Smasher:aMSa

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For the similarly named Dutch Sheik player, see Smasher:Amsah.

aMSa "あむさ"
AMSA 2018.png
Character info
Melee main Yoshi
Other Melee character Falco
Smash 4 main Greninja
Other Smash 4 character Yoshi
Ultimate main Roy
Other Ultimate characters Yoshi, Greninja
Project M main Lucario
Other Project M character Yoshi
Team info
Sponsor(s) VGBootCamp, Red Bull eSports
Former sponsor(s) CJ eSports
Rankings and results info
Most recent ranking Super Smash Bros. Melee 2019 MPGR: 7th
Winnings Super Smash Bros. Melee ~$1045.47
Personal and other info
Real name Masaya Chikamoto
Birth date (age 33)
Location Tokyo, Japan Japan
Miscellaneous info
Skill Super Smash Bros. Melee Top professional
Super Smash Bros. 4 Top professional (retired)
Project M Top professional (retired)
aMSa (standing) after beating ChuDat (sitting) in Winners Finals of their pool at Apex 2014.

aMSa (あむさ, aMSa) is a Melee Yoshi player from Hyogo, Japan who is currently residing in Tokyo, Japan and is considered to be one of the best players in the world. He entered the scene in February 2013 and quickly became known as the best Yoshi player in the world after his strong performances at EVO 2013 and Apex 2014, despite only having played seriously for a short amount of time compared to other professionals. aMSa has tournament results and wins that are unprecedented by other Yoshi mains, finishing top 32 at EVO 2013, 2014, and 2015, 9th at Apex 2014, 5th at Apex 2015, and 9th at GENESIS 5, while having tournament wins over renowned players such as Hungrybox, Mew2King, Mango, Wizzrobe, Plup, Axe, SFAT, Ice, PewPewU and Lucky. In May 2014, aMSa was signed by VGBootCamp; on February 1st, 2019, aMSa was signed by Red Bull eSports[1], and on July 7th, 2019, aMSa was signed by CJ eSports, a Smash Bros. eSports team founded by CaptainJack.[2] He would leave CJ eSports exactly one year later[3].

aMSa is currently ranked 7th on the 2019 MPGR and was ranked 1st on the Japan SSBM Rank 2018.

Playing style

aMSa is a very technical and punish-heavy player, heavily incorporating double jump cancelling and parrying into his gameplay as Yoshi to escape pressure and create lengthy, damaging combos of his own. He is also dangerous at the ledge; he frequently utilizes the Egg Throw ledge stall to bait bad approaches, is able to ledgedash proficiently, and threatens early KOs by occasionally using ledge-hopped Egg Lays as a mixup. He also makes the most out of Yoshi's otherwise mediocre mobility with his fantastic platform movement and ledge snap tricks, as shown partially in his tech skill video. aMSa also has a large amount of game knowledge; he has compiled a detailed chart of KO percentages for all of Yoshi's smash attacks on every stage, utilizes port mechanics to gain extra frames to escape otherwise guaranteed chain grabs from Sheik, and has very precise aim with Egg Throw and F-air, especially when edgeguarding or extending combos.

aMSa has more even sets against smashers with more familiarity with the Yoshi matchup, especially in Japan. He tends to have more trouble against Peach players, and players with a more patient playstyle in general who can combat his egg zoning (such as Hungrybox). He also has a history of struggling against Captain Falcon players, which he says is Yoshi's worst matchup due to the character's true combos out of grab and attacks that break Yoshi's double jump armor at low percents.

History

EVO 2013

After taking top 8 in a Japanese tournament using only Yoshi, aMSa piqued the interest of the international scene. He made his international debut at EVO 2013, where he managed to sweep through his pool without losing a set, knocking smashers such as Flow and Codi into losers' bracket and making it to quarterfinals on the winners' side. He then managed to take a game off of Mew2King in the second round of brackets, shocking many spectators, although Mew2King still ended up defeating aMSa 2-1. In losers' bracket, aMSa defeated another notable smasher in Mr. F, achieving a final placement of 25th after losing to DaShizWiz. He later played many other top players in friendlies, including Armada, Axe, and Hungrybox, managing to hold his own in each one (most of his matches went to the last stock); his most notable moment in these matches was when he 4-stocked SilentSpectre, which many other professionals have never achieved, in or out of tournament brackets.

aMSa's performance split the community's opinions on him; some claimed that he had the potential to take top 16 in his next national event, while others claimed that his relatively high placement was the result of a comparatively easy bracket compared to that of many other players. His stellar performance at EVO resulted in smashers voting him in at 77th best in the world on the 2013 SSBM Player Rankings; even there, however, panelists shared split opinions, with several top professional players arguing that he was overrated and would not perform as well in the future.

