Nintendo says Smash Bros. Ultimate's Hero is now once again permitted in their tournament

Earlier in the week, Nintendo France sent shockwaves through the Smash Bros. Ultimate community by saying that Hero was banned from competitive play in their official tournament. Many in the competitive scene have thought the character to be too random for tournament play, but it was surprising to see Nintendo take the same stance. Now just days later, Nintendo has reversed their decision.

In a statement provide to Kotaku, Nintendo said that they will be standardizing rulesets for all tournaments on the European Team Cup circuit in response to the French qualifier’s deviation.

“We’re harmonising these rules across Europe to make sure that no community or country is disadvantaged when competing in the pan-European final next year. In terms of future fighter releases, we’ll create more detailed guidelines for our tournament organizers, to make sure that we maintain a level playing-field through consistent fighter eligibility across Europe.”

This change has bumped Hero from the banned list to the permitted side of things. In all of this, no branch of Nintendo has ever said why Hero was banned in the first place.