But that could change, and that is what has people scared. There's absolutely no evidence warranting a ban at this time, but people view Bayonetta's strengths as a coming storm. Again, Pound didn't prove that she's balanced for all time; it merely proved that she's not broken yet.
And who knows. Maybe she will never become broken, and we'll all live happily ever after. On the flip side, someone may refine her to deal with all her problematic matchups, and we'll start seeing Bayonetta in all the top 8 slots.
Note: excuse me for the long write-up.
What matters most is what we have, the concrete info and data that we have gathered. No one really knows what could "potentially" happen to the meta game. The worst thing you could ever do is consider bans when they're simply not warranted--it's the same thing that happened to the Miis. We don't want another sad mess.
A character needs time to develop. It took several months before Brawl MK was shown to be the unquestionable best character--many players believed Snake was the best at first, which anyone would laugh at today. The general consensus among reputable figures (ZeRo's opinion isn't the only one, guys) is that the Bayonetta crisis has been overblown and that she is far behind Brawl MK--so are we going to take measures to ban her when only two months have passed and she hasn't even won a super-major? We took measures against Meta Knight and, to a lesser extent, the Ice Climbers, only
after we had a large sample size and decisive data. Four years for MK to get banned--and people are asking for bans after two inconclusive months?
Bayonetta is a "coming storm?" Well, what if she isn't? Again, you can't take measures based purely off of paranoia and theory. Pre-patch Sheik warranted a ban more than Bayonetta. People frequently draw a comparison between Bayo and the IC's--but what they don't mention is that the IC's never won a major tourney in Brawl. The IC's evolved into a cancerous problem at around 2012, and was one of the impetus's behind lifting the MK ban. Even though Brawl was starting to decline, they had nearly 3 years to take a major, and they never did.
......
In this tragic controversy surrounding Bayonetta, I find it funny that people are ignoring the real problem: Cloud. Ask yourself: what character screams "pick up and play?" Cloud. Bayonetta doesn't fit that description because her design is pretty unintuitive.
Bayonetta has a bait-and-punish play style--and punishment characters tend to be anything but pick-up-and-play, eg.
and even
. Yes, memes aside, ZSS is not an easy character to just play. ZSS requires good fundamentals in her neutral game, and low-level players mostly lack that. They like to throw out grabs and whiff them--good ZSS players don't do that. ZSS is an amazing character, and if she really was easy to play, she would be winning every major. Punishment characters are generally held back by their honest neutral games, and a pick-up-and-play character is NOT honest.
is easier to pick up and understand because of her incredible safety. For a novice, the hard part about playing Sheik is KO'ing. They often don't have issues playing her neutral. The catch is that she's a hard character to optimize, but she's still a successful character at low-level (though less than pre-patch), which indicates that she can get results without a ton of effort.
A "pick-up-and-play" character is one who can rush in and be aggressive.
can't rush in; average mobility stats and below average frame data on the ground don't facilitate a rush-down play style, along with her slow rolls. Also, yeah, an overpowered noob-character will never have slow rolls. Against good players, a Bayo player will need to have a solid understanding of the neutral game. Good players will play defensively against Bayo, and Bayo doesn't have the best options vs reserved, patient play: a lack of guaranteed follow-ups from throws, a projectile that fires at an upward angle that prevents long range camping, and bullet arts are impractical at racking damage. Her two safe pressure options, SH bair and ABK, lose to shield. Bayo's best neutral options are Witch Twist OoS and Witch Time, her two best combo-starters, but they're just that: defensive options.
Meanwhile,
has really good mobility stats, a moveset filled with massive hitboxes and long active frames, a charging mechanic, and good frame data all-around--these are the traits of a pick-up-and-play character. Cloud's reward is highly disproportionate to his learning curve. And results are completely in favor of this. Ever since Bayo's release, Cloud has won the largest number of tourneys. Bayo needs you to learn to bait unsafe options. She's a reactive character.
Cloud is much more versatile. He can choose between rushing in and overwhelming you with his hitboxes and movement, and camping to charge his Limit Break. Cloud controls the pace of the match at high-level play in a way that Bayonetta simply can't. "But Witch Time!" Witch Time doesn't bait approaches. Limit Break does, and Limit Break opens up KOing options in a similar manner to Witch Time.
Low-level players have gotten away with poor neutral play for a long time. They simply can't do so with Bayo. They actually need to play neutral properly now, and that's why they're complaining. And once they learn to exploit Bayo's neutral--that's when they'll realize Cloud is a bigger issue.
Bayo is a noob-killer, but is all bark and little bite at top level play. Cloud, on the other hand, has excellent results across the board.
