.gg page. Once registered, you will receive an invite to the AnimEVO Discord server, where the TOs and staff will be coordinating information and activities.
