Smasher:Acola

"Smasher:Dear" redirects here. Not to be confused with Smasher:Deer or Smasher:DEAR.

acola "あcola"
Character info
Ultimate main	Steve
Other Ultimate characters	Pyra, Mythra
Retired Ultimate characters	Luigi, Kazuya
Team info
Sponsor(s)	ZETA DIVISION
Former sponsor(s)	flat-gaming
Crew(s)	SumaChuDoku, Arpeggio
Rankings and results info
Most recent ranking	LumiRank 2024.1: 1st
Best historical ranking	LumiRank 2024.1: 1st
Best tournament result	1st / 2,607 at Super Smash Con 2023
Personal and other info
Real name	Mashita Hayato
Former tags	Dear, ディア
Birth date	July 19, 2006
Location	Hyōgo Prefecture, Kansai

acola (あcola) is a Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Steve player with an Aegis secondary from Japan who is considered to be the best Steve player of all time and the second-best Ultimate player of all-time, having been the best player in the game since 2023. acola gained a worldwide spotlight due to his impressive consistency as a player, arguably on par with the likes of MkLeo; up until Maesuma Offline (Shikoku), he made grand finals at every offline tournament he attended, including winning his first major at Maesuma TOP 7, his first supermajor at Kagaribi 7, and his first invitational major and overseas tournament at The Gimvitational. His victory at Maesuma TOP 7 made him one of the youngest Ultimate players to win a major alongside Doramigi, at the age of 15 years old. He is also the only Ultimate player to win the first major and supermajor that they attended, and is one of two players to be #1 in the world throughout Ultimate alongside MkLeo.

He frequently enters single-elimination live tournaments on Smashmate. He was ranked 1st on the Smashmate SP ranking from the 15th season to the 20th season, and is the first player to achieve a 2,500 rating.

Tournament history

Smashmate beginnings

acola began his Smash career during the COVID-19 pandemic on the Japanese ladder Smashmate under the tag Dear (ディア), which he played under until mid-2021. He began playing characters such as Luigi and Donkey Kong, however he found greater success playing Steve, debuting on the Smashmate Rankings at 7th for the 13th season with mostly Steve. Since then, he began dominating the ladder, reaching 1st by the 15th season and maintaining that placement for the next several seasons. Due to his dominance during this period, acola was considered one of the best players in Japan's online metagame, with him placing 4th on kenniky's Top 50 Smashmate Players of All Time, which ranked Smashmate players up to the 22nd season.

Offline debut and meteoric rise

Despite his strong results online, acola had little impact on the offline scene in his first year, with his only attendance being a small event in November. That changed in 2022, when acola was invited to Maesuma Offline. Despite being his first offline event with top players in attendance, acola surprised everyone by placing 2nd, defeating several established players along the way including Hero, Kome, and most notably Shuton, whom he reset the bracket against. Following this event was Sumabato SP 24, acola's first notable open bracket event. Coming in as the 14th seed, acola once again shocked players by taking the tournament over even more established players such as Abadango and HIKARU, marking his first superregional victory. These two events established acola as Japan's premier rising star and marked the start of acola's dominance in Japan, with him placing no lower than 2nd at several events afterwards.

These "several events" also included the Golden Week events, specifically the major Maesuma TOP 7 and the supermajor Kagaribi 7. Both events featured many of Japan's best players, and both events also seeded acola outside of the top 8, with Kagaribi 7's algorithmic seeding notoriously seeding acola at 57th. Despite these challenges, acola blew both seeds out of the water by winning both events, defeating every single player that was in his path aside from a single set loss to Yoshidora at Maesuma. In addition, with his victory at Kagaribi, acola became the lowest-seeded player to ever win an Ultimate supermajor. These performances not only established acola as the new best player in Japan, but also made him known overseas, with players comparing his dominance to MkLeo and Sparg0, Ultimate's best two players at that time. Many players began anticipating a potential match between MkLeo and Sparg0, while other players dismissed acola as being yet another player in the wave of Steve players who saw strong performances that year. Nonetheless, many players began looking forward to how acola would fare against North America's best players.

