Nearly 5000 people have been waiting hours for this: the grand finals of the Community Effort Orlando, Super Smash Bros. Melee tournament in the Wyndham Resort in Orlando, Florida. 683 players were narrowed down to eight on Friday and Saturday -- and now only two remain: Juan "Hungrybox" Debiedma and Jason "Mew2King" Zimmerman. With a forward aerial, commonly known as a "fair" on his classic Jigglypuff, Hungrybox sends Mew2King's Fox too far from the stage to the recover.
Hungrybox wins it all: $4000 and a WWE-style belt with CEO branding on it to commemorate his win.
It's the first time he's won CEO, a tournament in his home state of Florida, since 2011. He's all smiles, and as he walks off stage, he, his girlfriend, his best friend Luis "Captain Crunch" Rosias, and a handful of others prepare to go to his family home for a belated birthday party. Once we arrive at his home, we're welcomed with open arms by his mother. We sit down at the table and chat about his win.
"I'm doing well, eating an empanada," he says. "First place at CEO, I'm chillin' you know? I'm very happy, it was my third major win in a row, so summer is going really well."
Prior to CEO, he managed to take down top opponents at Low Tier City 4 in Texas and Smash'N'Splash in Illinois. Those wins, over the likes of Zac "SFAT" Cordoni, James "Swedish Delight" Liu, Eric "ESAM" Lew, Joey "Lucky" Aldama, and Joseph "Mang0" Marquez, have put Hungrybox on a hot streak that led him to this point. And a victory at CEO puts him in a good position to continue winning before the world's largest Melee event, the Evolution Championship Series in July.
The 2015 winner of CEO, Swedish Fox legend William "Leffen" Hjelte, was one of the main favorites to win EVO last summer. I ask Hungrybox, who is in a similar position due to his victory today, about his thoughts on how to translate good CEO results into success at EVO.
"The reason that Leffen had trouble at EVO [2015] is because he has a really aggressive, very fast playstyle and plays Fox," he says. "But we've never had someone sweep everyone -- other than Armada -- who became best in the world, but I'm doing this with Jigglypuff."
Unlike the remainder of the traditional five Smash gods -- and of course Leffen -- who has been among them for several years based off his results, Hungrybox is the only one who plays a character that no other competitor plays at a close level. Hungrybox's closest foe who is a Jigglypuff player is Abhishek "Prince Abu" Prabhu, who is ranked 53 below Hungrybox in Melee It On Me's yearly rankings.
"I'm very happy to have chosen the character I did, because it sort of fits my playstyle and makes me not have to deal with things like getting grabbed and losing a stock," he elaborates on his character choice. "It was a s--- ton of work to get Puff to that level. My Jigglypuff has been fine tuned for over a decade."
Hungrybox is often met with harsh reactions to his Jigglypuff. The Melee community has historically reacted poorly to Hungrybox's playstyle -- due to what's often said to be "boring" play. But despite some pushback, Hungrybox has continued to win with the character and improve significantly over the course of the past year. Now, he's confident that Jigglypuff will take him to the top due to his innate understanding of the character.
"I went through a lot of practicing and tournaments and experience, and theory-crafting and traveling, and just really breaking everything down to its roots to get Puff to where it is," he says. "I'm very confident that she'll bring me to that top world status."
But to become the best in the world, he'll have to get through an array of competitors at EVO and other major tournaments this summer, like WTFox 2 in Memphis, Tennessee next week. Collectively at those tournaments, he'll not only likely face Mew2King, Mang0, and Leffen, but the best player in the world: Adam "Armada" Lindgren. He fell to Mang0 just over a month ago at DreamHack Austin and Get On My Level, and lost to Leffen at Get On My Level.
He's not worried about the loss to Mang0 in the slightest. With a full tone of sarcasm and comedy in his voice, he says: "I feel sorry for Mang0. I had to give him one win, ya know?" he laughs. "Poor guy, I had to give him one win to keep him interested. And at Low Tier City, crush his dreams again."
But even with the losses to Leffen and Mang0, the final boss for Hungrybox is Armada. He's a player Hungrybox has only beaten once at a major event: a monumental victory that occurred last November at DreamHack Winter. Now, however, Hungrybox is confident that that victory wasn't just a fluke.
"[I have confidence] because of my last two wins at Smash'N'Splash and Low Tier City. Especially after beating Mang0, I was like 'I can do this, I can beat anyone right now,'" Hungrybox says. "I really wanna fight Armada, and I think I'll fight him next week at WTFox."
At EVO, Armada will look to do something Steph Curry could not: be a back-to-back world champion. Armada's chances are as good as any others, but Hungrybox says that Melee is so "variant" that it's hard to tell who truly will be in the top eight.
Hungrybox's current goal is to be the best in the world. When I ask what it will take for him to do that, his response has me -- and I'm sure the remainder of the Melee scene -- excited for next month.
"I think EVO is what it takes."