The Banning Of Minecraft Steve From 'Smash' Has Begun

After years of skating on thin blocks ice, Minecraft Steve has finally crossed the line, and Super Smash Brothers Ultimate tournament organizers across North America have begun pulling the trigger on banning the character.

Since the character's release in 2020 and especially through his rise to prominence in 2022, many competitive Smash players have grumbled the character should be banned from competitive play due to the unique mechanics that allow him to create terrain all around the arena, his incredibly strong and easy-to-execute combos, and his powerful moves that only increase in strength as a match progresses and Steve mines for diamond tools.

I WON XENO!!!!! Im super happy that I finally won my first NYC local :)))))))))))))) Beat Utopian Ray, Mega, Dill and Karflo. Now that I can say I won its time to work on the min min. GGS! it was sooo fun, also this clip 😭 #4RVA pic.twitter.com/mgyIAAXb8G

— Jules 🏳️‍⚧️ (@JulesandStars) February 9, 2023

Despite this, many others insisted there was counterplay to Steve, even as they acknowledged that Steve was the best character in the game. A stalemate emerged as "Should Steve be banned?" became the most recurring dominant discourse in the Smash community. However, recent events have made the "wait-and-see" crowd stop waiting and join the side of those advocating for banning Steve.

On Saturday, Twitter user @connorcarried posted multiple clips of a new technique Steve mains had discovered called "PMLG."

Without getting too deep into the specifics of how it works, the essence of the tech is that, when hit, Steve can immediately cancel hit stun with a relatively easy input, making it so that he can attack while his opponent's attack animation is still out, potentially leading to death for the opponent. Multi-hit moves, out-of-shield attacks and basic combos can now be invalidated by Steve. In short, players fighting Steve can now easily die for the sin of hitting him.

Have you seen the Steve hitstun canceling clips floating around?
Did you hope they were fake?

Well sorry to burst your bubble!

Introducing Phantom MLG: pic.twitter.com/OJ2GIM5Env

— XCido (@XCidoClipDump) February 25, 2023

i got too curious and made the problem worse :(

you can pmlg out of ledge jump. sorry yall pic.twitter.com/vt0aSEIR7w

— Steve Lab (@SteveTechSSBU) February 25, 2023

This proved to be the final straw for many players and tournament organizers in the Smash community. Top players Sparg0 and (seemingly) MKLeo recently voiced their support for a ban.

Some advocated for keeping the character but banning the tech, but others noted that doing so would be a nightmare to enforce. While hypothetically, a player could stop a match and allege that the Steve they're facing is cheating, many (like YouTuber and top Smash commentator Coney) noted that it can be extremely difficult to tell if the tech has been performed and would require already overworked tournament organizers to review a replay and make a judgment call, holding up their events.

With this in mind, many local tournaments began announcing bans of the character. Some, like tri-state regional organization Collision, announced they would experiment with enforcing a tech ban in imminent events and ban the character altogether going forward. Hungrybox, who runs the biggest weekly WiFi tournament Coinbox, has hyped a Thursday stream where he will announce his team's decision on Steve.

It appears the days of Steve in competitive Smash are numbered, and in a coincidental yet unrelated story, competitive Smash's days might be numbered, as BTS Smash (one of the only remaining major tournament organizers left standing after Panda and VGBC appeared to take each other down) announced it too would be shutting down.