Sephiroth indefinitely banned from Spanish Super Smash Bros. Ultimate tournaments... but not really because it's April Fools' Day in Spain today
Even the world's best Super Smash Bros. Ultimate competitor got duped by this prank
According to Smash Bros. Spain, Sephiroth has been indefinitely banned from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate tournaments in Spain. It is believed that Sephiroth is too strong for players to use. One of the main reasons behind Sephiroth's ban is that he boasts incredible range with his seven-foot Masamune blade.
However, the fact that this ban is being issued on December 28 is significant. In Spain, December 28 is a holiday known as Día de los Santos Inocentes — which translates to Holy Innocents' Day. Essentially, today is April Fools' Day in Spain.
Just like with April Fools' Day here in America, Día de los Santos Inocentes is a holiday in which friends and family members are expected to play pranks on one another. As such, this article about Sephiroth's ban is intended to be a practical joke.
Even the best Super Smash Bros. Ultimate competitor in the world, T1|MkLeo, got duped by this practical joke.
"Did they just ban Sephiroth in Spain?" asked MkLeo. "People [are] saying he has no counterplay?"
MkLeo would go on to clarify that this was indeed a joke after he learned of details regarding the Spanish tradition.
"OK everyone from the US, today is like April Fools' in Spain and Mexico," stated MkLeo. "So this is a joke. Holy f*** I thought this was real lmao."
Back during the era of Super Smash Bros. 4 and Bayonetta, tournament organizers in Spain were among the first to begin banning the Umbra Witch from Smash events since it was believed that there was an incredible gap between her and the rest of the roster in terms of her tier placing.
It seems that Nintendo was made aware of the Bayonetta problem and proceeded to release a patch that did nothing other than nerfing the witch a month later. We later learned that this patch dropped while Masahiro Sakurai and Bandai Namco were simultaneously developing Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
Though it could be argued that Bayonetta received the most extreme nerfs throughout Super Smash Bros. 4's entire lifespan, she was ultimately still considered to be the best character in the long run. This really speaks volumes about how strong Bayonetta was upon her release in Smash 4.
Bayonetta's release prompted immediate concerns from the Smash community. While Sephiroth could end up being one of the stronger DLC characters released for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, he really doesn't appear to mirror the Bayonetta problem of Smash 4.
Even with Sephiroth's extreme reach, he's seemingly kept in check thanks to having heavy amount of start up time and recovery on his attacks. Sephiroth does appear to be a strong challenger, but it will likely take some work to really bring out his potential.
At the moment, it really feels like Persona's Joker would be more deserving of a ban since he's often seen as being one of the better characters in the game at high level. Even then, some would argue that Pikachu outranks the Phantom Thief.
But impressions of Sephiroth's abilities are still in their infancy for the Smash community as he's only been playable since December 17, 2020 — a mere 11 days. We could see a timeline where this prank becomes prophetic.
Ironically, we've seen something like this happen before with regards to Jigglypuff in Super Smash Bros. Melee. On March 31, 2004, Smashboards released a tier list that positioned Jigglypuff as a top tier in Melee as part of an April Fools' joke.
Prior to this tier ranking, Jigglypuff was ranked as the eleventh best fighter at high level play. The balloon Pokémon wasn't even considered to be top 10 back then.
Ironically, some top players are now making the argument that Jigglypuff is the best character in Melee. Regardless, the character is now viewed as a top 5 character in the current meta.
We'll just have to see if something similar happens with Sephiroth in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. The potential is certainly there with this Final Fantasy 7 rep.
