Steve (SSBU): Difference between revisions

Overall, Steve is an incredibly versatile character who is able to manipulate stage terrain to corner opponents, which lets him reap the rewards of an excellent advantage state with massive damage outputs and kill power, on top of already impressive frame data and recovery. Although he has difficulty approaching opponents that outclass him in range, these weaknesses are greatly overshadowed by his strengths and he is considered by many as the best character in ''Ultimate''. He has achieved excellent tournament representation and results from many players, most notably {{Sm|acola}} and {{Sm|Onin}}, with the former being considered the best player in the world in 2023. However, due to being perceived as "[[broken]]" by many in the community, there have been calls to ban the character, especially following the discovery of the [[Phantom MLG]] tech in February 2023 which led to temporary bans in many regions.

One of Steve's more powerful attributes is how much he can capitalize off of the advantage. Steve is widely agreed upon to have among the best advantage states in the entire game, with a wide range of tools that can lead to large amounts damage fairly easily, and with combos like axe ladders and pick loops, he can preserve the advantage to last even longer. His advantage stage is also uniquely strong at the edge, where he can place traps with TNT and and use blocks to hinder certain options like jumping. Steve also has a very unconventional neutral game, which in spite of its passivity can be highly effective; Steve can use Create Block to build walls between himself and his opponent, and hide behind them to mine and upgrade his tools, possibly with gold or diamond. The high threat level of diamond tools means that the opponent is usually forced to approach to prevent Steve from crafting diamond tools, and may have to navigate around or destroy the blocks that may have been placed by Steve, which can be exploited by him to more easily find openings for whiff punishing.

*{{Sm|acola|Japan}} - The best ''Ultimate'' player in the world since 2023. He currently has the second-most major wins out of any ''Ultimate'' competitor, only behind {{Sm|MkLeo}}.

*{{Sm|DDee|USA}} - A Steve and {{SSBU|Pokémon Trainer}} co-main who is considered one of the best Steve players in the United States, as well as one of the United States's most prominent hidden bosses. Although most of his activity has been in his region, he has made top 8 at all the majors he has attended, placing 5th at {{Trn|MomoCon 2022}} and 7th at {{Trn|Super Smash Con 2023}}.

*{{Sm|Jake|USA}} - One of the first notable Steve players, having won many large weeklies during the online metagame. He is also considered one of the best Steve players in the United States from 2021 to early 2023, with multiple top 8 placements at majors such as 3rd at {{Trn|Glitch - Infinite}}, 5th at {{Trn|Ultimate Fighting Arena 2022}}, and 7th at {{Trn|Double Down 2022}}. He has been less active on a global scale since early 2023, with most of his tournament activity being in-region or online.

*{{Sm|Quandale Dinglelingleton|USA}} - One of the best Steve players in the United States, having cracked top 32 at multiple majors, including 9th at {{Trn|Super Smash Con 2022}}, 13th at {{Trn|Collision 2023}}, and 17th at {{Trn|Crown the Third}}.

*{{Sm|Onin|USA}} - The second-best Steve player in the world and was a top 10 player in 2022, ranking 6th on the [[UltRank 2022]]. He is the only Steve player other than acola who has won a major, winning {{Trn|Get On My Level 2022}} and {{Trn|Super Smash Con 2022}}.

*{{Sm|Tropped|Spain}} - The first Steve player who saw notable results in Europe, having upset {{Sm|Glutonny}} to place 25th at {{Trn|VCA 2021}}. He has also placed top 32 at several majors, including 17th at {{Trn|Ultimate WANTED 4}} and 25th at both {{Trn|COLOSSEL 2022}} and {{Trn|VCA 2022}}. However since 2023 he has began playing other characters alongside Steve, most notably {{SSBU|Duck Hunt}}.

*{{Sm|yonni|USA}} - One of the best Steve players in the United States in 2021 and 2022 and a major labber in Steve's metagame. Although inconsistent, he had several high peaks, including placing 9th at {{Trn|Riptide}} defeating {{Sm|Dabuz}} and 5th at {{Trn|The Gimvitational}} defeating {{Sm|Tweek}} and {{Sm|Riddles}}.

Leading up to release, there was a lot of speculation for how Steve would work in ''Smash'' due to his unique moveset compared to the rest of the roster. Many players saw a lot of potential in him, with several players going as far as to call him top tier or outright broken due to his block-creating and crafting mechanics, his glide recovery that works similarly to the infamous [[glide]] mechanic in ''Brawl'', and his high power. After his release, players had mixed reactions to his viability. Some players such as {{Sm|ESAM}} and {{Sm|MkLeo}} believed that Steve was potentially high tier due to his incredible edge guarding and a great combo game. On the other hand, players such as {{Sm|Dabuz}} believed his weaknesses, especially his poor mobility, would make him more of a low-mid tier character.

Following the return of offline competitive play, Steve continued to see a strong presence at major and supermajor tournaments thanks to a thriving playerbase, with many ultimately ranking in the top 100. In particular, {{Sm|acola}} was widely considered the second-best player in 2022 while {{Sm|Onin}} notably 3-0'd {{Sm|MkLeo}} at {{Trn|Super Smash Con 2022}} and ultimately won the tournament. This has led many to consider Steve as not only the best character in the game, but also a character that's "broken"; this has resulted in Steve placing 1st on the first and current tier list.

