“Sorry for losing my temper,” top Super Smash Bros. Melee pro Juan “Hungrybox” Debiedma wrote on Twitter after the weekend’s Pound 2019 tournament in Maryland. He had just fought his way out of the loser’s bracket and ultimately took it all in the grand finals.
Debiedma had every reason to be happy – except in the crustacean department.
“Someone threw a fucking raw crab at me,” he tweeted. “Barely missed my head. What the fuck man.”
A video recorded by a fan shows Debiedma reaching to shake the hand of his opponent, Joseph “Mango” Marquez, and then suddenly turning around toward the ground. With a big thunk, a dead crab had landed there. He picks it up and, facing the crowd, furiously demands, “Who threw this at me?”
Commentator Phil “EE” Visu said in a tweet that organisers “caught the tool who tossed it, he def got kicked out.”
Debiedma is the top Super Smash Bros. Melee player in the world, but despite that, he gets a lot of hate from the game’s fans. A big portion of that is due to his fighter of choice: the Pokémon Jigglypuff. In a 2018 essay for The Players’ Tribune, he attempted to explain why:
Alright, so here’s why people hate Jigglypuff. Super Smash Bros. Melee is a game about aggression. You’ll watch Fox slide around the floor and combo opponents at incredible speeds. You’ll see Sheik make impossible maneuvers around platforms. You’ll see Falcon land these ridiculous, arena-deafening combos before launching his opponent into the stratosphere.
Jigglypuff, though? Jigglypuff is different. For starters, she’s defensive. She lets the game come to her. She baits and she punishes. She also has a move called “Rest” that puts other characters in stasis, a mechanic that has tilted more Melee players than any other.
All of it combines to make Jigglypuff pretty unpopular. Some would even say a cheesy character. And you know what? That’s exactly why I fell in love with her.
Debiedma did not respond to Kotaku’s request for comment by press time, but in a tweet, he did thank his fans for their support.
Comments
17 responses to “Spectator Throws Dead Crab At Super Smash Bros. Tournament Winner”
From the Polygon article on the same story:
Throwing a crab at someone is a dick move, but calling that ‘assault’ is a metaphorical slap in the face to everyone who has received a literal slap in the face.
If they’d wanted it to connect, they probably should have thrown two, from different directions. You know, a pincer move.
*shakes head*
*upvotes anyway*
You do know that there are varying levels to things, dont you?
A person could still call this an assault, without downplaying the more serious form of it. Indeed a text book definition of it (in legal terms) says that even a threat and attempt of such an action can be argued as an assault.
I was going to state this.
You just managed it more coherently than my brief attempt.
“Who throws a crab!? Honestly!”
Who even goes around in public carrying a crab, regardless of whether or not they take it out and throw it at somebody or not?
It’s really an odd choice and I’m extremely curious as to the specifics of it all.
The thrower is just a generally crabby guy.
Someone throwing a dead raw crab to the loser in the Super Smash Bros. Melee tournament is not on.
The spectator who threw a dead crab at the losing player should show some fucking respect because he is nothing but a fucking pussy.
Who is insulting our intelligence in the world of gaming and is insulting the intelligence of his fans just so he can get himself kicked out and become unapologetic and so for the spectator who threw the dead crab at the loser who lost to another Super Smash Bros. Melee player.
I say to the spectator fuck you.
Rather than let it get under his skin, he should have embraced his new lifelong friend, Mr. Crabs. Sit the crab in the chair beside him, put a controller in front of it, and start another round.
Poor crab! #crabgate
rofl
Crab battle!