Juan Manuel DeBiedma (; born June 21, 1993), better known by his alias Hungrybox, is an Argentine–American professional Super Smash Bros. player, streamer, tournament organizer and commentator. Recognized as one of the greatest and most successful Super Smash Bros. Melee players of all time, he is considered one of the historical "Five Gods of Melee" along with Adam "Armada" Lindgren, Jason "Mew2King" Zimmerman, Joseph "Mang0" Marquez, and Kevin "PPMD" Nanney, and is regarded as the greatest Jigglypuff player in history. He is also an active competitor in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and has been a member of Team Liquid since 2015, becoming its co-owner in December 2021. He is currently ranked as the 3rd best Melee player in the world for 2025.
DeBiedma has won over forty major Melee Singles tournaments between 2009 and 2025, including editions of Apex, The Big House, CEO, DreamHack, EVO, GENESIS, the MLG National Championship, and Smash Summit. He has been ranked one of the top ten Melee players in the world every year since formal rankings began in 2013, achieving the top rank a record three consecutive times from 2017 to 2019; retroactive rankings establish him as a top ten player in the world every year since 2009, and rank him number one for 2010. A 2021 list compiled by PGstats ranked DeBiedma as the third-greatest Melee player of all time after Mang0 and Armada. Despite his "God" status, he is considered one of the most polarizing figures in the Melee community, in part due to the unpopularity of his defensive, counterattack-centric playstyle among part of the community.
Born in Argentina, DeBiedma grew up in Orlando, Florida, and became a U.S. citizen in 2017. DeBiedma has also competed in Super Smash Bros. games subsequent to Melee, and won both Project M and Ultimate tournaments. Although primarily known as a Singles player, he also has an extensive career in Melee Doubles, and partnered up with a variety of other players, most notably Mew2King and Justin "Plup" McGrath, both of whom he won major Doubles tournaments with; he has been managed by his lifelong best friend Luis "Crunch" Rosias for the entirety of his career. He also regularly acts as commentator, and is the creator of the mostly-online The Box series of Super Smash Bros. tournaments created in 2020, which include Coinbox, the largest online Ultimate tournament series.
Early life Juan Manuel DeBiedma was born in Argentina on June 21, 1993, to Juan Daniel Debiedma, a diplomat for Argentina, and Lucia Violante, a flight attendant. He has two older brothers, Gaston, the oldest, and Fermin. In the mid-1990s, DeBiedma's family moved to Orlando, Florida, after which Violante became a real estate agent.
DeBiedma played piano and sang a capella while growing up. He discovered video games at a young age, particularly enjoying the Super Mario Advance series, and started playing Melee when he was little after the stepson of one of his father's co-workers introduced him to the game. He would also often play Super Smash Bros. Brawl with Fermin. DeBiedma and his lifelong best friend and future manager, Luis "Crunch" Rosias, met in fifth grade in Orlando, and they would often play Melee together. He originally used Ness as his main character, but switched to Jigglypuff after realizing the effectiveness of the "Rest" move.
His eventual nickname, "Hungrybox", came from middle school after he failed to forge his mother's signature, producing a drawing instead. He kept on recreating the drawing when bored in class, eventually resulting in a "hungry box" character resembling a box with eyes and a jagged mouth.
DeBiedma was abandoned by his father Juan Daniel when he was 15 years old; they last saw each other July 20, 2008, when Juan Daniel dropped him off at the venue for the Brawl tournament Fast 1 before flying back to Argentina.
Esports career Early career (2007–2013) DeBiedma discovered the Super Smash Bros. competitive scene sometime between 2006–2007 and started to perform at small local tournaments in 2007. In July 2008, he volunteered to host several players at his parents' home for the upcoming 122-player Brawl tournament named Fast 1. He himself took part of the tournament, finishing in 25th place.
In 2009 at a local Tampa tournament, Twilight Showdown 6, he placed 3rd for the first time in any tournament, earning $27.50, his first prize money; he recognizes this as the first moment he considered becoming professional. After finishing in 7th place at Revival of Melee on March 7, DeBiedma placed 3rd at GENESIS for Melee on July 11, his first high placement at a major Melee tournament, while placing 97th on Brawl the following day. DeBiedma won his first-ever tournament at Revival of Melee 2 on November 21, 2009. He then went on to place in high positions repeatedly on tournaments, with Apex 2010 on August 8 marking his first win in a major tournament.
For the following years, DeBiedma remained one of the top Melee players, and established himself as the best Jigglypuff player in the world. Results in major tournaments included placing 2nd at both Apex 2012 and The Big House 3 in 2013. He won both the Singles and Doubles tournaments at CEO 2010 (with ChuDat in Doubles), and then again at CEO 2011 (with Linguini in Doubles). In parallel, he continued to compete on Brawl, to lesser success, and on the Brawl mod Project M, winning several minor tournaments.
Early "Five Gods" Era (2013–2017) In 2013, Evo, the most prominent fighting game event worldwide, announced Melee as part of the Evo 2013 line-up, after the game had only previously been featured at Evo 2007. The event is considered the full beginning of the "Era of the Five Gods" (or "Platinum" Era), which marked a surge in prominence and popularity for the Melee competitive scene, and its near-total domination by five players: DeBiedma, Adam "Armada" Lindgren, Jason "Mew2King" Zimmerman, Joseph "Mango" Marquez, and Kevin "PPMD" Nanney, with every Melee tournament ranked Supermajor (the highest rating for a Smash tournament) or Major (the second-highest) for several consecutive years being won by one of the "Gods", and them rarely losing to anyone but another "God". At Evo 2013, DeBiedma finished in 3rd place, losing to Wobblez in the losers finals after a controversial finish; in parallel, he took part in a Melee Doubles Evo side-event, teaming up with Mew2King to win the tournament.
