Hungrybox signs with Team Curse
Following the Smash Brothers documentary, and Smash Bros. Melee making EVO after a huge charity effort, the Smash scene levels up in the esports world. Hungrybox joins Curse, a top NA esports team. In the next year, Team Liquid would merge with Team Curse, and Hbox would join Smash legends Ken and KoreanDJ on TL’s Smash roster. From here, he would cement himself as a legend that surpassed them both — and nearly every player in the game.
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Hungrybox joins Team Curse
Joining CRS.Chillin on the Team Curse SSBM roster is none other than Hungrybox! ...
Coach Crunch
For years, Hbox had been stagnating. He was one of the Five Gods of Melee — a group of top players so strong that they nearly only lost to each other. But he was consistently the fifth and weakest God. In effort to climb higher, he convinced Team Liquid to hire his best friend and notable Fox main, Crunch, as his coach. To this day, Hbox credits Crunch as a major part of his success. But you won’t need to take Hbox’s word for it.
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Hungrybox reaches rank 2 at DreamHack Winter
In only a few months, the training would pay off. Hbox was consistently taking sets off of three of the five gods: Mang0, Mew2King, and PPMD. All that remained was Armada, the best player in the world and the fifth and final god. After getting second place, just under Armada, for most of 2015, Hbox defeated him in Winners and Grand Finals of DreamHack Winter. After years stuck at the bottom of the pantheon, this was the beginning of Hbox’s time at the top.
Hungrybox wins Evo 2016
2016 was a landmark year for Hbox, in biggest part due to Evo. To this day, Evo 2016 is the largest offline Melee tournament of all-time, and it was streamed to over 200,000 viewers, making it one of the most spectated Smash events ever. This set is most famous for The Rest Heard Round the World - an epic-last stock combo by Hungrybox to reset the bracket on Armada after falling behind, as well as Hungrybox’s triumphant celebration. It remains the greatest tournament victory of his competitive career.
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Hungrybox goes full-time in Smash
For years, Hungrybox had managed two careers: engineering and professional Smash Bros. By 2016, he had a full-time day job at WestRock Engineering. However, after his win at Evo 2016 and after struggling to decide on what tournaments he should drop from his schedule, he realized he needed to take the chance on esports. Hbox would later re-enter the workforce in 2018 but then go full-time again in 2019. He’s put his all into the Smash Community ever since.
Hungrybox wins Smash Summit 5
Hungrybox ended both 2015 and 2016 in second on the SSBMRank, barely behind Armada. 2017 would be his breakthrough. After consecutive major victories at Shine 2017, GTX-2017, The Big House 7, and DreamHack Denver 2017, Hungrybox won Smash Summit 5, the last major of the year, over Armada. The win earned him his first ever No. 1 in SSBMRank history. Hungrybox would go on to finish at the top spot a record-high three times in a row. (Five times in a row, if you count the mid-year Summer rankings.)
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Hbox commentates Frostbite
Surprising everyone, Hungrybox would show up on commentary for one of the biggest Smash 4 tournaments of the year: Frostbite 2018. Invited on by tournament organizer Vayseth, this was Hbox’s first big foray into commentary — and his first overture to the non-Melee side of the Smash community. Traditionally, Melee and new Smash players didn’t blend well, but Smash 4 fans welcomed Hbox. This moment would plant the seeds for a career turn later in the timeline.
Hungrybox wins Smash Summit 7; future threats loom
Surprising no one, Hungrybox picked up yet another win in Melee. At this point, Hbox had won so much that he’d made himself the center of a new era. Melee commentator and community leader Bobby Scar called it the era of the “Hungrybox Question” — who can beat this guy? At Smash Summit, the answer was nobody. For now, at least. Future threats loomed not only for Hbox but the entire pantheon. Zain and aMSa would both take Hbox to Game 5, the early signs of a new era to come.
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Hungrybox beats Leffen for Smash Summit 7 title
Smash Summit 7 was a triumph for Hungrybox from more than a rankings perspective ...
The Crab
2019, however, was still every bit the Hbox era. After two years of winning, Hgod looked inevitable — to the frustration of many Melee fans. At Pound 2019, the frustration boiled over. After Hbox won through the Lower Bracket by beating S2J, Zain, Plup, and Mango, a member of the crowd threw a crab at Hungrybox. Per Hbox, this moment marked a turning point. Seeing the hate at its most absurd, many Smash fans rallied behind Hbox, showed him more respect, and even rooted for him. It also became a hell of a meme.
