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Hungrybox Will Compete in Melee Full-Time


Today on his Twitch.tv stream, professional Super Smash Bros. Melee player Juan “Liquid | Hungrybox” DeBiedma announced that he will be competing full-time. DeBiedma was previously employed as an engineer, but is leaving his job to make Melee his primary focus for the next few years. In addition, he will be moving back to Orlando, Florida from his current location in Alabama.

This announcement comes on the heels of a somewhat disappointing performance at The Big House 6. In winners, Hungrybox lost 0-3 to Zachary “CLG | SFAT” Cordoni for the first time in his career, then was later eliminated by long-time rival Adam “Alliance | Armada” Lindgren. Because of his job schedule, he wouldn’t be able to compete at any more tournaments this year, and being apart from a strong Smash scene left him out of practice.

Hungrybox realized that in spite of his professional success, his health and happiness depended on Melee. For this reason, he’ll be going all-in. This will include lots of travel for the sake of improving and meeting fans. Though he’ll potentially be sacrificing a lucrative career, he cites the life-changing experience of competitive Smash as more important to him than money. Smashboards wishes him the best of luck with this decision, and encourages his fans to take advantage of his newfound freedom by showing up to large tournaments.
 
G.C. "Djent" Bill
Djent
G.C. "Djent" Bill
Former Staff Writer/Japan Correspondent
Djent is an international Smash enthusiast who is especially knowledgeable about Japan's scenes. He writes previews of their major Wii U events and maintains the Japanese Results Compendium, an archive of notable tournament results. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to message him on Twitter.

Comments

DJBor
What an amazing story this will turn out to be in a few years. A legendary "Ambassador of Smash Bros"? Best of luck, Hungrybox.
 
Zapp Branniglenn
It's a tough call. Every player has to face this question about how much Smash means to them against their work life.

...This does remind me of the mutual roast at the Nintendo World Championships between him and Reggie. Now he really does spend 16 hours a day playing a video game.
 
JayE
Dang. I didn't think he would do Melee full time, especially after his recent sadness. He also said himself that he didn't want to put all the eggs in one basket and he couldn't make it his life. But, plans change. Best of luck to HBox moving forward with his decision, hope it works out for him. He's a legend.
 
Problem2
Perhaps cutting back on smash and moving away from friends and family to a job in engineering was too much of a change for him. I can imagine so many changes so soon could lead to depression and would make him want something familiar again.
 
Johnknight1
While normally I think if I were to be asked "career or esports" I would say career, Hungrybox already has the degree and some experience in the career he chose to last him a while, so he has that as a definitive fallback.

On top of that, Hungrybox is a top player in a growing esport with a top flight sponsor (that is predominately owned by one of the 2 co-owner of the Golden State Warriors and the sole owner of the Washington Wizards, both NBA franchises worth over a billion dollars).

So there's not much of a "lose" situation here for Hungrybox, unless Hungrybox doesn't enjoy playing Melee long-term and full-time (which he's done it enough to prove he does).

So good for him for making his mind up and doing what he wants to do.
5T00PiD UNiK0ЯИ 凶 said:
"Ambassador of Smash Bros." is too big...

He'll be the "Ambassador of Melee"
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Nah, he's made pretty good results in Project M for a long time as well as does about as good as any Jigglypuff does in Smash 4. He was pretty decent at Brawl for a while IIRC as well.
 
L9999
Johnknight1 said:
While normally I think if I were to be asked "career or esports" I would say career, Hungrybox already has the degree and some experience in the career he chose to last him a while, so he has that as a definitive fallback.

On top of that, Hungrybox is a top player in a growing esport with a top flight sponsor (that is predominately owned by one of the 2 co-owner of the Golden State Warriors and the sole owner of the Washington Wizards, both NBA franchises worth over a billion dollars).

So there's not much of a "lose" situation here for Hungrybox, unless Hungrybox doesn't enjoy playing Melee long-term and full-time (which he's done it enough to prove he does).

So good for him for making his mind up and doing what he wants to do.

Nah, he's made pretty good results in Project M for a long time as well as does about as good as any Jigglypuff does in Smash 4. He was pretty decent at Brawl for a while IIRC as well.
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Yes, but he is not like M2K or ZeRo were they are top players in each Smash game they touch.
 
jamesster445
As someone who's been looking for work for the past year, This really bothers me. I'm by no means on the same skill level as HB by any means, so there's absolutely no way the I can make a living off playing Smash. Still why would you ever throw away a stable job for a more unpredictable (albeit fun) means of income?
 
Eruvala
Scary to think of him and Armada going back and fourth for #1 for a while with Armada putting in way more time due to Juans job, but now if hes gonna put in M2K level hours in JUST MELEE? IDK about this but he might ascend past "God" tier to something beyond
 
ZephyrZ
jamesster445 said:
Still why would you ever throw away a stable job for a more unpredictable (albeit fun) means of income?
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Because contrary to popular belief, money doesn't necessarily equal happiness. I mean, sure, it can certainly help - but sometimes the process of earning that money is stressful enough that it flips things around. If Hungrybox thinks he'll be happier this way, then by all means he should give it a shot.
 
A
jamesster445 said:
As someone who's been looking for work for the past year, This really bothers me. I'm by no means on the same skill level as HB by any means, so there's absolutely no way the I can make a living off playing Smash. Still why would you ever throw away a stable job for a more unpredictable (albeit fun) means of income?
Click to expand...
Because it's more fun?
 
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