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Last weekend, a big Super Smash Bros. Ultimate event – The Gimvitational – was hosted by GimR and Video Game Boot Camp, which promised a prize pool of over $34,000. This wasn’t a typical big event, however, as players had to be invited in order to compete. The 16 invitees were FaZe|Sparg0, Moist|Light, Moist|Kola, TSM|Tweek, Liquid|Riddles, SPG|Asimo, PG|Marss, BC|Cosmos, FTG|Acola, NVR|Yonni, Larry Lurr, Gackt , CVLY |Jin, Chase, UA|Ferps and Bread.
Acola, a 15-year-old Steve competitor, had already proven to be the top Steve user in multiple Super Smash Bros. Ultimate events held in Japan in 2022. Still, nobody seemed quite prepared for terror, that was Steve from Acola at The Gimvitational.
Eventually, during the event, Acola defeated some big names like Marss, Riddles and Light – the top users of Zero Suit Samus, Terry Bogard and Fox McCloud respectively. During Acola’s run, he had to take out all these juggernauts.
Acola even had a rematch against fellow Japanese player Asimo. Specifically, Asimo is considered the best ryu user in the world when it comes to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
Asimo and Acola’s grand finals confrontation at Kagaribi 7 (768 contestants) ended in a legendary set that Acola eventually won back in May. The set was so remarkable that it was even asked to do so Click Burgundy to produce fan art that pays homage to Street Fighter Alpha 2 box art.
— はんくり/hungry_clicker (@click_burgundy) May 5, 2022
Despite the stacked tournament at The Gimvitational, Acola simply was unstoppable. He ended up defeating every player he faced without ever dropping a set.
Steve’s recent success in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Majors has started to draw the attention of the community. Although the character wasn’t perceived as particularly strong when it was first released, some players discussed the possibility of this fighter potentially being banned.
We can complain as much as we want. I think lmao, anyone who knows how smash works knows that these things are not ok
I think we can only be ready for next time.
Congratulations to Acola— T1 | MkLeo (@Mkleosb) June 20, 2022
Definitely, he’s just not playing the same game… but… we’re still playing the same game, so I don’t want to talk about bans just yet. I don’t think it should be necessary, let’s see what happens
— T1 | MkLeo (@Mkleosb) June 20, 2022
— 🍥 Marss (@Marss_NE) June 20, 2022
Character banning (Steve) is perfectly reasonable, is done in other fighting games, and is probably the only possible thing that could make Nintendo actually patch the game again
— Lavish (@LavishSsb) June 20, 2022
I sat down and thought about it. You’re right, Steve and Kazuya are terribly balanced and bad for the meta. I clearly understand your point of view on this and there is only one thing that can be done to salvage the current meta. We must ban heroes
— RoninX (@RoninX1819) June 20, 2022
I was just watching Steve for the first time and had some dangerous thoughts
Gonna pick him up rq rq to help the ban cause. I’m no hero, but I think it’s cool if you call me that
— Zain (@ZainNaghmi) June 20, 2022
Just played ddog. You need to take some time, reach out and play some of these Steve players. There are a billion of them out there now, so it shouldn’t be hard to get some practice at them.
This Ban Steve stuff is silly.
GET TO WORK
— Sinji (@Sinji93) June 20, 2022
Steve plays such a radically different game as the rest of the squad. To be truly successful, he needs to gather resources, which can then be used to upgrade his gear and improve his overall damage and recoil.
A single hit from the Minecraft rep usually causes the opponent to take anywhere from 40% to 100% damage depending on the circumstances. Even before he can upgrade into optimal weapons, his ability to stack damage via combos is among the best in the game.
Because Steve can literally build a wall between himself and his opponents to take the time it takes to gather resources, the game can come to a bizarre halt at times. It’s still early in the “Steve meta,” but it feels like many characters just don’t have the right tools to safely breach the wall or pressure Steve in this situation.
Needless to say, this unorthodox character building a wall forces a scenario in which the opponent will either allow time to gather resources for free or have to ruthlessly carve a path. Both situations seem to greatly favor Steve.
Version 13.0.1 is said to be the last update to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate that would introduce balance adjustments to the game. This means it’s too late to nerf characters that could be seen as a problem by the Smash community.
Like it or not, this version of Steve is likely to stay in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. We need to keep an eye on what adjustments or decisions are made regarding Steve by Smash Ultimate’s player base.
