ANTi was released on Friday after anonymous allegations against him surfaced on social media. This news comes at a time when many figures in the Smash esports scene are dealing with accusations of sexual misconduct and other wrongdoings dating back several years.

The allegations against ANTi accuse the 26-year-old of engaging in sexual relations with a minor back in 2016. The unnamed individual who shared her story accused ANTi and other prominent Smash figures, including Ryan “La Luna” Coker-Welch, D’Ron “D1” Maingrette and Richard “Keitaro” King Jr, of having sexual intercourse with her when she was only 15 years of age.

The accusations led T1 to terminate their contract with ANTi. The allegations have yet to be confirmed or denied at the time of writing, while the player himself has yet to address the claims.

ANTi joined T1 on April 17, 2019 as one of two inaugural members of the organisation’s fighting games roster alongside Larry “Larry Lurr” Holland. With the Korean giants, he finished 25th-32nd at Pound 2019 and Get On My Level 2019, made it to the grand finals of DreamHack Dallas 2019, finished 17th-24th at EVO Japan 2020, and ran third at DreamHack Anaheim 2020.

With all the allegations that have surfaced in recent weeks, the Smash esports scene has found itself in a dark place. Last week, Cinnamon “Cinnpie” Dunson and Nairoby “Nairo” Quezada were both accused of having relationships with minors, while EVO Online’s former CEO, Joey “Mr. Wizard” Cuellar, was recently accused of sexual harassment and acts of paedophilia.

EVO have since fired Mr Cuellar and replaced him with EVO’s co-founder, Tony “Ponnder” Cannon. The damage, however, has already been done, leading to the cancellation of EVO 2020.

“In light of the recent accusations of misconduct made against Evo organizer Joey Cuellar, Capcom will no longer be participating in Evo 2020,” read Capcom’s announcement.

“Out of respect to those who have been affected and to the current investigation, we felt this was the appropriate course of action. We apologize to the players and fans who were looking forward to these tournaments.”

This is a massive hit to the fighting game community since EVO has long been regarded as the unofficial world championship for the genre. EVO 2020 was scheduled to run from Saturday, July 4 until Sunday, August 2, featuring a marathon of online tournaments for 11 games.

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The favorites for Group A, Rainbow7, has fell short of everybodys’ expectations, with eyes on WhiteLotus’ synergistic value with the rest of the team since his suspension. Gambit Esports, the second most favorited in the group, completely trounced the competition to move forward.

In Group B, the star studded Turkish team of SuperMassive eSports put on the afterburners and went 5-1, with their only loss being a non-consequential exhibition match. KaBum! placed second, earning them a respectable accolade from the crowd but ultimately falling short of their goal.

Even better news for participating teams is the fact that sales from the Conqueror Varus and Conqueror Ward skins have bolstered the MSI Prize Pool to 970,000. Considering there are about two more weeks for the MSI tournament, there is a good chance that the MSI Prize Pool could exceed the $1 million dollar minimum that Riot has outlined.

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EVOS Esports vs SuperMassive eSports

Tuesday, May 8th – 4AM PST / 7AM EST

EVOS Esports is a very new organization hailing from Vietnam, being promoted in the fall of 2017 and winning their first split in the spring. Although their organization is new, their players are very experienced; Slay and Stark coming from the Gigabyte Marines with RonOP, YiJin and Warzone from the Saigon Jokers round out a balanced team composition. Their opponents will be powerhouse SuperMassive that steamrolled the first Play In stage. The Turkish team has actually played the Saigon Jokers some years ago and won in a clean sweep 3-0, but this may be a new day and age for both teams.

EVOS barely triumphed over the Gigabyte Marines in the Vietnam Championship Series Finals 3-2 despite holding a sizable lead during the regular season. Despite the fact that the players are no strangers to the competitive scene, international experience for the team is quite low, with the majority of players having only participated in one to two international tournaments. The team overall relies on ADC Slay to be the backbone, consistently performing with RonOP in the botlane. YiJin and Warzone are very standard players that perform as the meta dictates, both possessing above average KDAs and KP%. Former GAM Stark has some issues to sort out before playing this week and is clearly the weak point of the team. That being said, Vietnam was promoted to a major region for good reason – the regions’ successes have earned them the respect of many and EVOS is plenty strong to boot.

