Tournament:The Box (series)

The Box
Info
Founded	2020
Region	Online
Format	Double Elimination
Most successful player(s)	Sonix (9 Juice Boxes, 1 Lunch Box, 40 Ultimate Coinboxes, The Coinbox IRL, and 1 Smash 4 Coinbox)  Sparg0 (7 Juice Boxes, 5 Lunch Boxes, 16 Ultimate Coinboxes, and El Jugo Box)  Cody Schwab (11 Melee Coinboxes)
Staff
Organizer(s)	Hungrybox, Team Liquid

The Box is an online tournament series held by Team Liquid on Hungrybox's Twitch channel, mostly region-locked to North American countries. The series originally started with The Box and consisted of a weekly (Juice Box) held on Wednesdays, as well as a monthly at the end of each month (Lunch Box) limited to Hungrybox's Twitch subscribers. The series was eventually sponsored by Coinbase in February 2022, which shifted focus to the weeklies, now renamed to The Coinbox, with sizeable prize pools. Future events eventually hosted other games instead of Ultimate, including Melee in 2023, although Ultimate remained the primary focus and still had two Coinboxes every month. Following updates to the Nintendo Community Tournament Guidelines, which added restrictions to cryptocurrency company sponsorships for large-scale events, Coinbase and The Box series parted ways after Coinbox IRL 2. The series then went dormant for around 2 years before being relaunched with The Cashbox, a series funded by Hungrybox and patrons.

The series is often considered the most prestigious online tournament series in the North American scene, due to its prize pool and the presence of top players at each iteration.

History

The Box

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Hungrybox announced The Box, a tournament run by Team Liquid and then-New York Jets running back Le'Veon Bell, set to take place from May 8th-10th, 2020 at the height of online competitive play. The event initially conflicted with Collision Online; the conflict was resolved after the Collision organizers moved the event to May 23rd. Ultimately, 8,158 players registered for the event, making it not only the largest Smash event during the pandemic, but the largest online Smash event of all time, a feat recognized by Guiness World Records. Notably, Le'Veon Bell himself also competed in the event under the tag "Juic326", playing Mega Man and finishing 257th.

BestNess won the event over Tweek without dropping a set.

The Juice Box and Lunch Box

Following the success of The Box, Team Liquid and Hungrybox launched two series under The Box brand. The first was The Juice Box, a weekly series held every Wednesday and open to all players. The second was the Lunch Box, a monthly series held in place of the Juice Box at the end of every month and limited to subscribers of Hungrybox's Twitch channel. Both series implemented the recently introduced concept of region locks, and were limited to players residing in North America. Despite these limitations, both series became some of the most popular tournament series in the North American online metagame; the Juice Box especially regularly reached cap during the height of its popularity. Juice Box events were scarcely ranked on the Wi-Fi Warrior Rank due to its status as a weekly; however, Lunch Box events during this time were frequently tiered on the rankings as either a B- or an A-tier event. There were prize pools for both events: Juice Box events often had a prize pool in the low hundreds, while Lunch Box events regularly had a prize pool of $1,000.

Though many of the series' winners were already established players offline, there were also several winners who were considered up-and-coming players or hidden bosses. These most notably include Sonix, a player who was relatively unknown prior to the online metagame, but was gaining notoriety in the online metagame; Sparg0, often considered one of the first North American prodigies in Ultimate, but was unranked in the early metagame; and ShinyMark, a Pikachu player who some believed was as strong as ESAM, the best Pikachu player at that time. All three eventually became top players in the post-pandemic metagame.

Juice Box #53 and #54 notably did not feature Ultimate, instead featuring the then-recently released platform fighter Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl.

The events' sizes declined with the return of offline competitive play. Both series concluded by November 2021, though two Lunch Box events were held in the first two months of 2022 following a sudden surge of COVID-19 cases, which briefly halted the transition to offline.

Coinbox

At the start of February 2022, the Juice Box was relaunched as the Coinbox; though most rules and regulations remained the same, the series was now funded by cryptocurrency company Coinbase. As such, the weekly series regularly had $2,000–$3,000 prize pools, making it the most profitable weekly series in online competitive play. The first three Coinbox events reached cap, while subsequent events often featured around 600-800 entrants, with relatively few events in comparison falling below 500 entrants.

The size of the event, as well as its high prize pool, made Coinbox the most prestigious North American online series in the post-pandemic metagame, especially as several top players continued to use the events as a means of practice. This has led many to compare the Coinbox as the American equivalent to the Japanese ladder Smashmate, which had a similar reputation for being the training ground for the region's best players. The two most dominant players at Coinbox events were Sonix (who won 40 events) and Sparg0 (who won 16 events); both players frequently reached Grand Finals and fought against each other there. This was especially the case in 2023, the year in which both players were considered the two best players in North America's offline metagame; the Grand Finals at these offline majors were, therefore, often referred to as "Coinbox Grand Finals".

There were also several special events in the series. Two lifted the North American region lock in favor of a European region lock (#69) or no region lock (#111). Two others experimented with untraditional rulesets: #106 enabled the Final Smash Meter and #113 legalized stages that were usually non-legal in competitive play. Finally, #91 was a doubles tournament to celebrate Valentine's Day.

The success of the online series led to two offline invitational events under the series name, aptly titled "Coinbox IRL". These events were held in Washington, D.C., and featured the best players at Coinbox events that year and a $10,000 prize pool, the highest prize pool in the series' history. The first Coinbox IRL event became a major and was won by Sonix, while the second Coinbox IRL event was a superregional and was won by Syrup.

