aMSa "あむさ"
Character info
Meleemain	Yoshi
OtherMeleecharacter	Falco
Smash 4main	Greninja
OtherSmash 4character	Yoshi
Ultimatemain	Roy
Project Mmain	Lucario
OtherProject Mcharacter	Yoshi
Team info
Sponsor(s)	Red Bull, I-Freek Mobile
Former sponsor(s)	Golden Guardians,VGBootCamp,CJ eSports
Rankings and results info
Most recent ranking	SSBMRank 2025: 23rd
Best historical ranking	SSBMRank 2022: 2nd
Best tournament result	33rd / 135 atKanto 2017 1st / 982 atThe Big House 10 9th / 837 atApex 2015 193rd / 1,275 atUmebura SP 10 9th / 255 atCEO 2014
Winnings	~$61,480.40
Personal and other info
Real name	Masaya Chikamoto
Birth date	October 27, 1991(age 34)
Location	Saitama,Kantō

aMSa (あむさ,aMSa) is aSuper Smash Bros. MeleeYoshi player from Hyogo,Japan who is currently residing in Tokyo, Japan. He is considered the greatest and most influentialMelee Yoshi player of all time and the greatest JapaneseMelee player of all time. He entered the scene in January 2013 and received recognition for his performances atEVO 2013 andApex 2014, despite only having played seriously for a short amount of time compared to other established players while also using a character many considered to be unviable at the time. In spite of the latter perception, aMSa revolutionized Yoshi's metagame and proved the character's viability in competitive play by finding unprecedented success with the character, leading to Yoshi's meteoric rise in the metagame. aMSa's success eventually made him one of the bestMelee players in the world in the second half of the 2010s and into the post-Slippi metagame, the latter metagame notably featuring his victories atThe Big House 10,Apex 2022, andScuffed World Tour, making him the only Yoshi player to ever win aMeleemajor.

Playing style[edit]

aMSa is a very technical and punish-heavy player, heavily incorporatingdouble jump cancelling andparrying 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 theEgg Throw ledge stall to bait bad approaches, is able toledgedash proficiently, and threatens early KOs by occasionally using ledge-hoppedEgg 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 histech 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, utilizesport mechanics to gain extra frames to escape otherwise guaranteedchain grabs fromSheik, 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 players with a more patient playstyle who can combat his egg zoning (such asHungrybox). He has a history of struggling againstCaptain Falcon players, which he says is one of Yoshi's worst matchups due to the character's true combos out of grab and attacks that break Yoshi's double jump armor at low percents, andSheik players, another one of Yoshi's worst matchups because of achain grab to high percents. His more recent matchup opinions are reflected in hisYoshi matchup video.

History[edit]

EVO 2013[edit]

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 asFlow andCodi into losers' bracket and making it to quarterfinals on the winners' side. He then managed to take a game off ofMew2King 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 inMr. F, achieving a final placement of 25th after losing toDaShizWiz. He later played many other top players in friendlies, includingArmada,Axe, andHungrybox, 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 he4-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 the2013 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[edit]

aMSa (standing) after beatingChuDat (sitting) in Winners Finals of their pool atApex 2014.

aMSa returned to the United States to compete inApex 2014. Defying all expectations again, he tore through winners' bracket in the first round of pools on the first day, beatingGreen Ranger 2-0 andChuDat 2-1 for the winner's position, and defeatedKage in a best-of-5 exhibition match 3-2. The next day, he caused more enormous upsets by defeatingSilent Wolf 2-1 andFly Amanita 2-0, securing a spot in winners' finals of the pool. However, he was then defeated byPPMD in winners' finals andColbol in losers' finals, resulting in his 9th place finish in the second largestMelee tournament at the time. After the tournament, he once again fought many other professionals in various exhibition matches, managing to take a game off ofTafokints, win best of 3 sets againstMattDotZeb andVish, and win best of 5 sets againstSFAT,Westballz, andMew2King's sandbagging choices. Although he did not perform as well in doubles with fellow Yoshi mainV3ctorman, he still garnered an enormous amount of fan support for demonstrating unprecedented levels of play with his character.

aMSa would later attend the JapaneseMLG 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 partnerSheik in winners' bracket and then byShippu 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 atKVO 2014 the day after, he needed to travel out of country again to accumulate enough points.

