Written by Stephen 'stuchiu' Chiu

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This isn’t a critical analysis that will unlock the Rosetta Stone to Juan “Hungrybox” Debiedma’s play. The top analytical Melee minds, the best Foxes in the world, and 10,000 typewriters on Reddit couldn’t figure out what his weakness was. I’m no melee expert. This is just my view of Hungrybox and what he did to become the best in the world. It all starts when he earns the nickname, Clutchbox.

Clutchbox is an epithet given to Hungrybox after he won EVO 2016. In that tournament, Hungrybox fought his way from the losers bracket until he eventually faced Adam “Armada” Lindgren in the grand finals of the tournament. He reset the bracket in the fifth game and then in the final game of the entire tournament, he clutched it out with a tournament winner. This was one of the events that made Hungrybox decide to eventually go full time months later in October 2016. Now here we are one year later with Hungrybox as the consensus best player in the world.

When we talk about the playstyle of Hungrybox, it is hard to pin down. His spacing is impeccable and his punishes are on point, but there is no definitive way he plays. There are moments in time when he will camp and there are also moments when he will get hyper-aggressive. He swings back and forth between the two poles. But if there was a defining theme among all Hungrybox matches, it it the tension of the match. As if one hit or one stock could wildly wing the momentum one way or the other.

On a meta level it makes sense. Jigglypuff gives a sense of pressure that other matchups don’t match. No one wants to be a stock down, but you can make that comeback. Against Jigglypuff, it feels worse because of the threat of Rest. From the other side of the equation, if Jigglypuff is down to her last stock, then her Rest is sealed. In terms of map pick-ban, no one wants to be on the losing side of that counter-pick battle. If Jigglypuff loses, Hungrybox will likely have to win an FD pick. If Jigglypuff wins, then the opponent will likely have to beat Hungrybox on Dreamland.

Before the game even starts, Hungrybox is forcing you to play his game. The problem with playing against Hungrybox though is that his game does not have any overarching weaknesses or tendencies. He doesn’t always go in and he doesn’t always camp. He can veer between the two and has at stages of his career been one or the other. Unlike other matchups, a Jigglypuff vs. Fox matchup often leads to incredibly intense moments. Final map, final stock is Hungrybox’s calling card and it is where he gets the most work done. The tension is the highest at the moment. Both players are one clean hit away from losing the entire thing. But this is Hungrybox’s arena, this is where he clutches it out and this is where his mental strength outshines his opponents.

It’s a fact that on the highest level, Hungrybox is the only player who can play Jigglypuff at this level of competition. Aziz “Hax” Al-Yami once prophesied of the year 20XX where everybody plays Fox. Daniel “Tafokints” Lee tweeted out on Nov. 6, “Out of all the logged games for HBox in 2017, he has played against Fox in 269 games. The next closest character is Falcon at 42 games.” For Hungrybox, he’s been living in the year 20XX for years.

This has come with both pros and cons. He is the only player in the world that can play Jigglypuff on this level, so that means that no other Fox can ever get an equivalent training partner. The problem with this is that he is the only Jigglypuff in the world that can play on this level, so if any of the other top Foxes figure out how to beat him, Hungrybox must find the answer for himself as to how to beat the opposing Fox player. Hungrybox is very much forcing every opponent to play him at his game and beat him there.

Even in terms of infrastructure, Hungrybox is making his own way. Where others are content to use net play or their local scenes to level up, Hungrybox has pushed it further. He was the first player to get a coach in Luis “Crunch” Rosias. It’s a smart move as it gives him support in an arena where he is often the anti-hero and he has somebody besides himself to rely on when he needs to find an answer to the world’s best.

On every level, Hungrybox is forcing every player to fight him on his battleground of choosing. He is the only top Jigglypuff player, but everyone who wishes to win the trophy must account for him and Hungrybox in turn must account for how they will deal with him and adapt. This is Hungrybox’s world and this is his game. He forces the arena to fight on his terms, to put their all into fighting him and beating him in the clutch. When Hungrybox announced that he was going full-time, he said this:

“I don’t have to deal with fucking wondering what my true potential is going[sic], I’m going for it,”. “Even if I lose, even if I lose tens of thousands of dollars, I need to know. I need to know. I touched the ceiling and I want to stay there.”

It was a reaction to a few things. First, he head come to realize that a regular job could not fulfill him the way Melee did. Secondly, he wanted to prove that he could be the best in the world. After winning DreamHack Winter in 2015, Hungrybox said,  “My dad told me you’ll never be the best, I hope he sees me now.” That was an incredible victory over Armada and when he won EVO 2016, he touched that ceiling again. This time he gunned for the top spot, but just fell short in the 2016 period.

That was one year ago. This time he didn’t fall short. Here are the results of his last 10 tournaments:

1st: Smash Summit 5, DreamHack Denver 2017, Big House 7, GameTyrant Expo 2017, Shine 2017, Smash N Splash 3

2nd - Get on my Level 2017, DreamHack Atlanta 2017

3rd - EVO 2017

4th - Super Smash Con 2017

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He has won the last five tournaments. The two closest to him right now are Armada and Joseph “Mango” Marquez. Hungrybox has won his last 5 sets against both of them. Now Hungrybox knows where his potential is. It is as the best Melee player in the world.

If you enjoyed this piece, follow the author on Twitter at @stuchiuWriter.

Cover photo by Volamel