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 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 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. 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 proves that Steve "carries" his 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[1] - and that the character's increasing presence in the metagame was driving players away from the game. Finally, many supporters also argued that Steve was a boring character to both fight against and watch in a tournament match, hurting both attendance and viewership at events.
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 developing counterplay in the matchup for a while. They also criticized comparisons to Brawl Meta Knight or Smash 4 Bayonetta, pointing to how only two Steve players - acola and Onin were consistent top 8 threats, and argued that Steve's presence in the community was exaggerated, as many large events tend to have significantly less Steve players at higher placements. 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. Finally, opponents also argued that a Steve ban was increasingly unnecessary as more and more players were learning how to properly fight the character and avoid Steve tech such as the Block Spike.
Proposed solutions[edit]
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.
