Melee legend Juan ‘Hungrybox’ DeBiedma accepted The Streamer Award for best Smash Bros streamer in Joseph ‘Mang0’ Marquez’s place, delivering a speech that directly called out Nintendo for their lack of support for Smash as an esport.
The Streamer Awards show, the annual event which honors the internet’s best streamers and content creators, went down on March 12 and handed out plenty of prizes to some of the community’s biggest names.
Cloud9’s Mang0 took home the award for best Super Smash Bros streamer but, since he wasn’t in attendance for the event, competitor Hungrybox stood in his place and accepted the award for him.
Hbox took the stage and delivered a speech that called out Smash Bros developers Nintendo for their lack of support for the game’s competitive community.
From wave dashing to L-canceling, this streamer has been known to dominate certain matchups and he definitely won this one as we congratulate @C9Mang0 for winning Best Super Smash Bros. Streamer! #TheStreamerAwards pic.twitter.com/DsTYdyh65y
— The Streamer Awards (@StreamerAwards) March 13, 2022
Hungrybox slams Nintendo in award speech
The 28-year-old Smash player and streamer started his acceptance speech for Mang0 by roasting him for his lack of attendance of big Melee tournaments.
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“Similar to every other Smash event this year Mang0 did not show up. Shocker there, bud,” he said, before taking a shot at Nintendo: “But you know what Mang0 did do this year? He supported Smash Bros. Which is not the flashiest game, or the biggest game, we don’t have the most money by far, but he did much more than a certain company called Nintendo did.”
He ended his speech with hope for the future of the game, “I’m hoping this year with the circuit they’re doing they hopefully finally give us the chance we never had. Even though we’re not at EVO, and not at a lot of events, Smash is a beautiful game and it deserves to shine. Mang0 has shown us this game can be the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen in esports. Hopefully, this game lives on another 20 years.”
Wow @LiquidHbox using his speech for @C9Mang0‘s win at the Streamer Awards in front of 330,000 people to call out Nintendo to help support the Smash scene…
Frikin W pic.twitter.com/o2kfHOPGwW
— Jake Lucky (@JakeSucky) March 13, 2022
Nintendo pulled Smash out of EVO 2022, leaving players excited for the event to return in person high and dry.
While the company announced their own competitive circuit is on the way in 2022, Hungrybox hopes Nintendo can finally deliver on a solid event that the community has long deserved.