He wasn’t exactly Jigglychuffed
Juan “Hungrybox” Debiedma added another Super Smash Bros. Melee tournament victory to his legacy at Maryland-based Pound 2019 this past weekend. It was an impressive one, too. After being sent to the losers bracket by Joseph “Mang0” Marquez, Hungrybox fought through three straight elimination matches to meet Mang0 in the finals. Hungrybox got revenge on Mang0 to force a bracket reset, and then beat him again to claim the Pound 2019 title.
No one will remember that, though. They’ll remember Pound 2019 as the tournament where someone lobb(ster)ed a raw crab at Hungrybox’s head. Moments after clinching, an unidentified flying object landed near Hungrybox. After taking a few seconds to process what happened, Hungrybox picked up the projectile — a dead crab. The whole incident was captured in this Twitch clip:
Hungrybox was, understandably, incensed. He held Mr. Krabs in his fist as he shouted at the crowd. It seems like a reasonable reaction given that, you know, he capped off a fabulous tournament comeback by nearly getting domed by a crustacean. Hungrybox later tweeted “Sorry for losing my temper. Someone threw a fucking raw crab at me. After a 5 set losers run. Barely missed my head.”
The Pound organizers say they have figured out the identity of the culprit, and he’s permanently banned from future events. They’re also telling other tournaments as a warning, hoping they’ll take similar action. However, Pound is stopping short of publicly releasing his name.
Maybe this is all good-spirited, like when Detroit fans throw octopi on the ice after the Red Wings score a goal. Except it’s probably not. It’s probably an extremely Maryland way of expressing contempt for Hungrybox. Haters gonna hate and they’ll occasionally chuck seafood too.
[Update: Shortly after posting, it was brought to our attention that the crab has become the symbol of the notion that “Melee is dying” after the game was excluded from EVO 2019. Essentially, the crab throwing was meant to signify that Hungrybox’s long tournament win streak is killing Melee.]
Someone in the audience threw something at Hbox [reddit]
