Hungrybox

DeBiedma discovered the Super Smash Bros. competitive scene around 2006–2007, and started to perform at small local tournaments in 2007.[9][5] In July 2008, he volunteered to host several players at his parents' home for the upcoming 122-player Brawl tournament named Fast 1. He himself took part of the tournament, finishing in 25th place.[6][10]

In 2009 at a local Tampa tournament, Twilight Showdown 6, he placed 3rd for the first time in any tournament, earning $27.50, his first prize money; he recognizes this as the first moment he considered becoming professional.[5] After finishing in 7th place at Revival of Melee on March 7, Hungrybox placed 3rd at GENESIS for Melee on July 11, his first high placement at a major Melee tournament, while placing 97th on Brawl the following day.[10] Hungrybox won his first-ever tournament at Revival of Melee 2 on November 21, 2009.[10] He then went on to place in high positions repeatedly on tournaments, with Apex 2010 on August 8 marking his first win in a major tournament.[10]

For the following years, Hungrybox remained one of the top Melee players, and established himself as the best Jigglypuff player in the world. Results in major tournaments included placing 2nd at both Apex 2012 and The Big House 3 in 2013.[10] He won both the Singles and Doubles tournaments at CEO 2010 (with ChuDat in Doubles), and then again at CEO 2011 (with Linguini in Doubles).[11][12][13][14] In parallel, he continued to compete on Brawl, to lesser success, and on the Brawl mod Project M, winning several minor tournaments.[10]

In 2013, Evo, the most prominent fighting game event worldwide, announced Melee as part of the Evo 2013 line-up, after the game had only previously been featured at Evo 2007.[15] The event is considered the full beginning of the "Era of the Five Gods" (or "Platinum" Era), which marked a surge in prominence and popularity for the Melee competitive scene, and its near-total domination by five players: Hungrybox, Adam "Armada" Lindgren, Jason "Mew2King" Zimmerman, Joseph "Mango" Marquez, and Kevin "PPMD" Nanney, with every Premier or Super Major Melee tournament for several consecutive years being won by one of the Gods, and them rarely losing to anyone but another God.[16][17] At Evo 2013, Hungrybox finished in 3rd place, losing to Wobblez in the Losers Finals after a controversial finish; in parallel, he took part in a Melee Doubles Evo side-event, teaming up with Mew2King to win the tournament.[10]

On July 3, 2013, Hungrybox was picked up by team CLASH Tournaments alongside fellow Super Smash Bros. player Aziz "Hax" Al-Yami.[18] On April 17 of the following year, he left CLASH Tournaments and joined Team Curse.[19] On January 6, 2015, Team Curse merged with Team Liquid, leading Hungrybox to be picked up by Team Liquid along with his teammate Kashan "Chillin" Khan, joining other Smash Bros. players Ken Hoang and Daniel "KoreanDJ" Jung.[20]

In 2014, Hungrybox placed top three in nine Melee tournaments, including a victory at Fight Pitt V.[21] At Evo 2014, he reached the Grand Finals for the first time, losing to Mango and finishing in 2nd place; he once again won the Doubles side-event, this time teaming up with Justin "Plup" McGrath.[22]

In 2015, Hungrybox won the Melee Singles tournament at Paragon, defeating Mew2King in the Grand Finals.[23] At Evo 2015 in July, he finished in 2nd place, losing to Armada in the Grand Finals; the following month, he announced that he would be becoming less active in competitive Smash, as he began his career as an engineer.[8] At Paragon Los Angeles, his next tournament after Evo, he finished 3rd in Melee after being eliminated by Mew2King with a score of 2–3.[24][25] In parallel to his Melee career, he competed on the newly released Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U to little success; at Paragon Los Angeles in 2015, the largest Project M tournament in history, Hungrybox finished 4th after being defeated by Mew2King 3–1.[10]

DreamHack Winter 2015 from November 26 to November 29, 2015 marked Hungrybox' first time winning both the Singles and Doubles tournaments at a Super Major event, winning Singles by defeating Armada 3–1 in the second set of Grand Finals after losing 3–0 in the first set, and Doubles by teaming up with Axe to defeat DaJuan Shroomed McDaniel and McCain "MacD" LaVelle 3–1 in the grand finals. His win in the Singles tournament earned him $10,000, his first five-figure payout; he broke into tears into his post-match interview.[10][7] In early 2016, Hungrybox won two additional singles Super Major tournaments, Pound and CEO 2016.[10]