SuperMassive performed as predicted in the Play-Ins, with every player performing to the highest caliber and most matches not being relatively close. The Korean imports of SnowFlower and GBM bring stability to the mid and bot lanes while fabFabulous has created a name for himself internationally over the years.

Both EVOS and SME are accomplished teams that fought their way to this stage. EVOS had defeated GAM in the finals of the VCS, which has been promoted from a wildcard to a major region. SME completely destroyed its opposition earlier in the week and will attend a third successive MSI tournaments. The favorites to win here are SuperMassive Esports in a 3-2 fashion, as they have not shown weakness in their play as of yet and, as a region, tend to thrive at MSI.

Best bet: SuperMassive eSports to win 3-2 in maps betting, paying +350 at BetOnline

Flash Wolves vs Gambit Esports

Wednesday, May 9th – 4AM PST / 7AM EST

The Taiwanese Team of Flash Wolves take on Gambit Esports to decide who makes it out of the second round of Play-Ins. The League Master Series has been demoted this year due to North America outperforming the LMS in recent tournaments, but the region is still heralded as a LoL powerhouse. Gambit Esports made it out of groups in a resounding 5-1 record, demonstrating the strength of an older era Gambit.

FW are no strangers to international tournaments and neither are most of its players. SwordArt, Betty and Maple are well-known names to the international community, with Moojin being a lesser known player with a bit of professional experience. FW, despite being hotly contested for first place in the regular split, have much more impressive statistics than the second place team, which they also clean swept in the finals 3-0. The team relies on SwordArt and Betty in the botlane for heavy playmaking while Maple can usually hold down the fort midlane versus world class midlaners such as Bjergsen and Faker. As a weak point, even their rookie Hanabi has shown promise, integrating himself with the team through decent map involvement while playing very lane dominant champions. Flash Wolves are a very well rounded team that sports nothing less than world class play.

Gambit Esports played quite convincingly during the tournament, with ADC Lodik and Support Edward showing off their skills. PvPStejos and Diamondprox have performed well for most games, with the occasional hiccup here and there while Kira in the midlane demonstrated his wide champion pool, being flexible for the team but not necessarily having the most impact on all his champions. That being said, taking down FW will require Lodik and Edward to outpressure their counterparts and for Kira to not only go even in lane but to also prevent Maple from roaming. Utilizing PvpStejos to dominate Hanabi and split push may be their best bet to opening up the map, as teamfighting tends to go in favor of the FW simply through KP%.

Flash Wolves are a tremendous region brimming with talent and are expected to take the series 3-1. As well as Gambit Esports played during the first round, the FW’s overall skill level and experience may be too much to handle for the Russian All stars.

Best bet: Flash Wolves to win, paying +220 at BetOnline

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ESPN have announced they will provide live coverage of the 2017 Street Fighter V World Championship finals from the Evolution Championship Series (Evo 2017) on ESPN2 and via the ESPN app, starting at 7 PM PT/10 PM ET on July 16.

Running over three days and held in Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, the world famous pro fighting game tournament is the largest organised event of its kind in the world, hosting competitors and fans to compete and watch the most popular fighting video games in the esports circuit.

The first day will feature the likes of BlazBlue: Central Fiction, Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2, Injustice 2, King of Fighters XIV, Super Smash Bros. Melee, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 – alongside Street Fighter V.

“It’s great to be back at the Evo Championship Series Final with Street Fighter V this year,” said Kevin Lopes, director of ESPN programming in a press release. “This final will provide no shortage of compelling competition, and we look forward to delivering this event to fans.”

“Fighting games bring a tremendous level of hype and excitement, and Evo’s mission is to share that experience with fans worldwide,” said Joey Cueller, president of Evo. “We’re pleased to team up with ESPN and Disney to bring these games to new audiences.”

ESPN and ESPN2 has previously held televised broadcasts for the 2016 Street Fighter V Evo Championship Series and the 2016 Capcom Cup, Halo World Championship Tour at X Games Aspen 2016, and the February 2017 FIFA Ultimate Team Championship Series across their ESPN, ESPN Deportes and ESPN3 channels.

The American global cable and satellite sports television network previously announced they would be airing and hosting the $75,000 Rocket League esports tournament during the 2017 X Games in Minneapolis this weekend as part of X Fest, the entertainment side of the annual action sports event.

They join fellow sports broadcaster NBC Sports in providing consistent live coverage of esports this year.

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