Spark

I'll be locking the loke test discussion thread sense it's over and CS2 is actually out.

TKing is better defensively because it's faster, you only after to go through jump start up which is 4 frames. While dashing is frame 6 at earliest. Dashing Hotaru is better offensively because not only do you move closer if you do it as fast as possible or as late as possible it's +7, where as if you TK it it's -3. This is because when you dash you are closer to the ground than when you TK.

4C is faster in CS2.

Updated my write up(On page 2) finally. Although I'm probably still missing stuff.

Punishes: 632146C - If he does this and you jump over and he puts himself in the corner you can punish with 6C level 3. - Otherwise just IB most of the hits and punish with anything except level 3 6C. [W] 236D - tk j.214B/C or 44 j.214B/C if you try to jump to avoid the grab and punish with falling j.2C he can recover in time to 5B you as you fall. Anti-airing & Zoning: Zoning Valk is not difficult if he chooses to stay in human form for some reason. He doesn't have a run, so he can't get in on the ground if you use 4C. Same with trying to get in through the air you can tk j.214B to beat everything, 5A to beat jump ins that are done late, or jump back j.C his AD. If he uses the wolf transform to get in and move around (which he should) it becomes a lot more tricky to zone him because of all the different options he has when he's in wolf form. When he is in wolf from on the ground he can't run under 4C, but this is really risky because he can just wolf dash over it and CH hit you easily. If he choose to go into the air it can be dangerous to jump after him with j.C because he can dash back down to the ground and anti-air you with [W] 5B or do the straight wolf dash attack which clashes with j.C a lot for some reason. Strategy: Approaching Valk: I had a lot of trouble attacking Valk when he's in wolf form, so I only approached him when he was in human form. His 2C can be beaten if you jump in with j.2C such that the tip of j.2C (the part of the attack where it goes up) is only touching Valk because he has no head attribute invincibility on his 2C when it goes active so you'll beat it out clean otherwise you'll trade with it and that gives him a free combo. Also this is easier to do on Valk and not other people with anti-airs because he has a set dash, so he can't just run forward and 2C to hit you. On the ground Hakumen's 3C will beat out Valk's 5C if they come out at the same time because Valk's 5C extends Valk's hitbox out before it goes active. Although it's not really a good idea to poke with 3C because at the range where he'll be poking with 5C you can't combo off a 3C anyway and if you get hit with 5C you'll be crouching and he'll get a free 236C launch. Also his 5C goes low enough to hit 623A and goes high enough to tag you out of your IAD. Pressuring Valk: His three options of escaping pressure are CA(which is one of the better ones because he can get decent damage off of it), 632146D(Does 3K, but at least he can't combo off of it), and back dash. With these in mind if he has less than 50 meter you can almost do whatever you want. You just have to be ready to punish his back dash as soon as you see it. I usually use 214A because it's the least expensive move that will actually punish his back dash. If it hits him standing go into the regular Bnb and if it hits him in the air he'll bounce into your 5C into BnB. Once you get him to stop back dashing you can start your mix up. Dealing with Valk mix up: 6C: An overhead that he can wolf cancel the start of. You have to hit him out of this because he is at a huge frame advantage after this. 236A: Isn't really a mix up, but an annoying move because it puts him next to you and is +2. Although if you IB it his pressure ends right there. 236B>236B: It's a low that's kind of annoying because there are 3 points where he can wolf cancel for mix up. He can cancel the start up, cancel after the first hit, or cancel after the second hit. If he doesn't cancel at all the move is punishable. If you spot the wolf cancel you should be able to interrupt with 5A if you IBed the move before the cancel. 236C: It's an over head that leads into pretty big damage. You can tell this move apart from the others because on start up there is a white ring that appears where his hand is. If you IB this you can 100% punish with 5A. If he didn't transform go into your BnB, if he did you would have 5Aed him in the air, so go for your air BnB. [W] 236D: You have to tk a special to really punish it, because if you jump he can recover in time to 5B you as you fall. Char specific details: Best 1 star throw combo for Valk that I know of: BC > 214A > 66 > 5B > j.A > j.B > jc > j.2A > j.C Final Note: I don't play this match up super often, so I'm sure I'm missing a lot of stuff.

j.2C has really slow start up, so if you use it jumping in a lot of the time they can anti-air you with something quick like 5A. But if you do it on the way up they have less time to react to it and if they block it you can always do j.214B on the way down. I think most of the gurens in the video are from me doing 5A after going from crouching to stand blocking so I got 214A instead of 5A. Edit: Also I think those were the only matches I played that day.

I didn't enter the tournament.

It's not shown.

The auto guard frames are listed in the frame data. If by how big you mean how big the hit boxes are, I have no idea.

Well the frame data is right as far as I know for when Hakumen will cut projectiles. But, yes I'm saying because the frame ranges for cutting listed don't match up with the active frames for the sword attack, they probably don't the same hit box. No, 2C will not always lose to projectiles it will just be really difficult to cut projectiles because of how small the projectile cutting hit box is. The only reason 2C will clash with projectile/physical moves is because the projectile/physical move like Hazama's chain is clashing with Hakumen's sword's hit box before it touches the projectile cutting hit box. I think this is what you're asking for the last question, I'm not 100% sure.

No, because it will hit you out of the jump start up frames.

Same here.

Since people brought up the trouble with 2C cutting projectiles, I've given it some more thought. It's because the hit box that determines whether it will cut a projectile or not is different from the sword attacks "active" hit box. The frame data supports this because it lists j.2A projectile cutting frames as 5-18 even though it's active from frame 11-12, so it can't possibly work off the red hit box for the sword attacks shown in the hit box viewer. So for the most part the hit box for cutting projectiles are close enough to where the sword is that it looks correct. But, for some reason 2C's projectile cutting hit box is a lot closer to where Hakumen is and not where his sword is at all. This is why it can clash with Hazama's chains instead of just cutting them because they are hitting the swords active hit box, but not the projectile cutting hit box. This also explains why it will lose to Arakune's bell bug because when you look at 2C in the hit box viewer it shows the active hit box covering Hakumen completely, but because that isn't the hit box that cuts projectiles it does nothing to the bell bug then after wards it becomes a part of Hakumen's hit box so the bell bug will hit him.

For the second combo after 2C you can j.2A (x2) before ADing if you're close enough(depending on if you super jump or regular jump). Should make up the star difference and still do more damage.

Where was it mentioned that you can't combo off 2D?

I've seen it clash with the chains as well. Actually before the hit box data was released I just assumed it was because Hakumen's hit box hit the projectile before the sword did. Now I'm not sure why it is the way it is.

Besides being in the frame data, I've 2Ced Hazama's j.2D and made a orb appear. Although that's the only time I've ever seen it happen.

It can, it's just really bad at it.

(Something I've been messing around with) 2B to force a neutral tech, then do a dash so you're in the middle of your dash as he recovers from the tech. If he does Jayoku the super flash will freeze with you in the middle of your dash so you can cancel into j.214B (because Jayoku is 6+1) to beat it out. If he does nothing you just recover from your dash right next to him and can go for what ever.