Smash Bros Melee’s greatest ever player, Team Liquid’s Juan ‘Hungrybox’ DeBiedma, won the CEO 2025 major.
Community Effort Orlando (CEO) is a huge annual fighting game event featuring multiple titles.
This recent win was Hungrybox’s 37th major championship in Melee and his 10th CEO title, having won the original CEO 15 years ago.
And the Team Liquid pro won this year after his controller broke during the Grand Final versus Justin ‘Wizzrobe’ Hallett.
The Jigglypuff main’s phob controller began malfunctioning early into the final.
Hungrybox had to borrow a controller from fellow competitor Mast3rofFlavor1 at the event, just to finish the match.
He was having issues with the controller throughout the tournament, as you can see in the clip below.
During the final, Hungrybox also had to put on headphones as the nearby Brawhala tournament was too loud for him to concentrate.
It was an extremely tense series in which Wizzrobe had a dominant start, and it didn’t help Hungrybox that he had to forfeit Game 1 of the first set on his last stock because of the controller issues.
However, the Team Liquid pro was able to come back from 3-0 down to reset the bracket and ultimately came out on top.
Hungrybox was visibly emotional and shaky following the win, falling to his knees before getting back up to kiss his girlfriend in the crowd.
He also picked up his chair, as he had infamously done at a previous event, but this time made a point of placing it down very gently rather than smashing it on the floor.
Speaking after his impressive victory, Hungrybox understandably gave credit to the player whose controller he used:
“I only won because Mast3rofFlavor1 is an incredible sport and allowed me to switch controllers mid game, mid stock, etc and even gave me another handwarmer.”
“I don’t deserve that kindness, but she’s so incredible for doing that.”
Hungrybox also then tweeted asking for controller recommendations before further reflecting on his accomplishment:
“Also: I gotta say I’m super proud of myself for this weekend, really had to dig deep to somehow clutch that set.
“CEO for Smash is super good and I’m hoping more people come out for Melee and [REDACTED] next year.”
It has been a big year for Hungrybox. He also won the Genesis X2 a few months ago after not winning a super major in almost three years.
Hungrybox is also on the list of nominees for The Esports Awards 2025 after being nominated for Esports Controller Player of the Decade.
In my seven years of esports writing, I’ve introuduced esports coverage to newspapers, interviewed some of the biggest names in the industry, and driven viewers mad with the puns in my YouTube scripts. I’m most proud of the latter.
