Smasher:Bombsoldier

Bombsoldier "ボムソルジャー"
Character info
Melee main	Falco
Other Melee character	Fox
Brawl mains	Meta Knight, Falco
Ultimate main	Lucas
Project M main	Falco
Rankings and results info
Best tournament result	2nd / ~116 at Jack Garden Tournament
Personal and other info
Real name	Yusuke
Birth date	December 1, 1991
Location	Kanagawa, Kanto

Bombsoldier (ボムソルジャー) is a Melee Falco player from Japan, who was most active during the Golden Age of Melee. He was notable for his aggressive, flashier playstyle, atypical of Falco play at the time, and is renowned for being one of the most influential Falco players of all time.

Tournament history

Golden Age

Prior to the Jack Garden Tournament, Bombsoldier was seen as an up-and-coming player and innovator in his usual region, but it wasn't until that tournament where he gained national prominence. After losing to RAIN in the winners' bracket, Bombsoldier tore through the losers' bracket defeating almost every top Japanese player at the time, including Captain Jack, Korius, and the then-#1 seed Masashi to reach Grand Finals against Ken, who he lost against to place 2nd overall.

After the American players in attendance brought their recordings back to the United States and uploaded them onto YouTube, Bombsoldier also gained international prominence for his performance. His innovative style of play and incredible punish game immediately made him a crowd favorite, and inspired American Falco mains to incorporate elements of his style into their gameplay. These players included PC Chris, Zhu, and DaShizWiz, who would all be recognized in their own eras as some of the greatest Falco players to play Melee.

After the Jack Garden Tournament, Bombsoldier's tournament attendance was not well-documented, although it can be assumed he continued playing the game in some capacity, remaining a strong threat in the Japanese scene. His only noted appearance outside of Japan was at Zero Challenge 3, where he placed 17th out of 228 entrants, being eliminated by Forward in the losers' bracket.

Other games and recent activity

Bombsoldier is known to have played both Brawl and the earlier versions of Project M competitively, though he was only active for a short time in both. He did not show any interest in competing in Smash 4 when it was the most recent Smash game. Bombsoldier seemed to fade out of the scene over these years, though he remained semi-active on Twitter, talking mostly about other video games instead of Smash.

However, he has returned to the scene for Ultimate, where he plays Lucas to moderate tournament success. He exclusively attends tournaments in Japan. Bombsoldier has also reappeared in the Melee scene, most notably having occasional guest appearances on aMSa's Twitch stream.

Playstyle

Bombsoldier was the first true aggressive Falco player, using Falco's tools not to defensively wall the opponent out, but to pressure the opponent heavily until they concede an opening. Once this happens, he would immediately initiate lengthy shine pillar combos which, at the time, very few players knew defensive counterplay for, and often extended his combos with aerial lasers to tack on even more damage. He often ended combos with a back aerial or smash attack that sent his opponent off-stage, where he showed his surprising edgeguarding prowess, being able to execute complex edgeguarding maneuvers such as Fire Bird stalling at ledge to cover low recoveries. Bombsoldier also frequently utilized off-stage down aerials to finish off opponents, or to maintain a lead. His frequent usage caused down aerials used in this fashion to be referred to as "the Bombsoldier".

However, Bombsoldier's nearly exclusive focus on the punish game lends itself to a slew of exploitable weaknesses. Bombsoldier's main advantage was his then-unmatched combo game that could overwhelm opponents, both in-game and mentally. However, players from his region such as RAIN, who knew how to combat his style, were mostly unfazed by his abilities. As more Falcos adopted Bombsoldier's combo game, players around the world became more accustomed to fighting aggressive Falcos in general, which also impaired his success. Bombsoldier's technical focus also came at the cost of his neutral game development, to the point where modern players who have the rare chance to play him (such as Toph) report that he feels like a "new-school player, who if anything didn't have old-school fundamentals."

Tournament placings

This Smasher article or section lacks a complete results table. You can help SmashWiki by adding the missing results. The editor who added this tag elaborates: Should have more Melee results than this.

Super Smash Bros. Melee

Tournament	Date	1v1 placement	2v2 placement	Partner
Jack Garden Tournament	August 20th, 2005	2nd	—	—
Tokyo Ranking Battle 1-15-06	January 15th, 2006	2nd / 48	—	—
Zero Challenge 3	July 20th-22nd, 2007	17th	2nd	Ken

Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Tournament	Date	1v1 placement	2v2 placement	Partner
KetubatoX 2	August 17th-18th, 2008	5th / ≥48	—	—
Numabura Season 1-1	December 27th, 2008	9th / 96	—	—
KetubatoX 4	August 15th, 2009	17th / 96	—	—
Numabura Season 1-3	September 19, 2009?	4th?	—	—

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Tournament	Date	1v1 placement	2v2 placement	Partner
Umebura SP 2	January 12th, 2019	193rd	—	—
Umebura Japan Major 2019	May 1st-2nd, 2019	385th	—	—
Umebura SP 4	August 17th, 2019	385th	—	—
Umebura SP 5	September 28th, 2019	129th	—	—
Umebura SP 6	October 22nd, 2019	129th	—	—
Umebura SP 7	November 16th, 2019	97th	—	—
EVO Japan 2020	January 24th-26th, 2020	193rd	—	—
Umebura SP 9	January 7th-8th, 2023	257th	—	—
Umebura SP 10	January 6th-8th, 2024	513th / 1,275	—	—

Gameplay videos

Super Smash Bros. Melee

• Soldier of Fortune - Bombsoldier

Project M

• PM ver0922 Bombsoldier vs MomoSugar

Trivia

• Bombsoldier's older brother is DISK.

External links

• Twitter account