EMPLemon makes a video on Hungrybox
The crab incident was so bizarre that it escaped containment and pushed Hbox’s name out into the wider gaming sphere. A number of videos and interviews would spring up around Hbox, telling his story. The biggest was a video essay by Famous YouTuber EMPLemon, covering Hbox’s gradual rise to the top. Today, this documentary has more than 9 million views, becoming its own gateway for new smashers to get into the scene. Hungrybox says this documentary helped turn him into a hero of the scene overnight. Added to that, it was a sign of Hbox’s new era as a major content creator
Hungrybox loses to Azel at Summit Champions League
In the competitive world, Hbox was struggling more than he’d had in well over a decade. COVID-19 forced the entire Smash scene to go online. The online era would be Hbox’s weakest as a competitor in Melee, where he’d take a number of upset losses. The most indicative may be his loss to Fox main Azel at Summit Champions League (then Slippi Champions League) — one of the biggest event of the online era. According to Hbox, this loss was the lowest point of the entire period. At the time, Hungrybox thought he may never be the same player again and even considered retirement.
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Hungrybox pops off so hard that he faints
Hbox would do the opposite of retire: He would compete to the point of passing out. Hbox continued to grind both Melee, Ultimate, as well as content creation, regularly streaming his online tournament runs. At a fairly low-stakes tournament, he’d beat Ginger, one of his main rivals in the online era, and pop off so hard that he fainted. The tournament didn’t mean that much, but the moment itself pushed Hbox’s reputation further and shows how he would become a top content creator as well as competitor.
Hungrybox Becomes a Co-owner of Team Liquid
Near the end of his seventh consecutive year with Team Liquid, Hungrybox became an official co-owner, with direct stake in the company. This development in his career marked Hungrybox’s rise from competitor to content creator and entrepreneur. It validated Hungrybox’s decision to take on esports as his primary career and showed that he was capable of even more than winning tournaments.
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Hungrybox Starts Coinbox
Hungrybox announces the launch of the “Coinbox” series, a weekly online tournament series with a $2,000 prize pot for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. In 2023, he ran a version of this for online Melee tournaments before they were canceled. The Ultimate iteration of Coinbox is still running and Hbox has announced that Coinbox will host other games too. The tournament series has become the largest weekly/bi-weekly tournament in the FGC and the most prominent Ultimate weekly series in the world.
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The Coinbox - Team Liquid Smash Tournament
Everything you need to know about the Coinbox.
The Reverse Pop Off
In the competitive world, Hbox was still struggling despite a return to offline competition. Competitors like Zain, aMSa, and Cody Schwab had risen up to dethrone all the old gods. Cody was one of Hbox’s biggest threats, a master of the Puff-Fox matchup. At GOML 2022, Hbox beat Cody and won his first offline major in 2 years. Cody did an infamous “reverse pop off” on Hungrybox after losing. In the modern era of Melee, Hbox might not be the top ranked player but he would remain a threat. And the stories around him seemed to write themselves.
Hungrybox falls from the top 5
For the first time in the history of the SSBMRank, Hungrybox falls from the top 5, landing at 8th on the Summer Ranking. Mang0 fell out as well, marking the end of the Five Gods of Melee. Hbox had become mortal. The mortality came with some perks, though. Now seen as human, Hbox had an entirely different relationship with the Smash community, as not just a top competitor but a top organizer and creator.
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SSBMRank Summer 2023: The Top Ten
Like every great actor, Juan “Hungrybox” Debiedma has played a variety of roles ...
Hbox hosts Coinbox IRL in D.C.
In another first, Coinbox hosted its first offline tournament: Coinbox IRL. The tournament was an invitational, inviting several Coinbox winners and top competitors and would become a Major-level tournament. For Hbox, it was the moment where he became one of the main leaders in the Smash Ultimate community, as well as a main competitor in Melee, and the biggest content creator in Smash Bros.
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Hungrybox goes the distance at Collision 2024
Back in Melee, Hbox had returned to where he started when he first joined Curse. He was a consistent threat, making endless Top 8’s, but he struggled to get past 5th. For Collision 2024, Hbox sought out coaching from Mew2King and suddenly looked lethal again. He solidly beat a Rank 1 Cody Schwab and took Zain to Game 5 of Grand Finals. Even more surprisingly, the crowd cheered for him. Something that he had hardly seen since his EVO 2016 win. It’s enough to make you wonder: Could history repeat itself?
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