Esports Event Turns Sour As Fan Throws Food At Champion.

The Pound 19 Super Smash Bros. event concluded over the weekend. However, the event ended on a bad note as the Champion, Hungrybox, gets hit with a crab which was shot from the audience. The incident prompts for more security.

Pound 19 Champion Hungrybox

One of the most prestigious Super Smash Bros. esports event returned this weekend after a 3 year hiatus. Pound is a tournament series that started in 2006, however, the tournament hit a bumpy road as the main organizer wasn’t able to pay off the top placing players in 2011 due to financial issues. The tournament came back in 2016 after the previous organizer was able to pay off all of his debts to the players.  Pound finally made it’s return this year, with all the top Super Smash Bros. players competing in the event.

Hungrybox Wins Super Smash Bros Melee Singles

The finals saw Hungrybox, who is currently the worlds #1 SSB player for Team Liquid, up against the star from Cloud9, Mango. Earlier in the event, HungryBox and Mango played each other, where Mango beat Hungrybox in the “Winners SemiFinals”, and possibly setting the World Record for quickest KO in a Super Smash Bros competitive match. Mango was on a hot streak, and not even the world’s #1 was able to slow him down.

• Read: World Record for Quickest KO in Super Smash Bros?

However, it was a different story in the finals. Hungrybox is the world’s number one for a reason. He’s able to learn from his mistakes quickly and change his strategy around, which makes him one of the hardest SSB players to go up against. In the Grand Finals, Hungrybox took the series in commanding fashion, outmaneuvering Mango and using an assortment of different strategies that he didn’t use in the Winners SemiFinals. Hungrybox beat Mango, and was crowned the Pound 2019 Champion.

Things Went South

As soon as Mango disconnected his controller from the console and shook hands with Hungrybox, he exited the stage. At that point, someone in the crowd shot something odd at Hungrybox when he wasn’t looking. Watch the video below.

At this point, viewers were wondering why Hungrybox had a concerned look on his face. As he was looking around in a daze. He picked up the object from the floor and then showed the crowd. Although we’re unable to hear what Hungrybox was saying in the clip, we’re sure it’s around the lines of “who shot this?”. As Hungrybox waited for a reply, he continued walking towards the crowd and was shouting, presumably looking for the individual who shot the object. A closer look would reveal that the object was a “crab” that someone must have finished eating.

• Read: HungryBox Wins Overlords of Orlando: Ultimate Edition [Super Smash Bros.]

As Hungrybox confronted the crowd, no one was owning up to what they did. Frustrated, Hungrybox shot the crab down and then  proceeded to exit the stage. Although it was a piece of food that was shot on stage, this incident raised more questions about future events.

Proper Security Measures?

Hungrybox took to Twitter and had to get everything off his chest. Although he made a small joke about the whole ordeal, he raised a serious concern about the incident. Considering that there’s light security, if any at these tournaments, Hungrybox was urging for more security at future events. As he stated on twitter, it wasn’t a “rock or a brick” this time, “or god forbid something worse“. With hardly any security present at the event, things could have been much worse. Hopefully future organizers of esports events will consider what happened here and take appropriate security measures in future tournaments.

Now that we’ve had our laughs, I gotta say it.

I’m lucky it was just a crab this time.
And not a rock.
Or a brick.

Or god forbid something worse.

To all TO’s – please ensure PROFESSIONAL security / detectors at events.
I’ll gladly take a smaller payout if it means having this.

— hungrybox (@LiquidHbox) April 23, 2019