Smasher:Acola


 * Not to be confused with Smasher:Deer or Smasher:DEAR

acola (あcola) is a Super Smash Bros. Ultimate player from Japan who is considered to be the best player in the world in 2023, as well as one of the best players in the world in the post-online metagame. acola has gained a worldwide spotlight due to his impressive consistency as a player, arguably on par with the likes of ; up until, he had made grand finals at every offline tournament he attended, including winning his first major at , his first supermajor at , and his first invitational major and overseas tournament at. His victory at Maesuma TOP 7 made him the youngest Ultimate player to win a major, at the age of 15 years old. He is also the only Ultimate player to win the first major and supermajor that they attended.

He frequently enters single-elimination live tournaments on Smashmate. He was ranked 1st on the Smashmate SP ranking from the 15th season to the 20th season, and is the first player to achieve a 2,500 rating. He is currently ranked 1st on the LumiRank Mid-Year 2023 and was formerly ranked 39th on the Experimental Smash Player Rankings as he only began competing towards the end of the season.

Smashmate beginnings
acola began his Smash career during the COVID-19 pandemic on the Japanese ladder Smashmate under the tag Dear (ディア), which he played under until mid-2021. He began playing characters such as and, however he found greater success playing , debuting on the Smashmate Rankings at 7th for the 13th season with mostly Steve. Since then, he began dominating the ladder, reaching 1st by the 15th season and maintaining that placement for the next several seasons. Due to his dominance during this period, acola was considered one of the best players in Japan's online metagame, with him placing 4th on kenniky's Top 50 Smashmate Players of All Time, which ranked Smashmate players up to the 22nd season.

Offline debut and meteoric rise
Despite his strong results online, acola had little impact on the offline scene in his first year, with his only attendance being a small event in November. That changed in 2022, when acola was invited to. Despite being his first offline event with top players in attendance, acola surprised everyone by placing 2nd, defeating several established players along the way including, , and most notably , whom he reset the bracket against. Following this event was, acola's first notable open bracket event. Coming in as the 14th seed, acola once again shocked players by taking the tournament over even more established players such as and, marking his first superregional victory. These two events established acola as Japan's premier rising star and marked the start of acola's dominance in Japan, with him placing no lower than 2nd at several events afterwards.

These "several events" also included the Golden Week events, specifically the major and the supermajor. Both events featured many of Japan's best players, and both events also seeded acola outside of the top 8, with Kagaribi 7's algorithmic seeding notoriously seeding acola at 57th. Despite these challenges, acola blew both seeds out of the water by winning both events, defeating every single player that was in his path aside from a single set loss to at Maesuma. In addition, with his victory at Kagaribi, acola became the lowest-seeded player to ever win an Ultimate supermajor. These performances not only established acola as the new best player in Japan, but also made him known overseas, with players comparing his dominance to and, Ultimate's best two players at that time. Many players began anticipating a potential match between MkLeo and Sparg0, while other players dismissed acola as being yet another player in the wave of Steve players who saw strong performances that year. Nonetheless, many players began looking forward to how acola would fare against North America's best players.

acola would be given that chance in June: thanks to his victory at Kagaribi 7, he was given an invitation to, an invitational that featured several of Ultimate's best players. acola's first notable match at the invitational was in his Round Robin pools, where he faced. After a rather back-and-forth match, acola defeated Kola in the fifth game, claiming his first notable North American win. acola ultimately placed 1st in his Round Robin pools, sending him to the Winner's side of the final bracket, where he tore through the bracket, defeating 3-0, fellow Japanese invitee  3-1, Canada's best player  3-1, and finally the United States's best player  3-1, winning his first international tournament. With that victory, acola became the first non-American player to win the first international major they attended since at. The victory also established acola as one of the best players in the world, and he was ranked 4th on the OrionRank Mid-Year 2022.

Due to his performance and sudden rise to the top, players also began wondering whether acola could be the definitive best player in the world, especially with MkLeo's declining results, Sparg0's hiatus following The Gimvitational, and Steve's perceived dominance in the metagame. In addition, acola continued to dominate the Japanese scene with several major titles and saw some strong performances in the United States, including winning the supermajor despite losing to ; and his performance at the supermajor invitational, where despite losing to  in the Swiss bracket and MkLeo twice in the main bracket, he notably defeated Sparg0 3-2 to place 2nd.