On July 17, 2016, Hungrybox participated in the Evo 2016 Melee tournament. Reaching the Winners Semifinals, but was sent to the Losers Bracket after losing to Plup; he was able to defeat all three of his Losers Bracket matches against Johnny "S2J" Kim, Mango, and Plup, to reach the Grand Finals for the third consecutive year, against Armada for a second consecutive time. In the Grand Finals, Hungrybox won two consecutive best of five sets, both with a score of 3–2, to win Evo for the first time in his career.[26][27]

The following October, Hungrybox competed at The Big House 6, where he placed 5th, losing to Armada in the Losers Quarter-Finals; although he had been juggling his entire e-sports career with full studies and/or working, Hungrybox, disappointed by his performance, decided to quit his job as process engineer for WestRock to become a full-time professional player for the first time. [28][29]

In early 2017, Hungrybox was ranked as the second best Melee player of 2016, behind Armada, after already achieving the same rank the previous year (also behind Armada); Redbull, who partnered up with SSBMRank to announce the results, claimed that despite Armada placing higher, "This has been the year of Hungrybox [...] Hungrybox's biggest victory came after The Big House 6, when he took the plunge and quit his job in pursuit of a full-time Smash career. Now fully committed to the game he loves, a Hungrybox that maintains his legendary clutch factor and continues to optimize his play to never-before-seen heights just might be unstoppable in 2017."[29]

In 2017, Hungrybox won the most tournaments he had in his entire career, with a total of 26 wins over the year, including the Premier tournament The Big House 7, and four Super Major tournaments: Shine 2017, DreamHack Austin 2017, DreamHack Denver 2017, and Smash Summit 5; for the latter, he set a new record for most money won in a single Melee tournament, receiving $29,315.30 as prize money.[30] [31][32] His most notable loss that year as at Evo 2017, where he finished 3rd after losing to Mango in the Losers Finals.[10] In January 2017, he competed at GENESIS 4 despite suffering a broken index finger, forcing him to spend a month preparing for the tournament using new controller settings that would not require him to use his index finger; he ultimately finished in 4th place, losing to Mango in the Losers Semifinals.[33]

Hungrybox was ultimately ranked as the number 1 Melee player of 2017 for the first time in his career, dethroning Armada who had held the spot for two consecutive years.[34][6]

In 2018, Hungrybox continued to consistently rank high on tournaments, winning a total of 18, including three Super Majors: Shine 2017, CEO 2018, and The Big House 8.[10][35] At Evo 2018, Hungrybox was sent to the Losers Bracket after losing to William Peter "Leffen" Hjelte in the Winners's 3rd Round, ultimately losing to Armada in the Losers Semifinals and ranking 4th. Even in defeat, Hungrybox consistently performed well, never ranking less than in 4th place at any tournament during the year.[35] In total, only nine players succeeded at winning a set against Hungrybox during the year. Hungrybox also won sets against them during the year, with the exception of Armada, who, while largely seen as the best Melee player besides Hungrybox, decided to retire for playing Melee in singles in September 2018; now without his most prominent rival, Hungrybox would go on to score five consecutive tournaments at the end of the year, including the Singles tournament at Smash Summit 7 on November 15.[35][36]

On February 7, 2019, he was ranked as the previous year's best player for the second consecutive year, with Redbull stating: "Some may have doubted it, and others even wished it not to be true, but this titan of Melee left no room for debate. He won, and he won prolifically."[35]

In February 2019, Hungrybox won GENESIS 6, his first GENESIS win in what was his seventh participation to the tournament.[37] He went on to win more Super Majors, including Pound 2019, Low Tier City 7, CEO 2019, Shine 2019, and Mainstage.[37][7]

Following the release the release of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in December 2018, Hunbrybox started entering Ultimate tournaments as part of events in which he was also competing as a Melee player; his Ultimate endeavors were less successful. In his first Ultimate tournament, the 385-entrant Ultimatum on December 29, he finished in 65th place.[38] At GENESIS 6, the biggest Ultimate tournament at that point with 2105 entrants, Hungrybox placed 193rd in Singles, and 257th in Doubles with Kashan "Chillindude" Khan.[39] His best Ultimate ranking for 2019 was at Mango's Birthday Bash, where he finished in 7th place; in addition, he performed as a Melee player, finishing 2nd in both singles and Doubles tournaments (teaming up with Zain Naghmi for the latter).[40]

