Juan “Hungrybox” Debiedma won Super Smash Bros. Melee Singles at CEO 2019 on June 30. It was his first tournament victory since MomoCon 2019 in May. In addition, CEO was Hungrybox’s most significant tournament victory since Pound 2019 in April.
Hungrybox had a smooth run to top 16, defeating Diego “Cool Lime” Wheat. From there, his road to Grand Finals included wins over Ryan “La Luna” Coker-Welch, Justin “Plup” McGrath, and Zachary “SFAT” Cordoni. While each of these players took a game off of Hungrybox, none of them could take him to game five.
Hungrybox’s only five-game set of CEO 2019 Melee came in Grand Finals against Justin “Wizzrobe” Hallett. Hungrybox came out on top in order to win the whole tournament. This was his first win against Wizzrobe in 2019.
For perhaps the first time since late 2017, Hungrybox’s status as the no. 1 player in the world is contested. Hungrybox holds a losing record against four players this year. He is 1-3 against Wizzrobe, 1-2 against Zain Naghmi, 1-2 against William “Leffen” Hjelte, and 0-1 against Masaya “aMSa” Chikamoto.
Despite his less-than-perfect record, Hungrybox has still had impressive results throughout 2019. He is 2-1 against Joseph “Mang0” Marquez, 1-0 against Jeffrey “Axe” Williamson, and 5-0 against Justin “Plup” McGrath. CEO was not exactly a supermajor tournament for Super Smash Bros. Melee. Nevertheless, this CEO 2019 Melee win may be a launching point for Hungrybox going forward this summer.
CEO 2019 Melee and the summer rankings
The CEO 2019 Melee Singles event was this season’s last Melee tournament. Within the next few weeks, the Summer 2019 MPGR will rank the top 50 Super Smash Bros. Melee players. As a result, CEO 2019 was the last chance players had to make an impact on this summer’s rankings.
Since his 1st place finish at Smash’N’Splash 5, Wizzrobe has been the frontrunner for No. 1 in the world. He has wins over the likes of Leffen, Zain, and aMSa. CEO 2019 Melee was a bit of a mixed bag for Wizzrobe. He lost to Jason “Gahtzu” Diehl, which is his worst loss of 2019 by far. In addition, Wizzrobe dropped his first set of the year to Hungrybox. However, Wizzrobe also scored his first win over Plup since 2014 (and his first ever win against Plup as a Sheik main).
CEO similarly held somewhat mixed results for Cody “iBDW” Schwab. iBDW dropped into losers very early, as he was upset by Troy “Yort” Hancock. However, he proceeded to go on a losers run where he beat La Luna, Kevin “PewPewU” Toy, and Gahtzu. Because of his strong results this year, iBDW is in the running for top 10 for the first time ever. His 2019 résumé includes wins over Hungrybox, Mang0, aMSa, S2J, SFAT, and James “Swedish Delight” Liu.
Plup’s 5th place finish at CEO 2019 came from losses to the top two seeds, Wizzrobe and Hungrybox. However, it came as a quiet finish to a relatively mediocre season for Plup. Plup has losing records against six players this year. He is 0-1 against Kurtis “moky” Pratt, 0-1 against SFAT, 0-1 against Axe, 0-1 against Leffen, 0-2 against Mang0, and 0-5 against Hungrybox. At the very least, Plup can boast winning records against Zain, aMSa, and S2J, and an even record against Wizzrobe.
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