Masashi
Character info
Melee mains Fox, Marth
Other Melee characters Ganondorf, Roy
Brawl main Pit
Other Brawl characters Meta Knight, Marth
Smash 4 main Cloud
Other Smash 4 character Sheik
Ultimate mains Cloud, Sephiroth
Retired Ultimate character Lucina
Team info
Sponsor(s) PNGesports
Rankings and results info
Most recent ranking Super Smash Bros. 4 Panda Global Rankings 100: 90th
Personal and other info
Location Kyoto, Kansai Japan
Miscellaneous info
Skill Super Smash Bros. Melee Top professional
Super Smash Bros. Brawl Top professional
Super Smash Bros. 4 Top professional
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Top professional

Masashi (まさし) is a Japanese Melee Fox, Brawl Pit, Smash 4 Cloud, and Ultimate Cloud and Sephiroth player, once considered the best Melee player in Japan per CaptainJack's description. Masashi was widely considered to be the second best Brawl Pit player in Japan, after Earth, and is considered to be one of the best Cloud players in Japan for Smash 4 and Ultimate.

He was formerly ranked 1st in the 2010 Kansai Ranking Battles and 27th on the Japan Player Rankings for Ultimate in the first half of 2019. In Smash 4, he is ranked 15th on the most recent JAPAN Power Rankings.

Playstyle

 

Melee

Masashi is an outlier in terms of Melee playstyle, and proved that one did not need to be extremely proficient at technical skill to be successful at the highest level. He did not wavedash as much as other top players (although he still knew how to use it), and mostly used simpler techniques such as dash dancing and L-canceling when needed, relying mostly on his strong fundamentals to succeed. He played a defensive neutral game that relied on Fox's excellent full hop, often doing empty ones to bait out bad approaches from his opponents before committing to any attack, or spacing out opponents with spaced back aerials. Similar to other top Japanese players at the time, he had excellent DI, to the point where even Ken had significant trouble executing the Final Destination chaingrab on him. On the other hand, he could still string together potent punishes if given the opportunity, and his patience and uncanny ability to read his opponent's attempted tech and getup options more than made up for his lack of labbed-out punishes.

However, Masashi's inconsistency with tech skill meant he could not get as much out of certain moves compared to other Fox players in his time, such as Thunders. CaptainJack has stated that he had trouble consistently executing waveshines[1], which prevented him from effectively following up on the neutral aerial-shines that he would often get in a match. Masashi occasionally had trouble with these punish-heavy players himself, such as Bombsoldier, who could exploit his slow playstyle by simply overwhelming him with tech skill.

Tournament placings

Super Smash Bros. Melee

Tournament Date 1v1 placement 2v2 placement Partner
Japan United Smash Festa Round-Robin 3 March 28th-31st, 2003 2nd 9th CaptainJack
Jack Garden Tournament August 20th, 2005 3rd
Epita Smash Arena 2 February 23rd-24th, 2008 4th 2nd CaptainJack

Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Tournament Date 1v1 placement 2v2 placement Partner
SumabatoX 1 August 22nd, 2010 1st
SumabatoX 2 September 18th, 2010 13th
KetubatoX 6 November 27th, 2010 1st
SumabatoX 5 January 22nd, 2011 2nd
SumabatoX 6 March 12th, 2011 7th
Sumabato X FES May 4th-5th, 2011 3rd Nagahari
SumabatoX 7 June 25th, 2011 5th 3rd POPPY
SumabatoX 8 September 4th, 2011 13th
Sumabato X9 October 9th, 2011 7th
Sumabato X10 November 19th, 2011 3rd