On January 24, 2020, Hungrybox was ranked as the previous years' number 1 Melee player, becoming the first to do so three consecutive years, although Redbull claimed that he hadn't been as dominant as the previous year, stating that "the competition for 2019’s number one rank has been the most hotly contested in recent memory."[41][37]

Hungrybox's 2020 year on Melee started successfully, with January seeing him win GatorLAN Spring 2020, before finishing 2nd at GENESIS 7 after losing to Zain in the Singles Grand Finals, while teaming up with him to rank 5th in Doubles.[42][43][44] He went on to win Smash Summit 9 in February in a highly dominating performance, defeating five top players without losing a single game: Aziz "Hax" Al-Yami, Plup, Masaya "aMSa" Chikamoto, Shephard "Fiction" Lima, and longtime rival Mango.[42] At CEO Dreamland, he won both the Singles tournament, and the Doubles tournament with Kilmer "mayb" Varela.[45]

He also continued to compete in Ultimate, ranking 257th in the 1699-entrant Singles tournament at GENESIS 7, 97th in the 1280-entrant Frostbite 2020, while ranking 65th in Singles and 49th in Doubles (with Alex Jebailey) at CEO Dreamland.[44][46][47] On March 5, he won his first-ever Ultimate tournament by finishing 1st at a minor event, Juicy Smash Night 142.[48]

However, from March onwards, the COVID-19 pandemic eventually caused the Smash community to either cancel all of its upcoming events, or turn them into online events. Due to Melee not having an online mode, the Melee community became de facto inactive, apart from tournaments using a fan-made online mod of Melee; many top players in the Smash community – Melee or otherwise –, experienced significantly lesser results due to the full switch to online events.[49][50] This was also the case for Hungrybox, who, having little to no experience in Melee online tournaments, failed to win any for the rest of the year, despite finishing 2nd at both Pound Online and Frame Perfect Series 2: ONLINE.[51][52] Notably, he achieved his worst Melee placement in 13 years in July at LACS 2, finishing 13th; this was his first time placing lower than 9th place since his very early career in 2007, and his first time placing lower than 7th place since 2014.[9] The following November at Perfect Series 3: ONLINE on November 3, he finished in 17th place.[52] In July 2020, Hungrybox stated: "I think no matter how hard I try can't bring myself to the same level of dedication or be as invested as I was in [offline] tournaments", also stating on Twitter that performing Melee online only made him feel stressed when he lost, and "neutral" when he won, stating: "Melee's not making me happy for the first time in a long time."[53][9]

During the pandemic, Hungrybox started to focus heavily on his Twitch channel created in May 2012, and on his YouTube channel created in August 2010, focusing primarily on playing online Ultimate tournaments.[54][55] He streamed almost daily during the entire pandemic, including literally every single day from July 26 to October 22, while eventually starting to publish daily videos on his YouTube channel.[56] This led both channels to rapidly grow, with his number of Twitch followers going from 137,000 in January 2020 to 247,000 by the end of the year, and his weekly YouTube views going from 130,000 in January 2020 to a million by the end of the year.[54][57] Dot Esport calling him "the single biggest Super Smash Bros. Ultimate streamer in the world", pointing out that "his community showed him support and essentially forced him to plan a vacation for himself" on October 23, due to him suffering from overwork.[56]

On August 30, 2019, after competing in online Ultimate tournaments nearly every day for 150 days, Hungrybox won a 77-entrant tournament, The Salad Online 13, marking his first win of a professional online Ultimate tournament.[58][59] He also kept on competing in Melee online, albeit not as often, to continued mixed results; he won several minor tournaments, including the 89-entrants East Coast Fridays 136 on November 14, the 35-entrants Bristahood Brawl on November 18, and the 270-entrants Galint Melee Open, which took place from January 9 to January 11, 2021.[60][61][62]

Largely credited with elevating the Melee community's perception of Jigglypuff's viability in competition and setting the standard of how to play the character, Hungrybox relies heavily on a defensive, counterattack-centric playstyle revolving around avoiding his opponent until he finds an opportunity to attack and capitalize on their mistakes; it is considered a "high risk high reward" playstyle, as Hungrybox's usual goal is to eventually hit his opponent with Rest, a move unique to Jigglypuff which inflicts instant high knockback on opponents. The move has a very small range, making it hard to connect, and, regardless of whether it successfully hits or not, leaves Jigglypuff asleep and completely vulnerable for a long time afterwards; as such, failure to connect with Rest, or failure to knock the opponent far enough to kill them, can result in massive damage inflicted on Jigglypuff, or, if damage is already high, in an instant kill; sometimes, Jigglypuff does not wake up fast enough to avoid getting attacked even if the opponent did lose their stock, leaving Hungrybox little room for mistakes during a game.[63][64][5][7]