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 (such as {{Sm|Dabuz}} by {{Sm|yonni}} or {{Sm|Tweek}} by {{Sm|DDog}}). Discussion on Steve's ban heated up around the Summer of 2022 with the rise of {{Sm|acola}} and {{Sm|Onin}}, both of whom dominated their scene and won multiple majors despite being relatively unknown players months prior. In particular, Onin's dominant victory at {{Trn|Super Smash Con 2022}}, which included a devastating 3-0 victory over {{Sm|MkLeo}}; acola's victory at his debut oversees tournament {{Trn|The Gimvitational}}; and the Steve ditto between the two players at {{Trn|Let's Make Moves Miami}} led may players to compare Steve to ''Brawl'' {{SSBB|Meta Knight}} and ''Smash 4'' {{SSB4|Bayonetta}}, two characters who dominated their game's respective metagames.

Proponents of Steve's ban argue that his ability to change a stage's layout with blocks and create near-unbeatable setups whether onstage or ledgetrapping has led to him being too strong with little viable counterplay. Some of his more notorious techniques include placing a block above the ledge and then using his Back Throw to either [[Stage Spike]] the opponent if they don't [[tech]] or guarantee a Forward smash if they do, chaining 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. Some of these players also argue that most players who saw success with Steve were "unknown" players prior to the character swap, and that their sudden burst of success prove that Steve "carries" their players. They pointed out how the metagame was being populated with Steve players - for example, Super Smash Con 2022 had 9 Steve players make top 64 while all other characters had 4 or less players<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.reddit.com/r/smashbros/comments/woohfu/top_64_character_representation_at_super_smash/|title=Top 64 Character Representation at Super Smash Con 2022}}</ref> - and that the character's increasing presence in the metagame was driving players away from the game.

On the other hand, opponent of Steve's ban argue that Steve's dominance in the metagame had been exaggerated or required more context, and that people have been developing counterplay in the matchup for a while. They also argued that Steve's dominance in the metagame was less notable than ''Brawl''{{'}}s Meta Knight or ''Smash 4''{{'}}s Bayonetta, pointing to how only two Steve players - {{Sm|acola}} and {{Sm|Onin}} were consistent top 8 threats, and even then, Onin's results have been seeing a noticeable decline in 2023. 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.

Some people have proposed using Ultimate's [[Handicap#In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate|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 knock back from custom balancing could still strengthen Steve by making his combos more consistent.

====PMLG and ban efforts====

Despite the heated discussion, there was little effort toward banning Steve for most of 2022, with notable exceptions being the French regional {{Trn|CrocoCup 1}} and [[Tournament:Shockwave|Ultimate Shockwave]] testing out a Steve ban, among other characters, for a few of their tournaments in November and December.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://twitter.com/CrocoCorporated/status/1521540624469659649|title=Steve will be banned from CrocoCup #1}}</ref> However, the early-2023 discovery of [[Phantom MLG]]—a tech involving Create Block that allows Steve to escape out of a move and immediately follow it up with a counterattack—led to renewed and successful efforts to ban the character, with many organizers arguing that the tech was the breaking point for them. A few tournaments, including {{Trn|Collision 2023}} and {{Trn|MAJOR UPSET}}, made efforts to only ban the tech itself, or give out penalties to those who were accused of using the test, however some players argued that banning only the tech was impractical, as it could be difficult telling whether a Steve player performed PMLG or just simply fell out of a move. By May 2023, 17 US states have banned Steve completely, while many other states have seen bans at a local level.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://twitter.com/LoopBarnard/status/1654190092951384064|title=Steve ban map in North America as of May 4th, 2023}}</ref> Bans were also exacerbated with {{Sm|Hungrybox}}'s decision to ban the character from his [[Tournament:The Coinbox|Coinbox]] tournaments,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://twitter.com/LiquidHbox/status/1631435704772317186|title=Steve is officially banned at the Coinbox for the foreseeable future.}}</ref> and many other tournaments would also announce a ban, including {{Trn|Gateway Legends 2023}}, {{Trn|Luminosity Makes Moves Miami}}, and {{Trn|Regen 2023}}.

Steve faces off against fighters who represent enemy mobs in ''Minecraft''. With the exceptions of Rounds 2 and 6, all rounds are stamina battles. The title is a reference to the [https://minecraft.wiki/w/Far_Lands/Java_Edition/Pre-Beta_1.8 Far Lands], a glitch that used to exist in both [https://minecraft.wiki/w/Java_Edition ''Minecraft: Java Edition''] and the [https://minecraft.wiki/w/Bedrock_Edition ''Bedrock Edition''] where land an extreme distance away from the starting point of a world formed large, fold-like cliffs due to overflow errors in the generation system. The final battle is against a giant Ridley and two tiny Endermen.

**Steve's clapping animation resembles the "simple clap" emote exclusive to the "Bedrock" edition of ''Minecraft'', looped and with Steve's body turned to the side instead of facing forwards.

**Steve and Alex's eyes blink periodically, a feature not present in their home series outside of ''Minecraft''{{'}}s "Bedrock" edition and ''Minecraft Dungeons''. Otherwise, their facial expressions never change, even while [[asleep]]. The Zombie and Enderman do not blink.

*Zombie's and Enderman's stock icons are two of six to show the character's eyes, the others being {{SSBU|Kirby}}, {{SSBU|Meta Knight}}, {{SSBU|Sonic}}, and {{SSBU|R.O.B.}}.