Masaya Chikamoto (Japanese: 近本 昌也, Hepburn: Chikamoto Masaya, born October 27, 1991), better known by his alias aMSa (あむさ, Amusa), is a Japanese professional Super Smash Bros. Melee player. He is known for being the only top 100 player to play Yoshi. In 2022, he was ranked the second best player in the world after winning major tournaments Apex and The Big House. Most recently, he was ranked the fourth best player in the world in the SSBMRank 2024.[1]
Career
aMSa was born in Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, on October 27, 1991.[2] He stated that he has been a fan of Yoshi since his childhood and that, since the release of Super Smash Bros. Melee, Yoshi was his favorite character. For a time, Yoshi was considered to be a very weak character in competitive play, being ranked as low as the fourth worst character in the game for a time.[3] aMSa started his professional career in 2013, having decent results, including a win against Mew2King, ranked third in the world at the time. In 2014, he finished ninth place at Apex and, next year, finished fifth.[3] In 2021, due to aMSa's performances, Yoshi went on to be considered the tenth best character in the game, out of a total of twenty-six characters.[3]
In February 2019, aMSa signed with Red Bull.[4] He moved to Vancouver, Canada, in 2022, to compete in more North American tournaments.[5][6] On October 10, 2022, he won his first major tournament, The Big House 10, after beating Mang0; this was considered by many to be the most difficult tournament to win in the game's history due to the amount of top players that were in attendance. This was the first time a player had one a major tournament using only Yoshi in the history of Melee.[7][8] By the end of the year, he also won majors Apex and Scuffed World Tour,[9] and was considered the second best Melee player as ranked by SSBMRank.[10] In March 2023, aMSa joined esports organization Golden Guardians.[11]
Personal Life
aMSa was born in Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, on October 27, 1991.[2] He currently resides in Vancouver, Canada.
On May 16th, 2023, aMSa announced via Twitter that he had gotten married.[12]