acola would be given that chance in June: thanks to his victory at Kagaribi 7, he was given an invitation to The Gimvitational, an invitational that featured several of Ultimate's best players. acola's first notable match at the invitational was in his Round Robin pools, where he faced Kola. After a rather back-and-forth match, acola defeated Kola in the fifth game, claiming his first notable North American win. acola ultimately placed 1st in his Round Robin pools, sending him to the Winner's side of the final bracket, where he tore through the bracket, defeating Marss 3-0, fellow Japanese invitee Asimo 3-1, Canada's best player Riddles 3-1, and finally the United States's best player Light 3-1, winning his first international tournament. With that victory, acola became the first non-American player to win the first international major they attended since Otori at Apex 2012. The victory also established acola as one of the best players in the world, and he was ranked 4th on the OrionRank Mid-Year 2022.

Due to his performance and sudden rise to the top, players also began wondering whether acola could be the definitive best player in the world, especially with MkLeo's declining results, Sparg0's hiatus following The Gimvitational, and Steve's perceived dominance in the metagame. In addition, acola continued to dominate the Japanese scene with several major titles and saw some strong performances in the United States, including winning the supermajor Let's Make Moves Miami despite losing to MuteAce; and his performance at the supermajor invitational Ludwig Smash Invitational, where despite losing to Zomba in the Swiss bracket and MkLeo twice in the main bracket, he notably defeated Sparg0 3-2 to place 2nd.

On the other hand, players also noted how acola had a few statistics that did not favor his case, especially a few questionable losses to unranked Japanese players such as Kashiya at Maesuma Offline (Shikoku) and Meido at Sumabato SP 29; acola's performance at the former tournament also notably broke his streak of top 2 finishes, as he placed 4th after losing to alice. Further hurting his case was his performances at Smash Ultimate Summit 5 and Seibugeki 12. In the former tournament, it seemed like American players were beginning to adapt to his playstyle, as he barely made it out of his Round Robin pools due to his loss to Dabuz -- which led to a string of tiebreakers between him, Dabuz, and Cosmos that ultimately went to best of 1 stock -- before losing his runbacks against Kola and Light to place 4th. In the latter tournament, acola was upset by Repo and Kameme to place 9th, the first time acola placed outside of the top 8. Finally, his run at Scuffed World Tour was also relatively lukewarm: although he evened his record against Light, he fell to Sparg0 and Shuton for 4th, giving him yet another major where he finished outside the top 2.

These few statistics ultimately kept acola away from being the best player in the world, and he was ultimately ranked 2nd on the OrionRank 2022 and the UltRank 2022.

Claiming the throne

With acola's strong performances in the previous year, all he needed was to clean up a few unfortunate statistics in order to take the throne. The first half of LumiRank 2023 saw just that, as acola saw a string of performances that many had compared to MkLeo's performances in early Ultimate. During this period, acola won nearly every event he attended and placed no lower than 7th at any event considered for the ranking. Most notable among these events include the supermajors Umebura SP 9 and Kagaribi 9, two of the largest events in Japan for the Mid-Year season, and the major Smash Ultimate Summit 6, where after losing to Big D, he tore through the entire tournament, defeating everyone in his path -- including dominating MkLeo 3-0 in the runback -- to claim his first Summit victory. Further helping him was his loss record: only six players managed to take a set over acola, and all of them were ranked in the top 30 for the Mid-Year season; conversely acola only had one negative record against a player outside the top 10: MuteAce (#16), who has a 0-1 record against acola. Finally, acola's overall record was impressive, as he held a 90-10 record against players who qualified for the rankings, which included a 64-10 record against the entire top 50.

