HS参謀 (Japanese: HS-Sanbō, often shortened to HS or expanded to HardShooter) is a Japanese Touhou player who has played competitively since 2004. As of August, 2010, HS holds world record scores in 26 out of 36 categories (6 difficulty levels * 6 characters) of Perfect Cherry Blossom. He is the only PCB player to have exceeded 3 billion points under any circumstances, and in doing so, he broke a 20-month-old record set by ハセガー.
Perfect Cherry Blossom accomplishments[]
On October 24, 2008, HS accomplished an unprecedented feat in Touhou history by sweeping all 36 categories. A screenshot of HS's PCB statistics revealed that he had played over 27,000 sessions in 1,880 hours. Shorty after, on the 1st of November, he stopped submitting scores for a month, supposedly to relieve the pressure from his opponents. On November, 28th, HS returned to retrieve 7 of the 8 records lost since then (the time stamps of the replays confirmed that he didn't stop playing during that time); the only category that remained unreclaimed was Easy/Marisa-A.
HS参謀 has been responsible for finding or popularizing many effective scoring techniques currently used in the competitive PCB community. They include stalling the Supernatural Border at the start of stage 4 until the arrival of the first post-intro enemy formations, a trick that allows over 115k CherryMax to be gained just at the very beginning of the stage.
HS参謀's main competitors have included ISO, ハセガー, and クラエス. Based on his record history, HS has shown persistence rarely seen in other contenders: so far, he and ISO have been the only members of the Japanese scoreboards to have actively competed in Perfect Cherry Blossom for over six years (since 2003), sometimes submitting several new high scores every month. Each time HS was knocked off the top spot in any category, he would usually reclaim his title within a short time (sometimes as short as a day), often accompanied by a somewhat sarcastic comment. For example, when かがみん posted a 1.187 billion replay with a score target of 1.2 billion, HS quickly retaliated with a 1.205 billion score and commented, "It took me only 1882 hours to achieve this target!"
In December, 2008, HS参謀 deleted most of his PCB records from Royalflare's PCB scoreboard, leaving only the selected six — his highest scores in each mode of the game. However, on the 1st of July, 2009, he returned with a new Lunatic Reimu-B submission of 2.72 billion. Nearly all of the scores he has achieved prior had stood during this time, barring some competition from his usual rival ISO. In November of the same year HS参謀 posted three more Lunatic records made with Reimu-A, Marisa-B and Sakuya-A, propelling each to over 2.5 billion and suggesting that Sakuya-A score can theoretically go as high as 2.8 billion. The timestamps on these replays indicate that he has actually been playing throughout the year.
In February, 2010, HS参謀 posted a new Sakuya-B Phantasm score. An intermediate update which contained a serious mistake showed him gather over 30 million on Danmaku Bound Field's spellcard bonus. In June, 2010, HS参謀 returned to renew his Lunatic records, starting with Reimu-B. Throughout the summer, he has successfully improved all of his Lunatic scores, propelling Reimu-A, Marisa-B, and Sakuya-A to over 2.6 billion each, Marisa-A to 2.72 billion, and Reimu-B to 2.81 billion, all the while communicating with other scorers via Twitter. As of writing this paragraph he has already bested his Sakuya-B record as well by over 52 million, and is going to continue his efforts until he reaches 3.1 billion; meanwhile かがみん gradually wins over other categories, such as Phantasm, where he has recently bested HS's long-standing 1.60 billion Reimu-B score.
Other Touhou efforts[]
HS参謀 has held two records on Imperishable Night's Normal mode: for Sakuya solo, at 3,013,899,190 points, and Marisa solo, at 3,472,487,910 points, both set on 2004/12. They have since then been bested by FRED.
In mid-2009, HS was seen scorerunning Imperishable Night's Lunatic mode, with the highest scoring completed attempt netting 5.84 billion points, set on 2009/04/19 with Sakuya and Remilia, which was second-highest score registered in the game at the time. According to his submission comments, failed 6.09 and 6.11 billion attempts have also taken place. HS expected 6 billion to be attained, providing equal competition to YASU, but since the latter managed to achieve 6.08 billion there were no news from HS.
HS参謀 has also been seen participating in several Immaterial and Missing Power and Phantasmagoria of Flower View tourneys against other Japanese Touhou players. In 2009 he managed to usurp misumi's champion's title in East Opera 4, the annual PoFV tournament, after placing 2nd in 2008 and 3rd in 2007. [1]
Notable player records[]
See Perfect Cherry Blossom world records and Royalflare scoreboard's record history.