On July 31, 2019, Nintendo made a revolutionary update for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. The update added a new character, Hero from the video game series Dragon Quest. However, as soon as Hero was made playable, people were already considering removing him from competitive Smash Bros. tournaments. The debate has been raging and has raised the question, “Should Hero be banned because he’s unfair, or are people not used to his moveset yet?” Both sides have convincing arguments.

People are trying to ban Hero because he has three random mechanics that can make him unpredictable:

1) Random Critical Hits
This mechanic allows the player a random chance to deal double damage. This means that the Hero can sometimes deal 60% with a fully charged attack.

2) Spell Selection
This mechanic allows the player to open a menu with four random spell attacks. Some of these spells can instantly kill your opponent or even turn your opponent into a metal statue for ten seconds. This adds a level of unpredictability to Hero and makes it hard for an opponent to counter or predict what will happen next.

3) Hocus Pocus
One of the spell moves, Hocus Pocus, is a spell that has completely random results. The results can range from all of the spells listed above and in addition to: invisibility, growth, shrinking, and others.

Others believe that Hero shouldn’t be banned because of the nature of the competition itself.

1) Low Hocus Pocus Probability
Some say that, because Hocus Pocus has a small chance of happening and can still hurt the player, Hero shouldn’t be banned because his high risk of self-inflicted damage.

2) Hero Isn’t Anything Special
Some believe that Hero shouldn’t be banned because he isn’t even a great character to begin with, he’s slow, and generally pretty weak. As ZeRo, a prominent competitive player, says, “Why would we ban a character that is not the best in the game?”

3) No Defined Rules
This argument says that, because current competition rules have no clear guidelines on why something should be banned, Hero should stay. This argument also makes the claim that, because there are other characters, like Peach and Daisy, that have random mechanics, why are we banning Hero, and not them as well?

The Hero controversy has affected people on an international and local level. Our Timpview Smash Bros. ESports team told us what they thought about Hero and the controversy surrounding him.

Senior Victor Arcos said, “When I die to other characters I feel like I screwed up and the other player was better. When I die to Hero I don’t know what to feel”

We asked Super Smash Bros. team manager, Junior Kodiak lewis, if he thought Hero would affect local tournaments, to which Lewis replied, “I think he will make many players salty, but I think he won’t have much of an impact on local tournaments.”

Whether Hero is broken, or players are just mad, Hero has had a massive impact on both the local and international level, and will force players to rethink the fairness of the game.