Apex 2014 and the pre-MLG season

aMSa returned to the United States to compete in Apex 2014. Defying all expectations again, he tore through winners' bracket in the first round of pools on the first day, beating Green Ranger 2-0 and ChuDat 2-1 for the winner's position, and defeated Kage in a best-of-5 exhibition match 3-2. The next day, he caused more enormous upsets by defeating Silent Wolf 2-1 and Fly Amanita 2-0, securing a spot in winners' finals of the pool. However, he was then defeated by PPMD in winners' finals and Colbol in losers' finals, resulting in his 9th place finish in the second largest Melee tournament at the time. After the tournament, he once again fought many other professionals in various exhibition matches, managing to take a game off of Tafokints, win best of 3 sets against MattDotZeb and Vish, and win best of 5 sets against SFAT, Westballz, and Mew2King's sandbagging choices. Although he did not perform as well in doubles with fellow Yoshi main V3ctorman, he still garnered an enormous amount of fan support for demonstrating unprecedented levels of play with his character.

aMSa would later attend the Japanese MLG Anaheim 2014 qualifier, Sumabato DX Melee 11, in May. However, he performed very poorly and did not win a single set, being taken out by his training partner Sheik in winners' bracket and then by Shippu in losers' bracket, finishing last at 13th place. This performance did not give him enough MLG points to qualify for the championship bracket, and although he took 2nd at KVO 2014 the day after, he needed to travel out of country again to accumulate enough points.

Two weeks later, aMSa traveled to France to attend Republic of Fighters 3, a 5000 point qualifier. At this tournament, he achieved a first seed in his second round of pools after defeating Däumling and Cyr 2-0, and defeated players such as porc, Trif, and Zgetto in winners' bracket before being knocked into losers by Armada. He then defeated Overtriforce 3-1 in losers' quarters, and knocked out Ice 3-0 in losers' semis (with a 3-stock lead at the end of game 1), before losing to Leffen 2-3 in an incredibly close set in losers' finals that went down to the last stock, to take 3rd place overall in the singles portion of the tournament. Placing 3rd at this tournament allowed him to gather enough points to qualify for the MLG Anaheim 2014 championship bracket. He also teamed with Cyr in doubles and placed 7th.

Summer of Smash 2014

At MLG Anaheim 2014, aMSa didn't do well in his pool; he brought several of his opponents, such as Fiction, Westballz, and ZeRo, to game 5 (often down 2-0 in his favor), but almost always lost in 3-game reversals. Even though the tournament weighed game counts as well as match counts, his stray wins were not enough for him to be seeded any higher than losers' round 1 in the championship bracket. In the championship bracket, he faced S2J first, and won the first two games. However, just like many other players in the championship pools the day before, S2J came back 2-3, knocking aMSa out and into a 17th place finish overall. aMSa also attended CEO 2014, but did not make it out of his bracket pool, losing to PorkChops 2-3 in winners' finals and Wenbo 1-3 in losers' finals of the pool, thus placing 33rd in Melee singles at the tournament. However, he did slightly better in Melee doubles, where he placed 9th with PL.

aMSa made his next appearance at Kings of Cali 4, where he defeated both MacD and Scar 2-0 in the second round of pools, and was seeded first coming out of his pool into the top 32 bracket. He defeated DendyPretendy 3-0 and Ken 3-0, setting up a match between him and Mew2King in winners' quarters. In a shocking upset, after losing the first game, aMSa was able to win the set 3-1. He then lost to Mango 0-3 in winners' semis, and to Lucky 0-3 in losers' quarters, however, resulting in a 5th place finish overall in singles. In doubles, he placed 7th with PL, losing to Westballz and ZeRo 1-3 in losers' top 8.

The following week, aMSa attended EVO 2014, and won a local tournament at Press Start Gaming Center shortly before the main event started, defeating Ice 2-0, G$, and Ice again 3-2 for the 1st place finish. Like the previous year, he swept through his round 1 pools without dropping a set, then defeated Tai in the second round bracket before losing to PewPewU's Fox 0-2. In losers', aMSa defeated Lambchops and Swedish Delight before losing to S2J again, ending his tournament at 17th place overall.

Apex 2015

aMSa first attended the Apex Qualifier Battle Gate Way 6 in December 2014, where he placed 2nd, losing to Sobameshi in Winner's semis before defeating the likes of K.F, Kounotori, Flash and Sobameshi in a rematch before being defeated by Shippu in Grand Finals. He did not attend any other Apex Qualifiers or major tournaments until Apex 2015.

