By Maj

This glitch was introduced in Mem's initial CvS2 combo video and perfected by Sai-Rec in numerous short, seemingly random weekly clips. Unfortunately, it was never fully explained - at least not to the non-Japanese audience. Either by accident or by design, the CvS2 game engine has the odd rule that any qualifying cancel following a C-Groove lvl2 super cancel resets the juggle count to zero and puts an air reeling opponent into a jugglable state as long as no neutral states occur after the lvl2 cancel.

It seems as though the definition of neutral state in the CvS2 game engine is practically identical to that used in the SFA3 game engine, but it's difficult to be sure. While it isn't easy to determine every sequence of actions that avoids neutral states, there is an important tool that can be used to check whether or not one occurred - the shadow test. Canceling a lvl2 super into any lvl super causes the followup super to retain lvl2 super shadows. Canceling a lvl2 super into any special move or into any super move and then canceling the second super with any action, including jump-canceling, eliminates shadows from any move that produces them for as long as the character avoids neutral states. This includes supers, rolls, dodges, and superjumps. Thus, it's possible to test whether the character has ever reached a neutral since canceling a lvl2 super by performing one of these actions and checking whether or not there are shadows.

Unlike SFA3 infinites, avoiding neutral states is not enough to get extra juggles - certain kinds of cancels must be performed to reset the juggle count and put the opponent in a jugglable state. Qualifying cancels include buffering a normal move into a special move or super move, interrupting the recovery and landing animation of a jumping attack with a special move or super move, and canceling a special move into another special move or super move. The followup to a special move qualifies as a cancel if it builds super meter without needing to connect with the opponent. For example, special move interrupts such as Yamazaki's Sand Scattering (QCB + K) -> Serpent Slash (QCB + P) and Raiden's Combination-Body Blow (RDP + P) -> Head Butt (QCB + P) both qualify as cancels and juggle after a lvl2 cancel. A few special moves such as Kyo's, Iori's, and Rolento's Rekka Ken style attack series actually count as a single special move and not separate special moves canceled into one another. While these attack series do avoid neutral states throughout, they do not qualify as the type of cancels necessary to reset the juggle count and create new juggle opportunities.

The Mem Ryo combo is the most basic example of the lvl2 cancel extended juggle. Canceling Ryo's lvl2 Ryuko Ranbu (QCF, HCB + P) into his Kyoku Gen Kick Dance (HCB + P) fulfills the first requirement, and interrupting the landing recovery of the jump-canceled j.HP into his Koho (DP + P) qualifies as a cancel, allowing the Koho to juggle. Notice that Ryo's superjump arc has no shadows.

The Sai-Rec Kim Spirit of Conquest Kick (D, D + K) infinite combo is one of the more complicated lvl2 cancel extended juggles. It starts with the lvl2 Phoenix Kick Tornado (QCF, QCF + K) canceled into Kim's HK Spirit Kick. Holding down HK keeps Kim in his alternate stance and avoids neutral states entirely. As the opponent falls into range, Kim's alternate stance LP attack is kara-canceled into another HK Spirit Kick, with the HK button held down again to avoid neutral states. Kara-canceling the LP attack is a qualifying cancel, resetting the juggle count and creating another juggle opportunity. This happens with every iteration, making it a true infinite. Since only special moves are connecting in the infinite part of the combo, Kim never has to worry about the opponent flipping out. The lvl2 cancel extended juggle part of the combo ends with Kim performing an alternate stance LP attack canceled into his lvl1 Phoenix Kick Tornado, which connects before his opponent is able to flip out from air reel animation. The LP attack juggles because all of Kim's alternate stance attacks count as qualifying cancels, so the juggle count is actually being reset twice with each repetition of Kim's kara-canceled Spirit Kick. Notice that this super has no shadows, meaning that no neutral states occurred from the initial lvl2 cancel up to this point. The rest of the combo is three Flying Kicks (QCF + K) followed by a lvl1 Heavenly Phoenix Kick (QCF, HCB + K), all of which combos because of sufficient juggle potentials and not because of the lvl2 cancel extended juggle glitch. Notice that the final lvl1 super does have shadows. Also note that the ability to juggle with three Flying Kicks proves that the juggle count was indeed reset again by the last cancel performed before reaching a neutral state.

Kyosuke's juggle combos and infinites all stem from the rule that any move which cancels the recovery of one of his airborne moves following either his jump-canceled DF+HK or his jump-canceled Super Lightning Upper (QCB, QCB + P) always juggles. Thus he is able to perform an air chain, land on the ground, and follow it up with a s.HP attack. This principle is enough to give Kyosuke an infinite combo in S-Groove, performed simply by canceling the recovery from his jump-canceled j.MP into a lvl1 Super Lightning Upper over and over. What the lvl2 cancel gives Kyosuke is the ability to juggle after the ground normal by canceling into a special move or super move. Canceling this way into the Super Lightning Upper creates a semi-infinite that lasts for as long as Kyosuke has enough meter to perform lvl1 Super Lightning Uppers. Mem discovered the underlying principles for these combos and Sai-Rec expanded the findings to create several Kyosuke infinites. Upon reflection, it's clear that simply too many juggling exceptions were made for this character for him not to wind up with an infinite combo of some sort.

The fact that juggling an opponent with a normal move outside of a Custom Combo causes the opponent to flip out and become invincible in the air is the only thing preventing all characters with special moves that allow jump-canceling such as Maki, Rolento, and Ryo from having infinites. Their lvl2 cancel juggle combos end when they hit the opponent with an airborne normal attack and are faced with an unavoidable recovery period long enough for the opponent to recover from air reel and flip out. The only character with both a knockdown airborne normal attack and a jump-cancelable move is Kyosuke, and he's got several infinites as a result. For example, Bison could easily have had lvl2 cancel extended juggle infinites if only he was able to jump-cancel one of his special moves. Fortunately, only a select few characters in CvS2 have cancelable special moves with which to interrupt a C-Groove lvl2 super.

Very special thanks to jchensor and omni for the hours spent discussing this anomaly with me. It took an insane amount of work to figure out the cause of all this randomness, and deduce what exactly was going on in the Sai-Rec videos since the setups necessary for those combos were never shown.