SSBU

Why the Steve issue is a ruleset issue

I have been talking in the (formerly) PG Stats discord about this topic at length, and I and many others believe that the stagelists people are using these days give characters like Steve and Sonic an unfair advantage, and that any ban discourse shouldn't really be considered until an actually balanced stagelist is used. To summarize:

- Campy stages: FD, PS2, Town, Kalos
- Medium stages: BF, SBF, Hollow Bastion
- Small stages: Smashville, Yoshis Story, Lylat, Yoshis Island, Warioware
see here for size comparisons: https://tournameta.com/stage-comparison/

If someone is playing against a Steve/Sonic, and they just lost a game, they should be able to go to a small stage as their counterpick.

With basically every current ruleset, the opponent is able to ban every small stage on the list (and then some). On the other hand, the other player is never able to ban every campy stage on the list, resulting in a strong imbalance.

While there are a few different solutions to this, here are some basic guidelines:

1) If Smashville is your only small stage, then you need to get rid of one of FD/PS2/Town/Kalos (usually Kalos) and run 1 ban.

2) If you don't want to get rid of any of those 4 stages, then you need to add another small stage (usually Yoshis Story) and run 2 bans.

These solutions are the *bare minimum*. They don't resolve the original issue of allowing a small stage counterpick, but they are far better than every current ruleset.

If you want a truly balanced list, you need to add a third small stage after YS (usually Lylat) and run 2 bans. This always allows a small stage counterpick.

Regarding Lylat, if you believe it's presence is too controversial, this can be greatly mitigated by using a different banning system known as P3P1. See http://imgur.com/a/NhxrBMF (the 'Disliked stages' section)

Thanks for reading!