aMSa

Player Information

Name:

近本昌也

Romanized Name:

Masaya Chikamoto

Nationality:

Japan

Born:

October 27, 1991 (age 34)

Years Active:

2013 - 2025

Alternate IDs:

aMSaRedYoshi

Approx. Total Winnings:

$90,246

Super Smash Bros. Melee

Current Mains:

Yoshi

Project M

Current Mains:

Lucario

Secondaries:

Yoshi

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U

Current Mains:

Greninja

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Current Mains:

Roy

Links

Achievements

Melee:

History

2019-07-07 — 2020-07-06

CJ eSports

2014-05-13 — 2023-03-30

VGBootCamp

2019-02-01 — Present

Red Bull eSports

2023-03-30 — 2023-11-30

Golden Guardians

2023-04-24 — Present

I-FREEK MOBILE

Masaya "aMSa" Chikamoto is a Melee Yoshi player from Japan, who is considered the undisputed best Melee Yoshi main in the world, and the best Melee player from Japan. He was ranked 23rd in SSBMRank 2025.

aMSa is largely responsible for developing the metagame of Melee Yoshi. He is the only player to have reached Top 8 of a Melee major with Yoshi, having first done so at Republic of Fighters 3 in 2014. At GENESIS 8 in April 2022, he became the first player from Asia to win a major doubles tournament by taking first place with Plup, and the first person in history to do so with Yoshi.

aMSa won The Big House 10 in October 2022 without losing a set, becoming the first player to win a Melee major with Yoshi, the first person from Asia to win a Melee supermajor, and the second person from Asia to win a Melee major after Japanese player Captain Jack's victory at MLG San Francisco 2004. In November 2022, he won his second major, Apex 2022, again without losing a set.

Biography

Hailing from Miyagi, Japan, aMSa is one of few top professional Yoshi mains. After taking a game off of Mew2King at EVO 2013 and placing 9th at Apex 2014, his Red Yoshi became a recognizable symbol in the competitive community. Since then, aMSa has garnered a large amount of support from the Melee community, receiving not only a crowd-funded sponsorship to go to Republic of Fighters 3 in Europe, but also a sponsorship from VGBootCamp, which was working in collaboration with the subreddit r/smashbros.^[1] His high placings at large tournaments and incredibly technical Yoshi play has lead many to reconsider Yoshi's place in the current metagame as well the tier list.

Thanks to his third place finish at Republic of Fighters 3, where he lost to only Armada and Leffen while playing the PAL version of Melee where Yoshi is considered stronger, he qualified directly into the top 20 for 2014 MLG Anaheim. At Anaheim, however, he only managed to win one set against PewPewU, finishing last in his pool before being defeated by S2J in bracket for a worst-possible placing of 17th. In many of his sets at Anaheim he took the lead 2-0 before losing the next three games, leading some to believe that his opponents managed to adapt to the unfamiliar Yoshi matchup over the course of five games.^[2]

Just a few weeks later at Kings of Cali 4, however, aMSa managed to defeat Mew2King while Mew2King played Sheik and Fox. However, he then proceeded to lose to Mango and Lucky 3-0, finishing 5th, eventually outplaced by Mew2King. He ended his summer in the US with a 17th place finish at EVO 2014 a week later.

In December, aMSa attended Battle Gateway 6, the Japanese qualifier for Apex 2015, the winner of which would be awarded a free flight to Apex. However, he finished 2nd behind the Peach player Shippu. Although it looked as if aMSa would be unable to attend Apex, he announced on January 21 that his boss let him to take time off work to go to the US, allowing him to enter the then-largest tournament of all time.^[3]

At Apex 2015, he went undefeated until meeting Leffen (considered the best Yoshi player in the world before aMSa's entry into the scene), who defeated him 2-0. In the losers' bracket, he eliminated Zhu, Lucky (who had eliminated him 3-0 at Kings of Cali 4), SFAT, and KirbyKaze, before losing to Mango, but not before taking two games. aMSa's 5th place finish at Apex was the best-ever placing for him and his seemingly-improved Yoshi at a US national, and showed that he was still very capable despite his middling finishes the previous summer. At EVO 2015, he finished 25th, losing early in winners to Light, a relatively-unknown Peach player in what is known as one of Yoshi's worst matchups, and in losers to Hax.

