Hungrybox wins Super Smash Bros. Melee Singles at Shine 2019

Juan “Hungrybox” DeBiedma won Super Smash Bros. Melee Singles at Shine 2019 in Worcester, Massachusetts on Aug 25. This is Hungrybox’s sixth major tournament victory in 2019. It is also his second Shine victory overall, as he won Shine 2017.

Hungrybox advanced into top 48 easily, as expected. He did so with wins over Tim “M. Peacecraft” Tilley and John “KoDoRiN” Ko. Though they were fairly dominant wins for Hungrybox, KoDoRiN did take a game off of the Melee god. Hungrybox continued through top 48 with a 3-1 victory over Arjun “lloD” Malhotra. Notably, lloD became the first Peach player to take a game off of Hungrybox in about nine years.

James “Swedish Delight” Liu presented another challenge to Hungrybox, forcing him to game five in Winners Quarters. Interestingly, Swedish Delight won game one as Sheik, then switched to Fox for the remainder of the set. Regardless, Hungrybox beat Swedish Delight and advanced into Shine 2019 Melee Singles top 8.

Hungrybox seemed much more solid on the finals day of Shine 2019. He beat Cody “iBDW” Schwab 3-1 in Winners Semis. iBDW notably beat Hungrybox in their previous set at Smash Summit 8. Hungrybox finished Shine 2019 Melee Singles by beating Johnny “S2J” Kim in Winners and Grand Finals without dropping a game.

Despite his impressive victories along the way, winning Shine 2019 could have been harder for Hungrybox. Justin “Plup” McGrath dropped out of the event due to feeling ill. Even more significantly, William “Leffen” Hjelte was upset early and did not get to face Hungrybox. Leffen is 4-1 against Hungrybox this year, and double eliminated him to win the last event, Super Smash Con 2019.

Other results from Shine 2019 Melee Singles

Shine 2019 Melee Singles featured several upsets that made the bracket play out in interesting ways. S2J’s run to 2nd place, while relatively easy, still featured a handful of impressive wins. He enjoyed a Fox-filled bracket, beating Aziz “Hax” Al-Yami, Zachary “SFAT” Cordoni, Kurtis “moky” Pratt, and iBDW.

iBDW and moky were the Leffen slayers at this event, causing Leffen to place 5th as the No. 1 seed. On his way to 3rd place, iBDW also beat Toussaint “2saint” Turnier and double eliminated Daniel “ChuDat” Rodriguez. In order to place 5th, moky also defeated Jacob “Jakenshaken” Bloxsom and Shephard “Fiction” Lima.

ChuDat’s run to 4th place in Shine 2019 Melee Singles was an interesting one. His initial bracket run included predictable wins over Alex “Captain Smuckers” Cottrell and Tyler “lint” Auger. But because Plup dropped out of the event, ChuDat advanced into Winners Quarters for free. Despite a fairly easy run into top 12, ChuDat proved he deserved his placing through his losers run. In the losers bracket, he was able to beat Fiction, Swedish Delight, and moky.

Kevin Maples was somewhat of an odd man out in the top 12 of this event. Like ChuDat, he got a free bye because Plup dropped out. However, Kevin Maples still managed to secure a few impressive wins on his way to 9th place. He defeated the likes of David “Kalvar” Coyne, Maxx “Tiramisu” Everson, Jake “42nd” Cohen, and 2saint. In doing so, Kevin Maples may have proved that his win over SFAT at Smash Con was no fluke.