However, there were a few things working against acola that challenged his path for #1, all of which was due to his new bracket demon, Sparg0. During this period, acola took a total of 2 games off of Sparg0, leaving acola with a 0-5 record against Sparg0. In addition, acola failed to win any tournament that was ranked premier on the LumiRank Mid-Year 2023 -- the highest tier on the rankings -- as at all three events he was ultimately eliminated by Sparg0. This was most notable at the premiers Kagaribi 10 and Battle of BC 5, where despite making it to Grand Finals, acola lost to Sparg0 to place 2nd. Due to all of this, many players believed Sparg0 would come out on top for the Mid-Year ranking. However despite a close race, Sparg0's worse overall record and a couple of questionable major placements held him back, and acola was able to ascend to the throne, becoming the first Japanese player to be ranked #1 for a game released after Smash 64 since 9B on the SSBBRank 2014.

The rest of the year effectively solidified acola as the best player in the world, especially following his premier-tier victory at Super Smash Con 2023, which also saw Sparg0 drastically underperforming. acola continued to win almost every event he entered, and made top 4 at the events he did not win. He notably had only one loss to a player outside the top 10 during this half of the year -- Hurt. In addition, many players took note of how acola frequently won sets that went to game 5, with a statistic showing that acola had won 87% of game 5 sets that year, earning him the nickname "Game 5 acola".

On the other hand, this period was not completely spotless, as acola began to develop a few new problematic opponents. The first was fellow Smashmate rival Miya, who at that point was also a contender for the best player in the world. Although acola had a strong record against Miya, this record began to shrink in the fall, notably after Miya blocked acola from winning another premier event by double-eliminating him at Kagaribi 11. The second was Sonix, who finally fought acola at Port Priority 8 in a highly yet ironically anticipated matchup. The set ended in a devastating 3-0 from Sonix, and acola ultimately fell to Miya for 3rd, failing to win yet another premier event. Although these performances did little to hurt acola's overall standing, they also showcased how he was not as invincible as many players had assumed. This was the most apparent at acola's final event of the season, Watch The Throne, where he lost to Sparg0 and Sonix for 4th, albeit with better performances against both players. As such, although acola's record against almost everyone remained close to spotless, his record against the rest of the top 4, especially against Sparg0 and Sonix, was less than exemplary. Nonetheless, his dominant performances and impressive consistency was enough to help him maintain his #1 spot, being ranked 1st on the LumiRank 2023.

Going into 2024, acola had a lot to prove after receiving somewhat disappointing results towards the end of 2023, with Miya being regarded by some players as the best player for the second half of 2023. He almost immediately fired back after an impressive run at Umebura SP 10, a Premier tier event, repeating victories against fellow top 5 player Glutonny and notably claiming victory over Miya in grand finals, the first time he had beat one of the other horsemen since DELTA 5. However, the next couple of months would see Acola not attending many events of note, but during this time acola saw a spotless record on every player he fought, and remained the only top player without a loss going into April. In addition, acola began to work more on his Aegis, using it to defeat Doramigi in two games in grands of Kamisuma 22, as well as defeating Asimo using Aegis in the final game of grand finals at KOWLOON 10. He notably reached a Smashmate rating of 2,500 with just Aegis, one of the few players to reach that rating with more than one character.

The rest of Acola's season was marked as strong for him. Despite still not attending many events, Acola managed to perform well at both Golden week events, Placing 1st at the premiere DELTA #8 tournament, giving him two premiere wins, while also placing 3rd at Kagaribi, the only event he attended and did not win. Additionally, he ended up losing sets to only three players that season; Miya, Doramigi, and Hurt, while also having positive records against the former two. Acola's season was helped even further by some horrible performances in the final week of the season for two of his biggest contenders in Japan, Hurt and Miya, who both fell short of making top 8 at their final majors of the season, as well as Sparg0 having bad performances at both golden week events. With this, the only player who matched his consistency was Sonix, but because he had no major win under his belt, acola consistency and high wins easily made him the frontrunner for the best player in the world for the first half of 2024, and that would ultimately be reflected on the LumiRank 2024.1 where he placed 1st, retaining his #1 spot once again.