Despite his great performances internationally, with victories over some of the best players in the world, aMSa has consistently lost to players in Japan that have not been nearly as successful as aMSa internationally, such as Gucci (25th at Apex 2013), Shippu (113th at Apex 2015), and Kounotori (33rd at EVO 2013). Some have speculated that this may be because Japanese players have more experience with either the Yoshi matchup or aMSa's specific style of play, as Japanese players have many more chances to play aMSa than non-Japanese players do, hinting that perhaps aMSa's international performances owe greatly to many players' unfamiliarity with the Yoshi matchup. However, aMSa himself says that he simply performs worse in Japan than he does abroad, saying "It's not Yoshi's fault, but my mental state."^[4]

But 2018 would be the dawn of a new era for aMSa. He started the year with wins over SFAT and Wizzrobe at GENESIS 5, then at Smash Summit 6, he accomplished the unthinkable by defeating Hungrybox in pools. Since that time, he has maintained a new level of consistency, and has earned wins over players like Mango, Plup, and Axe, earning him a top 10 spot in the rankings for both 2018 and 2019. His best placing was at GENESIS 6, where he defeated SFAT and Ginger and 3-0'd Mango to finish 4th.

On October 9, 2022, aMSa won his first major, The Big House 10, beating Krudo, KoDoRiN, Hungrybox, Soonsay, and Mango twice. This marks the first time Yoshi has ever won a Melee major as well, and the first time a Japanese player has won a major since Captain Jack at MLG San Francisco 2004

aMSa became a Red Bull athlete on February 1, 2019.^[5] He joined CJ eSports on July 7, 2019.^[6] aMSa left CJ eSports on July 6, 2020.^[7] On March 30, 2023, aMSa left VGBootCamp and was picked up by the Golden Guardians. ^[8] ^[9] He was released by Golden Guardians Golden along with the rest of the Melee roster on November 30, 2023.^[10]

Results

Melee

Recent Notable Wins

Wins over players ranked in SSBMRank 2024:

Rank 8 - Aklo

2025-07-06 | | 3 : 1 at Get On My Level: Forever
2025-12-07 | | 3 : 2 at Nounsvitational Tokyo 2025

Rank 12 - Wizzrobe

2025-03-30 | | 3 : 2 at Battle of BC 7

Rank 21 - Morsecode762

2025-07-06 | | 3 : 0 at Get On My Level: Forever

Rank 22 - Magi

2025-06-08 | | 3 : 0 at Tipped Off 16: Safari

Rank 24 - Fiction

2025-06-08 | | 3 : 2 at Tipped Off 16: Safari

Rank 25 - Medz

2025-02-16 | | 3 : 2 at GENESIS X2

Rank 34 - Zamu

2025-07-06 | 3 : 1 at Get On My Level: Forever

Rank 43 - n0ne

2025-03-30 | | 3 : 0 at Battle of BC 7

Rank 54 - Zanya

2025-06-08 | 3 : 1 at Tipped Off 16: Safari

Rank 57 - Skerzo

2025-01-05 | 3 : 0 at Battle GateWay 48
2025-01-05 | 3 : 1 at Battle GateWay 48
2025-08-31 | 3 : 0 at Battle GateWay 50

Rank 65 - Zuppy

2025-03-30 | | 3 : 0 at Battle of BC 7

Rank 70 - Kacey

2025-02-16 | | 3 : 2 at GENESIS X2

Rank 87 - Kalvar

2025-02-16 | 3 : 0 at GENESIS X2

Rank 90 - Jah Ridin'

2025-04-13 | 3 : 0 at Battle GateWay 49

Rank 98 - Lowercase hero

2025-07-06 | 3 : 0 at Get On My Level: Forever

Wii U

Project M