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U

Tournament Date 1v1 placement 2v2 placement Partner
Pre KVO 2015 December 20th, 2014 4th
Sumabato 1 January 12th, 2015 9th
Sumabato 2 February 21st, 2015 5th
Super Sumabato April 5th, 2015 33rd
Sumabato 3 June 6th, 2015 17th
Sumabato 4 July 18th, 2015 25th
Hyper Sumabato August 16th, 2015 33rd
Sumabato 7 February 11th, 2016 13th
Sumabato 9 April 9th, 2016 9th
KSB 2016 April 28th-May 1st, 2016 9th
Shulla-bra VII July 16th, 2016 2nd
Sumabato for THE BIG HOUSE July 30th-31st, 2016 17th 65th Poppy
Umebura S.A.T. August 20th-21st, 2016 65th 13th Suinoko
Sumabato 12 August 27th, 2016 17th
Sumabato 13 September 25th, 2016 7th
Sumabato 14 October 22nd, 2016 7th
Sumabato Tokaigi Qualifiers December 25th, 2016 33rd
Sumabato 15 January 28th, 2017 9th 33rd Poppy
Sumabato 16 February 25th, 2017 33rd
Sumabato x Cyclops #1 April 5th, 2017 5th
Sumabato x Cyclops #2 April 12th, 2017 9th
Sumabato 17 April 16th, 2017 17th
Karisuma 13 April 23rd, 2017 7th
Sumabato x Cyclops #4 April 27th, 2017 3rd
KSB 2017 May 4th-6th, 2017 7th
Umebura Japan Major 2017 May 6th-7th, 2017 33rd 17th 9B
Sumabato x Cyclops #5 May 12th, 2017 1st
Sumabato x Cyclops #6 May 17th, 2017 3rd
Sumabato x Cyclops #7 May 24th, 2017 2nd
Sumabato x Cyclops #8 May 31st, 2017 3rd
Sumabato x Cyclops #9 June 7th, 2017 4th
Sumabato 18 June 18th, 2017 7th
Sumabato x Cyclops #11 June 22nd, 2017 4th
Sumabato x Cyclops #13 July 7th, 2017 25th
Sumabato 19 August 12th, 2017 9th
Sumabato 20 September 24th, 2017 9th
Sumabato 21 October 21st, 2017 4th
Sumabato 22 November 12th, 2017 5th
Sumabato Tokaigi Qualifier 1 January 6th, 2018 7th
Sumabato Tokaigi Qualifier 2 January 7th, 2018 17th
EVO Japan 2018 January 26th-28th, 2018 25th
Sumabato 23 February 17th, 2018 5th
Sumabato 24 March 24th, 2018 2nd
Seihasai March 24th, 2018 5th
KVOxTSB 2018 May 4th-6th 2018 4th
Sumabato 25 May 27th, 2018 3rd
Sumabato 26 June 30th, 2018 1st
Umebura 33 July 28th, 2018 25th
Sumabato 27 August 12th, 2018 33rd
Sumabato Smash 4 Final October 21st, 2018 13th
Sumabato x Cyclops #73 November 16, 2018 4th

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Tournament Date 1v1 placement 2v2 placement Partner
Umebura SP December 16th, 2018 33rd
Sumabato SP January 6th, 2019 9th
SUMABATO x CYCLOPS #81 January 18th, 2019 1st
SUMABATO x CYCLOPS #82 January 25th, 2019 17th
Sumabato SP 2 February 2nd, 2019 13th
Sumabato SP 3 April 14th, 2019 9th
KVOxTSB 2019 May 5th, 2019 2nd
Sumabato SP 5 June 22nd, 2019 17th
Karisuma SP 3 July 6th, 2019 9th
Sumabato SP 6 July 13th, 2019 33rd
EVO 2019 August 2nd-4th, 2019 33rd
Umebura SP 4 August 16th, 2019 49th
Sumabato SP 8 September 15th, 2019 13th
Umebura SP 5 September 28th, 2019 193rd
Umebura SP 6 October 22nd, 2019 49th
Sumabato SP 9 November 10th, 2019 25th
Karisuma SP 6 December 7th, 2019 9th
Sumabato SP 10 December 15th, 2019 25th
Sumabato SP 11 December 28th, 2019 65th
Maesuma TOP 1 January 4th, 2020 13th
EGS Cup 3 January 13th, 2020 33rd
EVO Japan 2020 January 24th-26th, 2020 25th
Furasato Center Smash Meetup 1 February 1st, 2020 2nd
Sumabato SP 12 February 8th, 2020 9th
Maesuma TOP 2 March 1st, 2020 33rd
Voyage Qualifier 4   May 4th, 2020 5th
Voyage   May 5th, 2020 25th
Mido Smash June 28th, 2020 9th
Sumabato SP 13 September 20th, 2020 4th
Sumabato SP 14 October 11th, 2020 13th
Maesuma TOP 4 October 31st-November 1st, 2020 17th
2nd Kansai Top Round Robin November 7th, 2020 6th
Sumabato SP 15 November 15th, 2020 9th
Tamisuma Championship 1  February 17th, 2021 33rd
Sumabato SP 17 March 7th, 2021 7th
Tamisuma Championship 2  March 18th, 2021 17th
SWT: Japan Ultimate Online Qualifier   April 17th-18th, 2021 13th
SWT: Japan Ultimate Online Qualifier Last Chance Qualifier   April 17th-18th, 2021 9th
Tamisuma Championship 3  April 22nd, 2021 17th
Tamisuma Championship 4  June 10th, 2021 17th
Maesuma TOP 5 July 3rd-4th, 2021 17th
Sumabato SP 18 July 23rd, 2021 17th
Sumabato SP 19 July 24th, 2021 9th
Maesuma TOP 6 October 22nd, 2021 13th
Sumabato SP 21 November 27th, 2021 33rd

Trivia

  • Masashi is the younger brother of Aniki, an old-school Melee Link player, and the older brother of tk3, a top Roy and Chrom player from Japan. They are often regarded as "The Best Smash Brothers In Japan".

Gameplay videos

Super Smash Bros. Brawl

External links

References