In addition to Rest, Hungrybox relies on Jigglypuff's back-air attack, which he uses to inflict damage on opponents, but also to edge-guard them.[8] In 2019, he started using Jigglypuff's Sing move, which makes opponents fall asleep, more frequently and more efficiently, before finishing them off with smash attacks, relying less on Rest than before.[65] Regardless of which game he competed in, Hungrybox has played exclusively Jigglypuff in almost every tournament he took part of, with the most notable exceptions being a few Project M tournaments in which he alternated Jigglypuff with Captain Olimar and Mario.[10]

Redbull.com referred to Hungrybox as the "antithesis" of Melee, stating: "[in Melee], just about everyone accepts the fact that more speed equates to better performance. Everyone, that is, except Hungrybox. Juan 'Hungrybox' Debiedma is an exception to most every rule within the Melee community."[8]

Hungrybox claimed in 2013 that he "got good using gimmicks" and that his hands were not fast enough for technical skill.[66] Liking Melee for its "unorthodox value", he claimed in 2014 that he disliked traditional head-to-head fighting games, stating "they [require] a huge button input to do each combo. In Melee, every character shares roughly the same input for their 30 or so moves – it’s up to you to decide how to merge them together."[5] In 2014, he stated: "In my playstyle, I’m a greedy novel editor – I’ll catch every last mistake or typo you make, and punish you harshly for it. My entire style is based on [Jigglypuff]'s ability to get early kills or 'gimps' via Rest, her high-risk One-hit KO move, and her great aerial game. I like to believe that when I'm playing well, I have every last option covered – and the opponent ALWAYS gets caught." He considered his biggest weaknesses to be his impatience, and his inability to accept critique.[5]

Hungrybox is considered particularly effective against Peach players; he has never lost against Peach in an offline tournament.[9] His first time losing to a Peach player happened at LACS 2 on July 26, 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic had forced offline tournaments to be cancelled, or converted to online; Arjun "lloD" Malhotra defeated him, although Hungrybox remains undefeated by a Peach player offline.[9]

Hungrybox has earned the nickname "Clutchbox" due to his frequent clutch performances, pulling off comebacks when in difficult positions, particularly when in the middle of losing sets or after being sent to a Losers Bracket.[67][29]

Hungrybox is unanimously seen as one of the best players in Melee history, as well as the best Jigglypuff player in the game's history.[68][63][8][69] However, he has remained a polarizing figure for Melee fans and players all throughout his career, with part of the community criticizing his playstyle as annoying and too slow and Jigglypuff as a bad character; he has also been accused of hurting the community, with some alleging that his playstyle was driving viewers away.[69][70][71][8][7][6] ESPN stated in 2016: 'There is no question that Juan 'Hungrybox' Debiedma is the most polarizing figure in the realm of Super Smash Bros. Melee. Ten years deep as a competitor, he's seen fans discount him, his performances and his character selection, some even believing that he's killing the game with each set."[70] In another article in 2019, they stated that he "has been the recipient of a significant amount of hate throughout his career."[69]

In 2015, Redbull.com stated that "In many ways, Hungrybox is the opposite of what someone would come to expect from a top Melee player — something he's well aware of. [...] This anti-Jigglypuff mentality is commonplace in the modern era."[8] In 2020, Esports Talk stated that Hungrybox "isn't a mean one. He just plays Jigglypuff. Jigglypuff is safe and solid and isn't flashy or exciting. He's not viewed highly by many viewers/players because of this approach. [...] He's seen a great deal of grief and abuse in streams and on social media for years, and that has to compound into some negative, upsetting emotions."[53]