Two weeks later, aMSa traveled to France to attendRepublic of Fighters 3, a 5000 point qualifier. At this tournament, he achieved a first seed in his second round of pools after defeatingDäumling andCyr 2-0, and defeated players such asporc,Trif, andZgetto in winners' bracket before being knocked into losers byArmada. He then defeatedOvertriforce 3-1 in losers' quarters, and knocked outIce 3-0 in losers' semis (with a 3-stock lead at the end of game 1), before losing toLeffen 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 withCyr in doubles and placed 7th.

Summer of Smash 2014[edit]

At MLG Anaheim 2014, aMSa didn't do well in his pool; he brought several of his opponents, such asFiction, Westballz, andZeRo, 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 facedS2J 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 attendedCEO 2014, but did not make it out of his bracket pool, losing toPorkChops 2-3 in winners' finals andWenbo 1-3 in losers' finals of the pool, thus placing 33rd inMelee singles at the tournament. However, he did slightly better inMelee doubles, where he placed 9th withPL.

aMSa made his next appearance atKings of Cali 4, where he defeated bothMacD andScar 2-0 in the second round of pools, and was seeded first coming out of his pool into the top 32 bracket. He defeatedDendyPretendy 3-0 andKen 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 toMango 0-3 in winners' semis, and toLucky 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 attendedEVO 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 defeatedTai in the second round bracket before losing toPewPewU's Fox 0-2. In losers', aMSa defeatedLambchops andSwedish Delight before losing toS2J again, ending his tournament at 17th place overall.

Apex 2015[edit]

aMSa first attended the Apex QualifierBattle GateWay 6 in December 2014, where he placed 2nd, losing toSobameshi in Winner's semis before defeating the likes ofK.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 untilApex 2015.

At Apex, aMSa swept through his round 1 pool, getting 1st seed with no difficulty. In R2 Pools, he defeated top players such asLaudandus 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, defeatingZhu 2-0, Lucky 2-1, and SFAT 2-0 to make Top 8, surpassing even his previous year's performance. In Top 8, he defeatedKirbyKaze 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[edit]

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 wasWizzrobe, the #1 rankedCaptain Falcon player in the world, whom he had never taken a game off of in the past. Previously atSmash Summit 5, he placed last after losing to Wizzrobe. Between tournaments, he practiced withGucci 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 stageYoshi's Story. He then advanced to Winners Quarters, where he facedHungrybox, who sent aMSa to losers' bracket with a relatively close 3-0. In losers, he facedHugS 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[edit]

At EGLX 2018, aMSa went on one of the best tournament runs of his career. He started out the run by beatingPrince 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.

OtherSmash games[edit]

While aMSa is not known to playBrawl, he did play theBrawl modProject M for some time. He initially started withYoshi, as he did inMelee, but later decided not to play Yoshi competitively. He stated that he wanted to treatProject M as its own unique game rather than anotherMelee title, and also explained that certain key aspects of Yoshi didn't resemble those of hisMelee appearance (parrying, for example.) Thus, aMSa usedLucario instead, and was considered one of the bestPMLucario 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 internationalProject M tournaments.

With Yoshi, aMSa placed 65th atApex 2014 inProject 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 toKaito in winners' semis, then defeatedShippu,Katiwari, andOpinthin to make it to Grand Finals against Kaito, where he lost again. He placed 2nd again atRepublic of Fighters 3; he lost again in winners' semis, this time toZen 1-3, then defeatedYomi 3-0,Clade 3-0, andZen 3-1 in a rematch, then lost toProfessor Pro 0-3 in Grand Finals.

AtCEO 2014, aMSa placed 9th inProject M singles; he made it out of his pool on the winners' side, but lost toZeRo andTheReflexWonder afterward. He also placed 7th inProject M doubles withDJ Nintendo.

aMSa was also a participant in theSuper Smash Bros. Invitational atE3 2014, and was one of two international participants (along with ZeRo). Even withYoshi unavailable for selection, he reached the four-way finals round usingOlimar. 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 upGreninja, and consistently places well inSmash 4 tournaments, placing 9th at Apex 2015, which included a 2-0 victory overAlly and close 1-2 loss toMVD, as well as defeatingBoss,Nick Riddle,Rich Brown, andJ.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 inMelee andSmash 4 will hinder his gameplay with both of them. After participating inEVO Japan 2018, he announced that he would be retiring fromSmash 4.^[1]

