Exploring the Combo Counter Glitch

Briankasugano found and documented this effect a while ago. His original video was made for Vanilla but the bug remains in Ultimate. So credit and props to him before we get started. It seems like no one else has really tested it out or looked into it since then and there's a bunch of stuff that isn't documented, so here we go...

Firstly, this is a game engine bug, not exclusive to Chun Li. Also, before we get super geek (and we will), I'm going to disagree with the terminology used in the original video. I wouldn't call this an infinite, nor would I agree that it resets damage and hit stun scaling. Simply put, it is not a combo in the true sense and is merely a 'combo counter' bug. It seems to happen when hit stun has reached a certain degree and the player performing the combo is a single frame late with the next attack. Under normal circumstances, the opponent escapes and the combo counter is reset. However, if, during this single frame, the opponent performs a normal, walks forward or does any of a number of other actions, the combo counter continues to increase, even though the opponent could have escaped, simply by blocking.

I'm willing to bet that this has actually happened in match videos we've all seen but no one noticed because no one really knew about it.

In the video a Nova loop is used that fails between the st.L to st.M. As far as I can tell, it is a single frame away from connecting. Sent does the following things during that 1 frame...

0:00- Nothing. The game acts normally and the combo counter accurately displays what is happening.

0:14- Sent mashes L/M/H. The game is confused and wrongly suggests that the combo is still going without continuing to increase hit stun deterioration or enforcing further damage scaling.

0:27- Sent mashes S. This appears to force crouching but in reality Nova is simply hitting Sent out of the initial frames of his st. S (this causes him to crouch)

0:36- Sent holds forward. Walking is apparently enough to keep the counter going.

0:48- ...performs an X-Factor and the game acts as it normally would.

0:56- ...performs a snap-back. Again, the game acts normally

1:06- ...mashes super. This causes a momentary super-freeze while the combo counter keeps on going.

1:17- ...mashes THC. Again, this causes a momentary super freeze as well as displaying 'Crossover Combination' while the combo appears to continue. In reality it has ended and a THC was performed on the reversal frame. This isn't enough to stop the counter however.