Minecraft Steve Is Once Again At The Front Of 'Smash' Players Minds As Discussions Regarding Banning The Character Heat Up

How do you solve a problem like Minecraft Steve?

That question has been lingering in the back of the Super Smash Brothers Ultimate community's collective mind for months but was thrust to the forefront of discussion after last weekend's "Gimvitational" tournament in which a young Steve player, Japanese phenom Acola, won the event, while another, Yonni, reached fifth place. Both of them scored major upsets against established veterans in the process.

IT'S OVER! @acola_Lui is your #Gimvitational champion!

Bracket: https://t.co/1CZQpwXD8n
Shop: https://t.co/tPe6ud8Pm0 pic.twitter.com/jNl3PbRgnK

— VGBC (@VGBootCamp) June 20, 2022

Throughout the event, it was clear that the character's tools greatly outshone those of its foes. Both Yonni and Acola were able to use Steve's ability to create terrain to effectively edge-guard opponents, and both utilized Steve's multiple strong kill moves, particularly with the diamond pickaxe, to secure early stocks. A player taking 80% damage from a single, basic Steve combo was a common sight, as were stocks lost incredibly early to Steve's plethora of powerful attacks, not to mention his mine cart attack which also acts as a command grab.

nice pic.twitter.com/hK1iAoBzhb

— Kgan (@Kg4n_) June 20, 2022

SPECIAL DELIVERY

📺 https://t.co/uUa6pil35u pic.twitter.com/kFlYJeov6Z

— VGBC (@VGBootCamp) June 19, 2022

After the event, four of the attendees — competitors Marss, Light and Cosmos and caster L4st — tweeted the hashtags "#BanSteve #Please."

Look what steve has done to smash’s top players LMAOO #BanSteve bout to be trending pic.twitter.com/EDhqPhNT1k

— Taledo🎙 @ Online🎊 (@AyoTaledo) June 20, 2022

Some of that group later indicated that they were merely trolling the ever-hysteric Smash fanbase, but it nevertheless started the ball rolling on some of the most serious discussion regarding banning the character from competitive play seen thus far.

Those in favor of banning the character argued that the character has too many effective tools in regard to the rest of the cast, such as his ability to conjure blocks out of thin air to mess up recoveries and protect himself. This also heavily skews the "risk-reward" factor of every Steve interaction heavily in Steve's favor. This means that if a player attempts to hit Steve with an attack and Steve blocks or avoids the attack, it's likely Steve will rack up high damage and perhaps a kill, while the other player would likely have only racked up mild damage numbers.

We can complain as much as we want i think lmao anybody that knows how smash works knows these things are not ok
I guess all we can do is be ready for the next time.
Congrats to Acola

— T1 | MkLeo (@Mkleosb) June 20, 2022

Acola figured out Steve perfectly. He just repeatedly sets up heavily favored mixups with block wall/minecart/anvil the whole game where you barely get anything for guessing right and take 90 for guessing wrong.

He's the player who's proven that steve needs to go for sure lol

— Sword (@Sword_jair) June 20, 2022

Can we ban Steve from Minecraft? He can place blocks freely in literally any orientation he wants and mobs literally have no counterplay against it. He's disgustingly broken within the meta and makes Minecraft an extremely uncompetitive game.

— needle (@sylvisorex) June 20, 2022

They also argued that as players of the characters grow more knowledgable, he has the potential to dominate the game's meta by making all characters who can't effectively fight him unviable. Similar situations happened with Bayonetta in Smash 4 and Meta Knight in Brawl, and those characters' eventual dominance of their respective games is often cited as a reason why those games are not popularly played anymore.

Smash scene historically makes decisions on the loudest opinion NOT the most thought out one

Nontourney attendees obv outnumber top players, but ur top players are the ones who are saying #BanSteve so for the one time/for this game’s lifespan lets get it right this time #Please

— Lavish (@LavishSsb) June 20, 2022

"you can't ban steve, you'd be invalidating all the time and effort they put into the game and you be turning more people away 🥺"

how about him existing invalidates all the time and effort me and many others have put in and turns more people than you think from competing

— Council | Hunk (@realLifeHunk) June 19, 2022

It's about time this community woke up. I'm genuinely down to ban Steve/Kaz. Counterplay my ass this character is ruining the meta. Take me back to a fundies-based game

Anyone who replies w the predictable "StOp CoMpLaInInG, GeT BeTtEr" is just blocked I'm sick of it.

— 🇵🇷 | Josh~ (@Josh_Tilde) June 20, 2022

Those against a ban felt calls for a ban were hyperbolic, arguing that there was effective counterplay against Steve and that the character had not yet put up results comparable to Smash 4's Bayo and Brawl's Meta Knight.

Please remember Smash 4 Bayo’s results. Especially near end of the game’s lifespan. Even the sheer number of top players using her as a free win secondary.

THAT is a character that should have been banned.

I’d wait an entire year before we jump to any conclusion for #BanSteve.

— hungrybox 🎂 (@LiquidHbox) June 20, 2022

Even when people want a Steve ban in Smash Ultimate, there is no justifiable reason to do it imo

- He has losing matchups
- He has counterplay
- He brings in new players
- He is (imo) fun to watch

I honestly think players just want the easy way out by banning him

— Sillintor (@sillintor) June 20, 2022

I see a lot of talk regarding banning Steve
I don't agree with it at all. We've been through way worse.

Steve has weaknesses in comparing past games:
(Bayo S4 / MK Brawl/ Pika 64)

I rly enjoy fighting steve & learning to beat him. He's made me a better player every day pic.twitter.com/gNPXPabZnv

— KELSY (@SuperGirlKels) June 20, 2022

A simple solution to the Steve issue would be for Nintendo to patch the game with alterations that make the character less powerful (aka "Nerfing" him), as they'd done with Smash 4's Bayonetta towards the end of that game's lifespan. While Nintendo has stated there will be no more patches for Ultimate, a so-called "emergency" patch regarding Steve and potentially other characters is not out of the realm of possibility.

At any rate, the ever-polarized Smash community seems far from reaching a consensus on the so-called Steve problem for now. However, if the character begins to dominate the game as intensely as some of his critics fear, a consensus on banning the character may come too late.