At Apex, aMSa swept through his round 1 pool, getting 1st seed with no difficulty. In R2 Pools, he defeated top players such as Laudandus to make it into Top 48 bracket in Winner's side. There, he defeated Fly Amanita once again 2-0 before falling to Leffen 0-2. aMSa then made an amazing loser's bracket run, defeating Zhu 2-0, Lucky 2-1, and SFAT 2-0 to make Top 8, surpassing even his previous year's performance. In Top 8, he defeated KirbyKaze 3-1 before falling to Mango in a last stock, game 5 position 2-3 to end his run at 5th place, the highest placing competitor outside of the Top 6, at the biggest Melee tournament at the time, cementing his status as one of the best current players in the world.

GENESIS 5

aMSa entered Genesis 5 in January of 2018. Here, he had a duo of upsets against top 10 players. First was SFAT, whom he delivered a 3-0. Second was Wizzrobe, the #1 ranked Captain Falcon player in the world, whom he had never taken a game off of in the past. Previously at Smash Summit 5, he placed last after losing to Wizzrobe. Between tournaments, he practiced with Gucci to hone his skills against the character. At G5, he was able to employ these strategies, and successfully defeated Wizzrobe 3-2 in a last game, last stock situation on aMSa's signature counterpick stage Yoshi's Story. He then advanced to Winners Quarters, where he faced Hungrybox, who sent aMSa to losers' bracket with a relatively close 3-0. In losers, he faced HugS for a spot in Top 8. HugS won the first two games, and aMSa followed up winning the following two. This led to a last game on Dreamland, which came down to the last stock, with less than thirty seconds remaining. After being pressured to the ledge, aMSa missed the timing on his Egg Throw stalling and fell, ending his run at an impressive 9th place.

EGLX 2018

At EGLX 2018, Amsa went on one of the best tournament runs of his career. He started out the run by beating Prince Abu Narrowly in pools, with the end score being 2-1. He would go on to lose to SFAT in winners round one 0-3. Going to losers bracket this early can present the problem of a longer, more challenging bracket, but Amsa would manage to upset Swedish Delight 3-2, Ice 3-2, and Axe 3-0 to get into top 8 at the event. Once in top 8, Amsa would proceed to upset Crush 3-2, and Mew2King 3-1. He would end his run by losing to Wizzrobe 0-3, placing 4th at the event, only being outplaced by Wizzrobe, Plup, and Hungrybox.

Other Smash games

While aMSa is not known to play Brawl, he did play the Brawl mod Project M for some time. He initially started with Yoshi, as he did in Melee, but later decided not to play Yoshi competitively. He stated that he wanted to treat Project M as its own unique game rather than another Melee title, and also explained that certain key aspects of Yoshi didn't resemble those of his Melee appearance (parrying, for example.) Thus, aMSa used Lucario instead, and was considered one of the best PM Lucario mains in the world. He exhibits mastery over Lucario's many complex movement options and combos that not many other Lucario mains utilize in their playstyles even to this day, and was frequently the highest-placing Lucario player in several large regional and international Project M tournaments.

With Yoshi, aMSa placed 65th at Apex 2014 in Project M singles, barely failing to make it out of his bracket pool. He later made his debut with Lucario at NINJA4, where he placed 2nd; he lost to Kaito in winners' semis, then defeated Shippu, Katiwari, and Opinthin to make it to Grand Finals against Kaito, where he lost again. He placed 2nd again at Republic of Fighters 3; he lost again in winners' semis, this time to Zen 1-3, then defeated Yomi 3-0, Clade 3-0, and Zen 3-1 in a rematch, then lost to Professor Pro 0-3 in Grand Finals.

At CEO 2014, aMSa placed 9th in Project M singles; he made it out of his pool on the winners' side, but lost to ZeRo and TheReflexWonder afterward. He also placed 7th in Project M doubles with DJ Nintendo.

aMSa was also a participant in the Super Smash Bros. Invitational at E3 2014, and was one of two international participants (along with ZeRo). Even with Yoshi unavailable for selection, he reached the four-way finals round using Olimar. He had the same score but less percent than ZeRo after the match ended, but it did not grant him the win under the Invitational rules; he was subsequently eliminated by popular vote in favor of ZeRo to take 3rd place overall. After the game's release, he picked up Greninja, and consistently places well in Smash 4 tournaments, placing 9th at Apex 2015, which included a 2-0 victory over Ally and close 1-2 loss to MVD, as well as defeating Boss, Nick Riddle, Rich Brown, and J.Miller in Round 2 pools. He also has a Yoshi secondary, but does not play him as often, as he is afraid that the dissimilarities between Yoshi's incarnations in Melee and Smash 4 will hinder his gameplay with both of them. After participating in EVO Japan 2018, he announced that he would be retiring from Smash 4.[4]

