User:Cookies and Creme/Steve ban
Due to the character's unorthodox playstyle and sudden rise in the metagame, many people began to argue that Steve should be banned. While this movement initially took a while to gain momentum, the discussion began in earnest in early 2022 with the sudden rise of players unknown prior to Steve's release, as well as the number of top player upsets by then-unranked players, before heating up that summer due to acola and Onin's meteoric rises and major victories despite having little impact on the offline metagame prior. Since then, Steve's legality has remained a major topic of debate in Ultimate and several notable events have placed down a ban, especially following the discovery of the Phantom MLG tech.
Timeline[edit]
Notable events that have banned Steve[edit]
Arguments[edit]
Support[edit]
Proponents of a Steve ban argue that his ability to change a stage's layout with blocks and create near-unbeatable setups whether onstage or ledgetrapping made him too strong, while conversely there is little effective counterplay. Some of his more notorious techniques include the "Block Spike", where Steve places a block above the ledge and then uses his back throw to either Stage Spike the opponent if they don't tech or guarantee a forward smash if they do. Steve can also chain jabs across the stage to carry the opponent offstage or combo into a Forward Smash at the ledge, and using down smash on his own TNT and buffering an air dodge to avoid the explosion, covering most recovery options with a single move. In addition, players have argued that Steve's toolkit allows his players to develop distinct playstyles, making it difficult or frustrating to effectively counter every Steve player.
Tournament-wise, some players have also argue that most Steve players were "unknowns" prior to the character's release, and that their sudden burst of success meant that Steve "carried" his players. They pointed out how Steve was by far the most popular character in competitive play, which in turn led to an oversaturation of Steve players in tournament. A common example used was Super Smash Con 2022, which featured 9 Steve players in top 64 while all other characters had 4 or less players.[1] Finally, most consider Steve a boring character to both fight against and watch in a tournament match, and with Steve's dominant presence in the community, they believe attendance and viewership at events are being negatively affected.
Oppose[edit]
On the other hand, opponents of Steve's ban argue that Steve's dominance in the metagame had been exaggerated or required more context, and that people have been slowly figuring out the matchup and developing counterplay for some of Steve's techs such as the Block Spike. They also criticized comparisons to Brawl Meta Knight or Smash 4 Bayonetta, arguing how Steve's presence in the community was exaggerated as his representation has been inconsistent between majors. For example, at Super Smash Con 2022 almost all Steve players were out of the tournament by top 32 and only Onin placed in the top 8. In addition, some players noted how most players who picked up Steve were younger players who either had less opportunities to enter tournaments prior or began playing during the online metagame; for example, acola had his start in the Smashmate ladder and began ranking highly well before his offline debut.
Proposed solutions[edit]
With a lack of a unified ban, several solutions have been proposed. The most common solution has been banning certain tech that Steve could perform. The most notable tech ban has been PMLG, the biggest reason that initially drove people to ban the character, while other tech that have been banned include planking, where Steve could refresh ledge intangibility by placing and standing on a block off-stage, in a position that also allows them to mine the side of the stage.
Some players have proposed using Ultimate's Custom Balance feature to weaken Steve as opposed to a full ban. However, this proposal has raised concerns of it being a slippery slope, possibly leading to people to advocate using custom balance on more characters to weaken high tier characters who aren't ban worthy and strengthen low tier characters, which will lead to disputes over which characters get buffed or nerfed and by how much. Others became concerned that the lower knockback from custom balancing could actually end up strengthening Steve by making his combos more consistent.