On July 3, 2013, DeBiedma was picked up by team CLASH Tournaments alongside fellow Super Smash Bros. player Aziz "Hax" Al-Yami. On April 17 of the following year, he left CLASH Tournaments and joined Team Curse. On January 6, 2015, Team Curse merged with Team Liquid, leading DeBiedma to be picked up by Team Liquid along with his teammate Kashan "Chillin" Khan, joining other Smash Bros. players Ken Hoang and Daniel "KoreanDJ" Jung.
In 2014, DeBiedma placed top three in nine Melee tournaments, including a victory at Fight Pitt V. At Evo 2014, he reached the Grand Finals for the first time, losing to Mango and finishing in 2nd place; he once again won the Doubles side-event, this time teaming up with Justin "Plup" McGrath.
In 2015, DeBiedma won the Melee Singles tournament at Paragon, defeating Mew2King in the Grand Finals. At Evo 2015 in July, he finished in 2nd place, losing to Armada in the Grand Finals; the following month, he announced that he would be becoming less active in competitive Smash, as he began his career as an engineer. At Paragon Los Angeles, his next tournament after Evo, he finished 3rd in Melee after being eliminated by Mew2King with a score of 2–3. In parallel to his Melee career, he competed on the newly released Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U to little success; at Paragon Los Angeles in 2015, the largest Project M tournament in history, DeBiedma finished 4th after being defeated by Mew2King 3–1.
DreamHack Winter 2015 from November 26 to November 29, 2015, marked DeBiedma's first time winning both the Singles and Doubles tournaments at a Super Major event, winning Singles by defeating Armada 3–1 in the second set of Grand Finals after losing 3–0 in the first set, and Doubles by teaming up with Axe to defeat DaJuan "Shroomed" McDaniel and McCain "MacD" LaVelle 3–1 in the grand finals. His win in the Singles tournament earned him $10,000, his first five-figure payout; he broke into tears during his post-match interview. In early 2016, DeBiedma won two additional singles Super Major tournaments, Pound and CEO 2016.
On July 17, 2016, DeBiedma participated in the Evo 2016 Melee tournament and reached the Grand Finals for the third consecutive year, against Armada for a second consecutive time. In the Grand Finals, DeBiedma won two consecutive best-of-five sets, both with a score of 3–2, to win Evo for the first time in his career.
The following October, DeBiedma competed at The Big House 6, where he placed 5th, losing to Armada in the losers quarter-finals; although he had been juggling his entire e-sports career with full studies and/or working, DeBiedma, disappointed by his performance, decided to quit his job as process engineer for WestRock to become a full-time professional player for the first time.
Domination of Melee (2017–2020)
In 2017, DeBiedma won multiple tournaments, including the Supermajor tournament The Big House 7, and four Super Major tournaments: Shine 2017, DreamHack Austin 2017, DreamHack Denver 2017, and Smash Summit 5; for the latter, he set a new record for most money won in a single Melee tournament, receiving $29,315.30 as prize money.
In 2018, DeBiedma continued to consistently rank high on tournaments, winning a total of 18, including three Supermajors: Shine 2017, CEO 2018, and The Big House 8. At Evo 2018, DeBiedma lost to Armada in the losers semifinals and ranked 4th. DeBiedma would go on to score five consecutive tournaments wins at the end of the year, including the Singles tournament at Smash Summit 7 on November 15.
In February 2019, DeBiedma won GENESIS 6, his first GENESIS win after participating in all five previous editions of the Singles Melee tournament. He went on to win more Majors, including Pound 2019, Low Tier City 7, CEO 2019, Shine 2019, and Mainstage.
Following the release of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in December 2018, DeBiedma started entering Ultimate tournaments as part of events in which he was also competing as a Melee player; his Ultimate endeavors were less successful. In his first Ultimate tournament, the 385-entrant Ultimatum on December 29, he finished in 65th place. At GENESIS 6, the biggest Ultimate tournament at that point with 2105 entrants, DeBiedma placed 193rd in Singles, and 257th in Doubles with Kashan "Chillindude" Khan. His best Ultimate ranking for 2019 was at Mango's Birthday Bash, where he finished in 7th place; in addition, he performed as a Melee player, finishing 2nd in both singles and Doubles tournaments (teaming up with Zain for the latter).
COVID-19 and Ultimate (2020–2021) DeBiedma won GatorLAN Spring 2020, before finishing 2nd at GENESIS 7 after losing to Zain in the Singles Grand Finals, while teaming up with him to rank 5th in Doubles. He went on to win Smash Summit 9 in February. At CEO Dreamland, he won both the Singles tournament, and the Doubles tournament with Kilmer "mayb" Varela.
He won his first Ultimate tournament by finishing 1st in The Salad Online 13's Ultimate Singles bracket.
Starting in March 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic caused the Smash community to either cancel events or move them online. Due to Melee not having an online mode, the Melee community became de facto inactive, apart from tournaments using a fan-made online mod of Melee. DeBiedma failed to win any for the rest of the year. He achieved his worst Melee placement in 13 years in July at LACS 2, finishing 13th. The following November at Perfect Series 3: ONLINE on November 3, he finished in 17th place.