Moving on to the second half of 2024, and after coming out of the first half of 2024 with great success, acola would continue his success in his next supermajor Kowloon 12 with Kagaribi, where acola would sweep through his bracket near flawlessly before losing to Miya 1-3 in Winners Finals. He would be sent down to losers to face his next opponent. Unfortunately, after an insane losers run, Sparg0 would make it to losers finals, this meant that acola would once again face off against his biggest bracket demon. However, in a shocking upset that surprised many, acola finally overcame his bracket demon and defeated Sparg0 3-1 with his Aegis, a victory that left him popping off like he never did before and caused the Japenese commentators and some of the audience in the venue to cry. He would then win the runback against Miya 3-0 in grands but would not win the tournament as Miya would clutch it in a close game 5 set. Despite finishing 2nd, this was still a remarkable run for acola because of his victory over Sparg0, as this was a player that had constantly stood in his way and denied him massive supermajor wins in the past two years that would've made him the definitive best player in the world. This further convinced players that acola showed no signs of giving up and would take this ranking under his belt as well. However, this is where things started to take a turn for the worse with his next supermajor presence, Supernova 2024; His first North American tournament since Watch The Throne. Despite high expectations for acola given his decisive victory last year, he would be upsetted by Yoshidora 2-3 right outside of Top 24 winners, acola would then be sent to losers and would just barely make it to top 8 after surviving close game 5 sets against Marss, Dabuz and MkLeo, with acola notably taking his mask off in the latter set after being down 2-0. Once in top 8, acola would lose to Sonix 0-3 to finish 7th, his worst placement of the year and an underwhelming loss at an important event that could spell disastrous for acola's number 1 spot.

However, there was still hope left with acola's next tournament, Umebura SP 11, where despite falling into losers early yet again after losing to Snow 2-3, he would make it to grands after a clean losers run including winning the runback to Snow in losers finals. Unfortunately, acola would once again fall short to Miya after winning the bracket reset, giving Miya yet another supermajor win. Later at Sumabato SP 51, acola would suffer a devastating blow right outside of top 8 after losing to Akakikusu 1-3, giving acola his first sub-top 30 loss in over a year, and despite another clean losers run and winning the runback to both Yoshidora and Akakikusu, acola would be upsetted once again in grands after losing to Asimo 2-3 to finish 2nd, yet another major slipping away from acola. To make matters worse, acola's number 1 position was once again threatened by his former bracket demon, Sparg0, as his results began to improve dramatically as he started to win big supermajors with minimum games dropped, and with LumiRank 2024.2 no longer factoring in the first half year rankings. Acola didn't even manage to get a single major win until Sumabato SP 52, and with Miya and Sparg0 having won multiple supermajors and P-tiers, players wrote off Acola as a contender, instead perceiving the race to be between Sparg0 and Miya.

Rankings

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Panda Global Rankings Ultimate

Ranking	Time period	Rank	Character(s)	Notes
PGRU v3: Japan Top 50 Players to Watch	March 1st - June 13th, 2022	Featured Player (Top 10)

LumiRank

Ranking	Time period	Rank	Character(s)	Notes
UltRank 2022	June 18th - December 18th, 2022	2nd
LumiRank Mid-Year 2023	December 19th, 2022 - July 23rd, 2023	1st
LumiRank 2023	December 19th, 2022 - December 17th, 2023	1st
LumiRank 2024.1	December 18th, 2023 - July 15th, 2024	1st

OrionRank Ultimate

Ranking	Time period	Rank	Character(s)	Notes
OrionRank Mid-Year 2022	December 22nd, 2021 - June 26th, 2022	4th
OrionRank 2022	December 22nd, 2021 - December 18th, 2022	2nd

OrionRank Japan

Ranking	Time period	Rank	Character(s)	Notes
OrionRank 2022 Japan	December 22nd, 2021 - December 18th, 2022	1st

