Things took a turn for the strange at the Super Smash Bros. Melee tournament of the Pound 2019 event in Maryland. A spectator unhappy with the results took matters into his own hands by throwing a dead crab at the winner.
Team Liquid’s Juan “Hungrybox” Debiedma had just come from a tense run through the losers bracket, avoiding elimination to face fellow Melee veteran Joseph “Mango” Marquez from Cloud9 in grand finals. After beating Marquez to win the tournament, DeBeidma suddenly found himself having to dodge the airborne crustacean in question.
A fan took a clip of the moment from VGBootCamp’s stream of the event.
Debiedma ended up picking up the dead crab before yelling into the crowd “Who threw this at me?” He later apologized for his outburst on Twitter.
As for the spectator who threw the crab, Smash commentator Phil “EE” Visu stated in a tweet that they had been found and ejected from the venue. Meanwhile the organizers of Pound have stated that the culprit has been permanently banned from their events. An official announcement is set to be made from the Pound Twitter late this week. That said, Pound staff will not be publicly releasing the name of the culprit.
We will be perma banning the guy btw. Probably will not be releasing his name publicly but will be submitting it to other Tournament Organizers. We will make an official statement from the Pound Twitter sometime this week so everyone knows this was handled immediately.
— Aposl @ xanadu (@VGBC_Aposl) April 22, 2019
While he’s considered by many to be the top Super Smash Bros. Melee player in the world, Debiedma gets a lot of hate from the fans. Debiedma’s character Jigglypuff favors a more defensive play style than that of other popular tournament characters such as Fox McCloud.
“Jigglypuff is different. For starters, she’s defensive. She lets the game come to her. She baits and she punishes,” stated Debiedma in an essay for the Player’s Tribune. “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.”
