Linking Makoto's cr.LK into Ultra 1 (Seichusen-Godanzuki) - Super Street Fighter 4 Note - sf4answers

In a post titled "Mind-Blowing Setups in Super Street Fighter 4", iPlayWinner highlighted a video of a Makoto (D-7 VRyu)/Ryu (Kusanagi94) matchup during the 5v5 Super Street Fighter 4 tournament at Super vs. Battle 20-X.

In it, the Makoto does something seemingly impossible according to her frame data, she links from a cr.LK to her Ultra 1 (Seichusen-Godanzuki):

Looking at her frame data initially, it would seem impossible:

Given that she only gains plus three frame advantage when hitting with her cr.LK, she would have no chance of linking into the Ultra 1, given it's six frames of startup.

Note, however, how Makoto sets up the cr.LK, she does it as Ryu is getting up, meaning that she doesn't connect on the first active frame, making this a meaty hit, enough of one that she can link from the cr.LK to her Ultra 1 (as seen at 1:40, it shows "6 hit combo" on the left).

So given that it actually does link, the question is, what is the first active frame that the (or how "meaty" is) cr.LK has to connect on?

Remember that with frame data, Frame Advantage on Hit is calculated assuming that you hit with the first active (last startup) frame of the move. Because this isn't the case with a meaty, one has to rely on the frames of hitstun that the move has.

Unfortunately, the frame data for Super Street Fighter 4 doesn't contain this information, but it can be easily calculated for normals:

Hitstun = Active Frames + Recovery Frames + Frame Advantage on Hit

Or in this case for Makoto's cr.LK:

4 (Active Frames) + 7 (Recovery Frames) + 3 (Frame Advantage on Hit) = 14 frames of Hitstun

With this number in hand, we can figure out the minimum active frame that the cr.LK can connect on and still have enough hitstun left to link into the Ultra.

Working backwards, we will figure out how many frames on the tail end of the active frames are needed.

Remaining Active Frames Needed = Hitstun - Recovery - Startup

Which in this case is:

14 (Hitstun) - 7 (Recovery) - 6 (Startup) = 1 (Remaining Active Frames Needed)

(Note that total Startup is used here instead of Startup - 1 as the last startup frame/first active frame has to hit while the opponent is in hitstun)

That's pretty simple.  It's a one-frame-link, meaning you have to connect on the last active frame (in this case, the fourth one).

The good news is, based on the video, there appears to be a simple setup for it.  Right before the knockdown Makoto does MP cancelled into an EX Oroshi, which causes an untechable knockdown.

After the knockdown, she dashes forward once, does a neutral jump HK.  This is an extremely important point, as an empty neutral jump can have the landing frames cancelled.  By doing the neutral HK, the landing frames are not cancelled, helping to tighten up the timing.  Finally, on landing, it's a cr.LK to the Ultra.

Laid out, the setup is:

• EX Oroshi - Results in an untechable knockdown
• Forward dash
• Neutral jump HK - An attack must be done to ensure that landing frames are not cancelled.  An HK is the best choice here, since it has a small amount of active frames (five) and it should be done on the way up, so as to recover as fast as possible.
• cr.LK
• Ultra 1 (Seichusen-Godanzuki)