The Nintendo Community Tournament Guidelines restricted large events from gaining cryptocurrency sponsors. As such, Coinbox concluded after Coinbox IRL 2 and went on hiatus for almost two years.

Character bans

Steve has had mixed legality throughout the history of the Coinbox series. Following Coinbox #51, Steve was indefinitely banned from The Coinbox on March 2nd, 2023, with Hungrybox stating that the discovery of the Phantom MLG technique and the difficulties of banning it on its own, especially online, was the "straw that broke the camel's back." This lasted until January 2024, when Hungrybox announced that Steve would be unbanned on the first Coinbox of each month of 2024, beginning with Coinbox #87, stating that he didn't want to have a complete ban on a character which is legal in the majority of regions around the world. Steve was later fully unbanned on April 1st, 2024, when the series shifted from weekly to biweekly. Steve has ultimately been banned from a total of 24 Coinboxes, those being #53-86, #88, #89, #93, #95, #96, and #97.

Hungrybox has also floated the idea of banning Sonic from The Coinbox, citing the effect said character has on stream viewership, though no serious ban was ever implemented.

Melee Coinbox

Though the Coinbox started as an Ultimate series, Melee events were also held beginning in February 2023. The series switched games every week, with Ultimate on Wednesdays and Melee on Tuesdays. However, on November 8th, 2023, following the announcement of the Nintendo Community Tournament Guidelines, Hungrybox announced that Team Liquid would not be seeking a license for Melee Coinboxes due to the usage of Slippi, and that the final Melee Coinbox would be Coinbox #84. There were ultimately 18 Melee Coinbox events held throughout 2023, of which Cody Schwab won 11 of the 14 that he entered. At times, there were bounties put on Cody Schwab for anyone to claim if they could take a set off him in bracket.

Other Coinbox games

A Smash 4 Coinbox event, The Coinbox 98 - SM4SH SENDOFF, was held in the final week before the Wii U online servers were shut down. Following a Twitter poll, Bayonetta was banned from the event, though Bayonetta player Mistake, the best Smash 4 player in the world at that time, was invited to compete in a Thug Finals against the tournament winner, Sonix. Additionally, custom sizes for the Mii Fighters were banned, though default-sized Miis were legal with any custom special moves.

The Coinbox also held events for fighting games outside of Smash, often to promote the games' releases.

Game	Coinbox events
MultiVersus	#26, #27, #28, #29, #103
Street Fighter 6	#65
Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2	The SLIME Box and The SLIME Box #2
Tekken 8	#92
Guilty Gear Strive	#104
Rivals of Aether II	#114, #115, #116, #117, #119, #120

To-Go Box

Unaffiliated with Team Liquid or Coinbase, Hungrybox ran smaller, single-elimination events branded as "The To-Go Box" in late May 2024, with the first event being for Melee. These tournaments were intended to be used for more frequent practice and feature more experimental rulesets than the Coinbox series. 6 To-Go Box events and a special European variant meant as a qualifier for Coinbox IRL 2 were held before the series was discontinued later that year.

Cashbox

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In a "Hungrybox Direct" streamed on September 22nd, 2025, Hungrybox announced the return of the Box series with the Coinbox's successor, the Cashbox.

Champions

Ultimate Winners

The Box: Juice Box

Logo for The Box: Juice Box.

Date	Event	Entrants	Player	Tag	Character(s)	Runner-up	Character(s)
June 3rd, 2020	Juice Box #1	512	Cameron Garrett	Vendetta		SKITTLES!!
June 10th, 2020	Juice Box #2	512	Gabriel Romero	Epic_Gabriel		The6Master
June 17th, 2020	Juice Box #3	512	Gabriel Romero	Epic_Gabriel		Fatality
July 1st, 2020	Juice Box #4	512	Carlos Pérez	Sonix		Maister
July 8th, 2020	Juice Box #5	512	Tanner Jordan	SKITTLES!!		Ravenking
July 15th, 2020	Juice Box #6	512	Spencer Garner	BestNess		SKITTLES!!
July 22nd, 2020	Juice Box #7	512	Tanner Jordan	SKITTLES!!		BestNess
August 5th, 2020	Juice Box #8	512	Brian Kalu	Cosmos		Aaron
August 12th, 2020	Juice Box #9	512	Gavin Dempsey	Tweek		Sonix
August 19th, 2020	Juice Box #10	512	Leonardo Lopez Perez	MkLeo		Tweek
September 2nd, 2020	Juice Box #11	512	Gabriel Romero	Epic_Gabriel		Sharp
September 9th, 2020	Juice Box #12	512	Carlos Pérez	Sonix		SKITTLES!!
September 16th, 2020	Juice Box #13	512	Carlos Pérez	Sonix		Lights
September 23rd, 2020	Juice Box #14	512	Carlos Pérez	Sonix		Epic_Gabriel
October 7th, 2020	Juice Box #15	512	Spencer Garner	BestNess		Axel~
October 14th, 2020	Juice Box #16	512	Enrique Hernández Solís	Maister		Sonix
October 21st, 2020	Juice Box #17	512	Aaron Wilhite	Aaron		BestNess
November 4th, 2020	Juice Box #18	512	Gabriel Romero	Epic Gabriel		Sharp
November 11th, 2020	Juice Box #19	512	Carlos Pérez	Sonix		Ned
November 18th, 2020	Juice Box #20	512	Samuel Robert Buzby	Dabuz		Ravenking
December 2nd, 2020	Juice Box #21	514	Enrique Hernández Solís	Maister