Smashmate

Season	Ranking	Rating	Notes
13	7th	2,485
14	2nd	2,304
16	1st	2,400
17	1st	2,404
18	1st	2,420
20	1st	2,502
21	3rd	2,485

Tournament placings

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Tournament	Date	1v1 Placement	2v2 Placement	Partner
Tamisuma SP #219	January 18th, 2021	9th	—	—
Maesuma #190	February 7th, 2021	2nd	—	—
Tamisuma SP #229	February 16th, 2021	3rd	—	—
Tamisuma Championship 1	February 17th, 2021	33rd	—	—
Tamisuma SP #233	February 27th, 2021	3rd	—	—
Maesuma #198	March 7th, 2021	9th	—	—
Maesuma #200	March 14th, 2021	3rd	—	—
Tamisuma SP #238	March 13th, 2021	5th	—	—
Maesuma #201	March 19th, 2021	3rd	—	—
Tamisuma SP #241	March 22nd, 2021	9th	—	—
Tamisuma SP #242	March 25th, 2021	17th	—	—
Maesuma Champion Series 3	April 10th, 2021	4th	—	—
Tamisuma Championship 3	April 22nd, 2021	9th	—	—
Maesuma Champion Series 4	May 8th, 2021	7th	—	—
Tamisuma Championship 5	July 29th, 2021	3rd	—	—
MaeTami Summer Festival Qualifier A	August 14th, 2021	1st	—	—
MaeTami Summer Festival	August 15th, 2021	3rd	—	—
Maesuma Champion Series 9	October 9th, 2021	2nd	—	—
SenjinByakko Mononofu Cup #52	November 13th, 2021	1st	—	—
Maesuma Champion Series 11	December 15th, 2021	1st	—	—
Tamisuma SP #351	January 3rd, 2022	1st	—	—
Hozuki #5	January 10th, 2022	1st	—	—
Maesuma Offline	February 26th, 2022	2nd	—	—
Sumabato SP 24	March 20th, 2022	1st	—	—
Maesuma #316	March 22nd, 2022	1st	—	—
Shinosuma #124	March 26th, 2022	1st	—	—
Ignite 1	March 27th, 2022	—	3rd	Sunea
Maesuma Champion Series 15	April 6th, 2022	3rd	—	—
Maesuma Offline 2	April 16th, 2022	1st	—	—
Hozuki × acOlaSia 2	April 29th, 2022	1st	—	—
Maesuma TOP 7	May 1st, 2022	1st	—	—
Kagaribi 7	May 4th-5th, 2022	1st	—	—
Sumabato SP 26	May 29th, 2022	2nd	—	—
Kamisuma 13	June 5th, 2022	1st	—	—
The Gimvitational	June 19th, 2022	1st	—	—
Maesuma Offline (Shikoku)	July 9th, 2022	4th	—	—
SenjinByakko -RAN- #58	July 21st, 2022	1st	—	—
MaesumaHIT #28	July 21st, 2022	1st	—	—
MaesumaHIT Champion Series 2	July 23rd, 2022	1st	—	—
Sumabato SP 28	July 24th, 2022	1st	—	—
MaesumaHIT #30	August 11th, 2022	1st	—	—
Sumabato SP 29	August 14th, 2022	1st	—	—
MaeTami Summer Festival 2022	August 19th, 2022	3rd	—	—
Maesuma TOP 9	August 27th, 2022	1st	—	—
Smash Ultimate Summit 5	September 15th-18th, 2022	4th	—	—
Maesuma Champion Series 19	September 28th, 2022	1st	—	—
Maesuma TOP 10	October 15th-16th, 2022	1st	—	—
Ludwig Smash Invitational	October 21st-23rd, 2022	2nd	—	—
Let's Make Moves Miami	October 28th-30th, 2022	1st	1st	Onin
MaesumaHIT Champion Series 3	November 12th, 2022	1st	—	—
Seibugeki 12	December 3rd, 2022	9th	—	—
Scuffed World Tour	December 18th, 2022	4th	—	—
JAPAN 24	December 24th-25th, 2022	1st	—	—
Umebura SP 9	January 7th-8th, 2023	1st	—	—
GENESIS 9	January 20th-22nd, 2023	7th	65th	fuku