Rankings[edit]

Super Smash Bros. Melee[edit]

SSBMRank/MPGR[edit]

Ranking	Time period	Rank	Character(s)	Notes
SSBMRank 2013	January - November 2013	77th
Summer 2014 SSBMRank	January - May 2014	12th
SSBMRank 2014	January - October 2014	22nd
Summer 2015 SSBMRank	January - July 2015	22nd
SSBMRank 2015	January - November 2015	24th
SSBMRank 2016	January 15th - December 4th, 2016	32nd
Summer 2017 SSBMRank	December 10th, 2016 - June 18th, 2017	34th
SSBMRank 2017	December 10th, 2016 - December 10th, 2017	24th
Summer 2018 MPGR	December 15th, 2017 - July 1st, 2018	8th
MPGR 2018	December 15th, 2017 - December 16th, 2018	9th
Summer 2019 MPGR	December 17th, 2018 - June 30th, 2019	8th
MPGR 2019	December 17th, 2018 - December 8th, 2019	7th
MPGRContenders North America	2021	S (Top 6)
MPGR Summer 2022	March 1st - July 11th, 2022	6th
SSBMRank 2022	March 1st - December 18th, 2022	2nd
SSBMRank Summer 2023	December 19th, 2022 - July 23rd, 2023	7th
SSBMRank 2023	December 19th, 2022 - December 17th, 2023	6th
SSBMRank Summer 2024	December 18th, 2023 - July 7th, 2024	4th
SSBMRank 2024	December 18th, 2023 - December 15th, 2024	6th
SSBMRank Summer 2025	December 16th, 2024 - July 6th, 2025	18th
SSBMRank 2025	December 16th, 2024 - December 14th, 2025	23rd

Tournament placings[edit]

Super Smash Bros. Melee[edit]

Project M[edit]

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U[edit]

Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS[edit]

Super Smash Bros.[edit]

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate[edit]

Trivia[edit]

• In the Apex 2014 "Salty Suite", aMSa faced off againstDJ Nintendo'sBowser 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 theSmash 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 withAmsah, aMSa playeda best of 5 "grudge match" in friendlies atPound 2016, with Amsah narrowly winning 3 to 2.
• aMSa has defeated 5 of the members of the2018 MPGR top 6 (all butArmada), defeatingMew2King atKings of Cali 4,Plup atGameTyrant Expo 2017,Hungrybox atSmash Summit 6,Mango atGENESIS 6, andLeffen atPound 2022.
• aMSa is the first non-American member of theVGBootCamp crew.
  • Like Mew2King, he has also been one of the few players to be sponsored by three organizations at the same time. He has simultaneously been sponsored by VGBootCamp,CJ eSports andRed Bull in the past, and was previously sponsored byGolden Guardians, Red Bull, and I-Freek Mobile at the same time.
• aMSa served as a playtester forSuper Smash Bros. Ultimate, alongside fellow competitive players9B,Ranai,Earth, andKakera.^[2]
• aMSa holds a world record for the fastest time to create a watermelon, and a world record for the fastest time to reach 3000 points in the Japanese puzzle gameSuika Game.^[3]

External links[edit]

• Twitter account
• YouTube channel
• Twitch channel
• Facebook page
• SSBWorld profile
• aMSa: The Only Yoshi (who could do it) documentary by AsumSaus
• aMSa (REMASTER) documentary by FlameIsLucky

Gameplay videos[edit]

• The Red Essence - A Yoshi tech skill video by aMSa
• Fly Amanita (Ice Climbers) vs. aMSa (Yoshi)
• Apex 2014 - aMSa vs GC Silent Wolf - SSBM
• Overtriforce vs. VGBC.aMSa (Yoshi) - Losers Q.F.
• KoC 4 - VGBC | aMSa (Yoshi) Vs. P4K EMP | Mew2King (Sheik, Fox) SSBM Winners Quarters - Melee
• Apex 2015 - VGBC | aMSa (Greninja) Vs. Boreal_Ally (Mario) - SSB4

References[edit]

• Kansai smashers
• Kantō smashers
• British Columbia smashers
• Yoshi players (SSBM)
• Lucario players (PM)
• Yoshi players (PM)
• Greninja players (SSB4)
• VIP players
• Back Room members
• YouTubers
• SSBMRank ranked players