Tournament placings

Super Smash Bros. Melee

Tournament Date 1v1 placement 2v2 placement Partner
NINJA1 January 12th-13th, 2013 5th 2nd Jiro
NINJA2 March 29th-31st, 2013 4th 5th KNOL
Sumabato DX Melee 8 May 5th, 2013 4th
Battle Gateway 1 June 29th, 2013 2nd
EVO 2013 July 12th-14th, 2013 25th Sheik
NINJA3 September 21st-23rd, 2013 9th 3rd Sheik
Sumabato DX Melee 10 December 22nd, 2013 1st
Apex 2014 January 17th-19th, 2014 9th 65th V3ctorman
NINJA4 March 28th-30th, 2014 2nd ずんだ
Sumabato DX Melee 11 May 4th, 2014 13th
KVO 2014 May 5th, 2014 2nd
Republic of Fighters 3 May 17th-18th 2014 3rd 7th Cyr
Battle Gateway 4 June 14th, 2014 7th
MLG Anaheim 2014 June 20th-22nd, 2014 17th 25th PL
CEO 2014 June 27th-29th, 2014 33rd 9th PL
Kings of Cali 4 July 5th-6th, 2014 5th 7th PL
Prinnys Path to EVO July 9th, 2014 1st
PSG Tournament July 10th, 2014 1st
EVO 2014 July 11th-13th, 2014 17th 33rd PL
Sumabato DX 29 August 16th, 2014 4th
Sumabato DX Melee 12 August 24th, 2014 2nd
Battle Gate Way 5 August 31st, 2014 4th
NINJA5 September 13th, 2014 2nd
Battle Gate Way 6 December 13th-14th, 2014 2nd
Sumabato DX Melee 13 December 27th-28th, 2014 1st 1st Botan
Apex 2015 January 31st-February 1st, 2015 5th
Battle Gateway 7 March 3rd, 2015 2nd
KVO 2015 May 2nd-4th, 2015 2nd
EVO 2015 July 17th-19th, 2015 25th
Battle Gate Way 8 August 9th, 2015 5th
CrazyHand 2015 August 14th-15th, 2015 2nd 2nd Eggplant
CrazyHand Winter 2015 December 26th-27th, 2015 5th 2nd Sanne
Battle Gateway 9 January 24th, 2016 4th
Battle Gateway 10 March 26, 2016 7th
Pound 2016 April 2nd-3rd, 2016 13th 33rd Toph
KSB 2016 April 29th-May 1st, 2016 1st
Battle Gateway 11 June 23rd, 2016 5th
S@X 162 August 10th, 2016 2nd
Super Smash Con 2016 August 11th-14th, 2016 9th 17th Mr.II
Battle Gateway 12 September 4th, 2016 2nd
Battle Gateway 13 November 6th, 2016 1st
Chubu 5 December 6th, 2016 5th 5th Watch
Nirai Kanai December 10th, 2016 1st 1st Shuta
Battle Gateway 14 January 8th, 2017 2nd
Shulla-bra IX February 26th, 2017 2nd 1st Gucci
Battle Gateway 15 March 5th, 2017 1st
MasterHand 24 March 11th, 2017 1st 1st Nanashi
KSB 2017 May 4th-6th, 2017 4th
Battle Gateway 16 May 28th, 2017 1st
UBC Melee Pre-Battle of BC 2 Weekly June 1st, 2017 1st
Battle of BC 2 June 3rd-4th, 2017 7th 9th Rustin
Battle Gateway 17 July 8th, 2017 3rd
EVO 2017 July 14th-15th, 2017 17th
GTX Pre-Party September 28th, 2017 2nd
GameTyrant Expo 2017 September 29th-October 1st, 2017 9th
SPC 74 October 3rd, 2017 2nd
The Big House 7 October 6th-8th, 2017 13th 25th Sanne
Smash Summit 5 November 2nd-5th, 2017 13th 3rd Axe
Poi Poundaz January 6th, 2018 5th 1st S2J
GENESIS 5 January 19th-21st, 2018 9th 17th Sanne
Battle GateWay 19 February 11th, 2018 2nd
EGLX 2018 March 9th-11th, 2018 4th 3rd Axe
Full Bloom 4 March 24th-25th, 2018 7th
Chubu 8 April 27th, 2018 1st 1st Sanne
Smash Summit 6 May 3rd-6th, 2018 7th 5th Axe
Get On My Level 2018 May 18th-20th, 2018 5th 4th Axe
Amaterasu 2 June 17th, 2018 1st 1st Sanne
Battle GateWay 21 July 22nd, 2018 1st
EVO 2018 August 3rd-5th, 2018 33rd 4th Sanne
Super Smash Con 2018 August 9th-12th, 2018 5th 17th Sanne
Smash Summit 7 November 15th-18th, 2018 5th 4th Axe
Battle GateWay ~Sunshine~ December 2nd, 2018 2nd
GENESIS 6 February 1st-3rd, 2019 4th 25th Sanne
Battle GateWay 24 February 9th, 2019 4th Gucci
Phoenix Blue 2 February 22nd-24th, 2019 2nd 1st nebbii
Get On My Level 2019 May 17th-19th, 2019 9th 2nd Axe
Smash 'N' Splash 5 May 31st-June 2nd, 2019 5th
Smash Summit 8 June 13th-17th, 2019 7th 5th Axe
Battle Gate Way 26 June 23rd, 2019 3rd
Super Smash Con 2019 August 8th-11th, 2019 5th 4th Axe
Smash Camp: End of Summer September 14th-15th, 2019 7th
Mainstage September 20th-22nd, 2019 4th 5th Axe
GENESIS 7 January 24th-26th, 2020 9th 13th Sanne
Smash Summit 9 February 13th-16th, 2020 9th
Battlegateway #30 February 29th, 2020 1st
Smash Summit 11 July 15th-18th, 2021 9th