Hungrybox also attracted criticism for his tendency to loudly and flashily celebrate his wins, which some considered disrespectful to his defeated opponents. Addressing the criticisms, he stated in 2015: "I tend to be emotional when I play and/or when I interact with people. Perhaps sometimes I say too many things and it comes across in a really bad way. I was raised with the idea that I should always be very proud of my accomplishments. I loved sharing what I had done, or my success on an exam, or who I had beaten at a local tournament. I was dumb for realizing that I had been accidentally bragging a lot. As idiotic as it sounds, I didn't realize it. [...] More than anything else in the world, I want to just get along with everyone. But it's so fragile now. The image that people have of me, especially people on the West Coast, is literally awful. And there's not much I can do to fix it. I would love to sit down and talk to every person who thinks wrongly of me. Try to understand their point of view and then share mine. But I feel like it's far too late."[8] He also said in 2018: "The negative parts of [my] personality -- the pop-offs, they're not exaggerated, maybe as a person I am overly cathartic, but that's how I am -- it's seen by people and it tips them off the wrong way. Maybe certain things I said, maybe certain ways I act, which mind you the entire time, I had zero idea that I was ticking people off the wrong way. I was either completely oblivious or ignorant to it, one of those two, but I definitely was."[6]

According to Hungrybox, the Melee community's partial rejection of his playstyle started very early in his career, claiming that "people didn't like that at all" when he started placing high in local tournaments in 2008.[8] He stated: "There’s a huge stigma against Puff. I've had Florida crowds cheer against me at nationals. It's the fact that no one really likes giving Puff credit. You can't really combo her... and she seems easier to play. Puff is a weird character altogether. She has five jumps so she doesn't have to worry about being gimped or dying suddenly out of nowhere. You have to play patiently to beat her."[8]

He has admitted to suffering from the way part of the community treats him, also stating that the community's perception of him was a factor in him starting to drink excessively in 2017 and resuming having a dayjob despite being the No. 1 Melee player in the world, stating: "Playing Smash only and streaming, I did not feel fulfilled. Maybe if I was a different player or if I was someone was less polarizing, maybe it might be different. I know how people see me a lot of time, I know what people say and write about me. Having to read that over and over every single day as trying to be this full-time gamer and build my brand, it got me. It started to mess with my head a lot. I was very close to getting therapy. I chose not to, probably because I got the job, but if I continued doing [esports] full time, I was very close to getting therapy for it. I hated seeing people having a warped perception of me, misunderstanding of me."[71][6] He stated in 2018: "If it wasn't so necessary for my career, to build my brand, to stay in touch with my fans and the world, I would take a one-year break from Twitter and Facebook. I desperately need it. I think it's caused a lot of mental damage that I didn't need. I was not prepared in any way to handle it. It's my own fault."[6] In July 2020, he admitted that he was considering permanently retiring from playing Melee, due to the community's perception of him.[53]

In the Grand Finals of DreamHack Austin 2017 in which he faced Daniel "ChuDat" Rodriguez in several highly contested games described by ESPN as "high-level spectacle", Hungrybox won the final game, and therefore the tournament, by camping and avoiding contact with ChuDat's Ice Climbers until the clock ran out, giving Hungrybox the win due to his statistical advantage in stocks and damage ratio. Afterwards, ChuDat refused to shake Hungrybox's hand.[73] Bleeding Cool reported the event with the headline "DreamHack Austin Champion Wins In The Most Pathetic Way Possible", stating: "Hungrybox already had to earn his first kill and was having a hard time with the second, so he chose to do one of the biggest jerk moves you can as a gamer: run out the clock. [...] He kept dodging him for the final two minutes of the match while everyone on Twitch and in the arena started booing the living hell out of him."[73] Super Smash Bros. player and YouTuber Sky Williams defended Hungrybox's play at DreamHack, stating that "fighting isn't always what proves a player is better. Timing somebody out isn't always free either, it's backfired big time. Nobody likes it, it's pretty boring, but especially [for] a fragile character like [Jigglypuff] it's a very viable option. [...] The clock is a win condition, but it's not simple. It's not easy. One wrong move can cost you the game."[74] In April 2018, Hungrybox claimed on Twitter that a stranger attracted his attention while he was shopping at Walmart earlier during the day, before saying "Fuck you and your family Hungrybox", as well as "some other stuff about (him]".[75] He stated: "It’s one thing to be the salty warrior behind a screen or on twitch chat. But I was just buying groceries and minding my business and someone took the time to shout at me and let me know he hates me to my face in public with other people listening. [...] I shouldn't have to feel weird walking around in public doing my day to day errands. I get it. I get that people hate me for what I do. Just please mind your own business if you see me in person. I'll gladly sign your stuff or take a photo. Just don't harass someone for their job. It makes me second guess all this stuff I’ve been working for.[76]