Kagaribi 9	February 4th-5th, 2023	1st	—	—
MaesumaHIT Champion Series 4	February 25th, 2023	1st	—	—
Maesuma TOP 11	March 5th, 2023	3rd	—	—
Karisuma SP 15	March 18th, 2023	1st	—	—
Smash Ultimate Summit 6	March 23rd-26th, 2023	1st	—	—
tamasuma kyokkan 2	April 15th, 2023	1st	—	—
Maesuma TOP 12	April 30th, 2023	1st	—	—
TOKYO SMASH BOOT CAMP	May 3rd, 2023	9th	—	—
Kagaribi 10	May 6th-7th, 2023	2nd	—	—
MaesumaHIT Champion Series 5	May 13th, 2023	5th	—	—
Battle of BC 5	May 19th-21st, 2023	2nd	4th	Miya
Seibugeki 14	July 1st, 2023	1st / 272	—	—
Super Smash Con 2023	August 10th-13th, 2023	1st / 2,607	1st / 567	Miya
Sumabato SP Ultimate	September 16th-17th, 2023	1st / 291	—	—
DELTA 5	September 23rd-24th, 2023	1st / 292	—	—
Kagaribi 11	October 7th-8th, 2023	2nd / 1,472	—	—
Maesuma TOP 14.5 "in Hyogo"	October 29th, 2023	1st / 284	—	—
Port Priority 8	November 11th-12th, 2023	3rd / 710	—	—
Watch The Throne	December 8th-10th, 2023	4th / 16	—	—
JOHSUMA 18	December 16th, 2023	1st / 60	—	—
Umebura SP 10	January 6th-8th, 2024	1st / 1,275	—	—
Kamisuma 22	February 18th, 2024	1st / 72	—	—
ITSUKUSHIMA 3	March 16th-17th, 2024	1st / 202	—	—
KOWLOON 10	March 30th, 2024	1st / 312	—	—
DELTA 8	May 3rd, 2024	1st / 516	—	—
Kagaribi 12	May 5th-6th, 2024	3rd / 2,030	—	—
Kamisuma 24	June 9th, 2024	1st / 64	—	—
Kowloon 12 with Kagaribi	July 27th-28th, 2024	2nd / 1,428	—	—
SMFN Invitational	August 8th, 2024	1st / 20	—	—
Supernova 2024	August 8th-11th, 2024	7th / 2,281	5th / 497	Raru
Umebura SP 11	September 14th-15th, 2024	2nd / 1,023	—	—
Sumabato SP 51	September 22nd, 2024	2nd / 375	—	—
Sumabato SP 52	October 20th, 2024	1st / 337	—	—

Trivia

• acola is one of five players to win an Ultimate major while being seeded outside of the top 16, alongside ProtoBanham (won Kagaribi 4 as the 25th seed), Quidd (won Let's Make Big Moves 2022 as the 32nd seed), Kuro (won Umebura SP 6 as the 37th seed) and Miya (won Kagaribi 8 as the 17th seed).
• acola holds the known record for the longest Elite Smash win streak without rematching opponents at 740 wins, beating Yoshidora's record of 638 wins.
• acola's signature look is his white disposable face mask that he wears at all tournaments. He is often depicted with it on fanarts of him.
• acola is a fan of the indie game Omori, and regularly uses in-game tags that reference the game, including "Whitespace" and "Miserable". The latter raised some concern online when acola used it at Port Priority 8.
• acola is a fan of the Japanese pop group Tuyu, and many fanart often depict him together with one of the female characters in the group's MVs.

External links

• Smashmate profile
• 2nd Smashmate profile
• 3rd Smashmate profile
• Twitter account
• YouTube channel
• Twitch channel