Project M

Tournament Date 1v1 placement 2v2 placement Partner
Apex 2014 January 17th-19th, 2014 65th
NINJA4 March 28th-30th, 2014 2nd
Republic of Fighters 3 May 17th-18th, 2014 2nd
CEO 2014 June 27th-29th, 2014 9th 7th DJ Nintendo
Umebura 4.5 July 21st, 2014 3rd

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U

Tournament Date 1v1 placement 2v2 placement Partner
Super Smash Bros. Invitational June 10th, 2014 3rd
Pre-KVO 2015 December 27th, 2014 25th
Apex 2015 January 30th-February 1st, 2015 9th 13th Abadango
KVO 2015 May 2nd-4th, 2015 9th
EVO 2015 July 17th-19th, 2015 33rd Top 16 Mr.II
Pound 2016 April 2nd-3rd, 2016 65th 7th Mr.II
KSB 2016 April 29th-May 1st, 2016 49th
Super Smash Con 2016 August 11th-14th, 2016 129th 25th Mr.II
TSC Tokaigi Qualifiers December 23rd, 2016 13th
Shulla-bra IX February 26th, 2017 13th
UBC Smash 4 Pre-Battle of BC 2 Weekly June 1st-2nd, 2017 4th
Battle of BC 2 June 3rd-4th, 2017 33rd
EVO 2017 July 14th-16th, 2017 65th
Toryumon Weekday Tournament x STUDIO SKY #9 August 16th, 2017 25th
GameTyrant Expo 2017 September 30th-31st, 2017 49th
The Big House 7 October 6th-8th, 2017 65th 25th Raito
GENESIS 5 January 19th-21st, 2018 65th Hungrybox
EVO Japan 2018 January 26th-28th, 2018 65th

Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS

Tournament Date 1v1 placement 2v2 placement Partner
Umebura 8 September 23rd, 2014 9th
Sumabato 0 October 25th, 2014 7th

Super Smash Bros.

Tournament Date 1v1 placement 2v2 placement Partner
Kanto 2017 July 8th, 2017 33rd

Trivia

  • In the Apex 2014 "Salty Suite", aMSa faced off against DJ Nintendo's Bowser in the "Battle of the Dinos" and won 3-0. When asked to give a statement before the match, aMSa replied "I play to win," repeating said statement after he won. This phrase, commonly deliberately misconstrued as "I pray to win" (due to the "l" sound being pronounced like "r" in Japanese), has become a meme in the Smash community associated with aMSa, with his fans using the statement to cheer him on during tournaments or on streams.
    • At Republic of Fighters 3, aMSa played throughout most of the tournament using the tag "IPTW", referencing this phrase.
  • Due to the similarities of his gamertag with Amsah, aMSa played a best of 5 "grudge match" in friendlies at Pound 2016, with Amsah narrowly winning 3 to 2.
  • aMSa is the first non-American member of the VGBootCamp crew.
  • aMSa served as a playtester for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, alongside fellow competitive players 9B, Ranai, and Earth.[5]

External links

Gameplay videos