After Hungrybox won his Winners Semifinals match against Kevin "PewPewU" Toy at GENESIS 6's Melee Singles tournament on February 3, 2019, the crowd loudly chanted "Fuck H-Box"; the event commentators remarked: "They’re doing the chant but they're doing it so he can hear it. You’ve got to respect him as a competitor. No one else does it with Jigglypuff like that. That’s not easy." After the event, Hungrybox, who went on to win the tournament, tweeted "Those chants almost broke me."[74][77][69] Several other Smash players criticized the crowd for their reaction, including Justin "Plup" McGrath; even William "Leffen" Peter Hjelte, who had frequently voice his dislike of Hungrybox, tweeted: "I don't like Hbox or Puff but seriously crowds need to be respectful. Get it together."[74]

During Evo 2013, Hungrybox's first participation to Evo, the biggest fighting game event in the world, he faced Robert "Wobbles" Wright in the Losers Finals, in a best out of 3 set. After the two were tied with 1 game each, Wobbles won game 3, winning the match and eliminating Hungrybox from the tournament; however, the two players, believing that the set was best out of 5, started to prepare for a game 4, leading Evo founder Tom Cannon to interrupt them and announce that the match was already over. In 2020, Hungrybox explained that an unspecified Evo official had stated "clearly and plainly" in an official statement that all Finals (Grand Finals, Winners Finals and Losers Finals) would be played best out of 5, and claimed that he had never been warned that the stipulation had later been changed. He stated: "I felt cheated. I felt ashamed. This was the biggest moment of the Smash career at this point, [...] I usually take a lot more risks in the middle of a set than at the end of a set, because I feel like I have a chance to do so; had I known it would have been the last game, [my playstyle] would have been much, much more different, which again, could have made a much different outcome."[78] He also claimed that after confronting the Evo official who had made the original statement right after the match, Mr. Wizard answered by saying "Well you should have asked. We changed it."[78]

Hungrybox's match against Zac "SFAT" Cordoni in the Losers Semifinals at Evo 2017 attracted controversy after Hungrybox called his coach, Luis "Crunch" Rosias, over for advice, which, as a violation of the event's "No Coaching After Pools" rule, should have earned SFAT a win by disqualification; however, as the discussion between Hungrybox and Crunch was ongoing, Gordon "G$" Connell, a friend of SFAT, approached and mocked the other two by mimicking a coach-like discussion with SFAT. As the result, Evo considered that both players had violated the rule, and let the match's original result, a win for Hungrybox, stand; both players nevertheless received a yellow card as punishment for their actions.[79] This upset part of the fans, who believed that, as SFAT was not actually being coached, he should have won by disqualification. Others pointed out that, according to the official Evo ruleset, if such an incident is not reported at the time it took place, then it is ignored, and that, as neither Hungrybox nor SFAT reported the other, neither should have been carded in the first place.[80] Hungrybox eventually lost the following round, the Losers Finals, against Mango, finishing 3rd in the tournament while SFAT placed 4th as the result of his loss.[79][10] In 2020, Hungrybox claimed that both he and Crunch had asked an Evo official if coaching was legal for this set beforehand, due to a discrepancy in official announcements making the situation unclear, and had been told that it was.[78]

One of the most famous moments in Melee history took place in April 2019 at Pound 2019, when, after Hungrybox won the Melee Singles tournament by defeating Mango in the Grand Finals, a member in the crowd, presumably upset by his win, threw a dead crab at Hungrybox, barely missing him. After a moment of incredulousness, an infuriated Hungrybox picked up the crab and shouted at the crowd, asking the person who threw it to reveal themselves and "show some respect." The individual in question was later identified and ejected from the building, with a Pound official announcing that they had been permanently banned from future Pound events, and that their name would be privatively disclosed to other Smash tournament organizers.[71][81][33][75][82][53] Hungrybox then apologized on Twitter for losing his temper, later stating: "I was just so disappointed. I looked down and I’m like 'who threw this? Why would you throw this at me?'", later making fun of the incident by eating a crab during a live stream.[71][83] The crab incident became viral and was relayed by a variety of media outlets, quickly becoming a meme within the Smash community.[82][33][71][69] Reflecting on the event in 2020 and recognizing it as the most bizarre moment of his tournament career, Hungrybox stated: "That was definitely a turning point, I think, for everyone in the community. We all realized something in that moment, that there always are gonna be fandoms and opposing factions [in professional competition]. Having intense love for your player and wanting him to win, like [in this case] Mango, is one thing, but having intense hate for another player is actually toxic and not what Smash is there for."[33]