On the other hand, players also noted how acola had a few statistics that did not favor his case, especially a few questionable losses to unranked Japanese players such as at  and  at ; acola's performance at the former tournament also notably broke his streak of top 2 finishes, as he placed 4th after losing to. Further hurting his case was his performances at and. In the former tournament, it seemed like American players were beginning to adapt to his playstyle, as he barely made it out of his Round Robin pools due to his loss to -- which led to a string of tiebreakers between him, Dabuz, and  that ultimately went to best of 1 stock -- before losing his runbacks against Kola and Light to place 4th. In the latter tournament, acola was upset by and  to place 9th, the first time acola placed outside of the top 8. Finally, his run at was also relatively lukewarm: although he evened his record against Light, he fell to Sparg0 and Shuton for 4th, giving him yet another major where he finished outside the top 2.

These few statistics ultimately kept acola away from being the best player in the world, and he was ultimately ranked 2nd on the OrionRank 2022 and the UltRank 2022.

Claiming the throne
With acola's strong performances in the previous year, all he needed was to clean up a few unfortunate statistics in order to take the throne. The first half of LumiRank 2023 saw just that, as acola saw a string of performances that many had compared to MkLeo's performances in early Ultimate. During this period, acola won nearly every event he attended and placed no lower than 7th at any event considered for the ranking. Most notable among these events include the supermajors and, two of the largest events in Japan for the Mid-Year season, and the major , where after losing to , he tore through the entire tournament, defeating everyone in his path -- including dominating  3-0 in the runback -- to claim his first Summit victory. Further helping him was his loss record: only six players managed to take a set over acola, and all of them were ranked in the top 30 for the Mid-Year season; conversely acola only had one negative record against a player outside the top 10: (#16), who has a 0-1 record against acola. Finally, acola's overall record was impressive, as he held a 90-10 record against players who qualified for the rankings, which included a 64-10 record against the entire top 50.

However, there were a few things working against acola that challenged his path for #1, all of which was due to his new bracket demon,. During this period, acola took a total of 2 games off of Sparg0, leaving acola with a 0-5 record against Sparg0. In addition, acola failed to win any tournament that was ranked premier on the LumiRank Mid-Year 2023 -- the highest tier on the rankings -- as at all three events he was ultimately eliminated by Sparg0. This was most notable at the premiers and, where despite making it to Grand Finals, acola lost to Sparg0 to place 2nd. Due to all of this, many players believed Sparg0 would come out on top for the Mid-Year ranking. However despite a close race, Sparg0's worse overall record and a couple of questionable major placements held him back, and acola was able to ascend to the throne, becoming the first Japanese player to be ranked #1 for a game released after Smash 64 since on the SSBBRank 2014.

The rest of the year effectively solidified acola as the best player in the world, especially following his premier-tier victory at, which also saw Sparg0 drastically underperforming. acola continued to win almost every event he entered, and made top 4 at the events he did not win. He notably had only one loss to a player outside the top 10 during this half of the year --. In addition, many players took note of how acola frequently won sets that went to game 5, with a statistic showing that acola had won 87% of game 5 sets that year, earning him the nickname "Game 5 acola".

On the other hand, this period was not completely spotless, as acola began to develop a few new problematic opponents. The first was fellow Smashmate rival, who at that point was also a contender for the best player in the world. Although acola had a strong record against Miya, this record began to shrink in the fall, notably after Miya blocked acola from winning another premier event by double-eliminating him at. The second was, who finally fought acola at in a highly yet ironically anticipated matchup. The set ended in a devastating 3-0 from Sonix, and acola ultimately fell to Miya for 3rd, failing to win yet another premier event. Although these performances did little to hurt acola's overall standing, they also showcased how he was not as invincible as many players had assumed. This was the most apparent at acola's final event of the season,, where he lost to Sparg0 and Sonix for 4th, albeit with better performances against both players. As such, although acola's record against almost everyone remained close to spotless, his record against the rest of the top 4, especially against Sparg0 and Sonix, was less than exemplary.

Trivia

 * The only players that acola holds negative records against in offline Ultimate tournaments are (1-7),  (1-2),  (1-2),  (1-2),  (0-2),  (0-1), and  (0-1).
 * acola is one of five players to win an Ultimate major while being seeded outside of the top 16, alongside (won  as the 25th seed),  (won  as the 32nd seed),  (won  as the 37th seed) and  (won  as the 17th seed).
 * acola holds the known record for the longest Elite Smash win streak without rematching opponents at 740 wins, beating 's record of 638 wins.
 * acola's signature look is his white disposable face mask that he wears at all tournaments. He is often depicted with it on fanarts of him.
 * acola is a fan of the indie game Omori, and regularly uses in-game tags that reference the game, including "Whitespace" and "Miserable". The latter raised some concern online when acola used it at.