Hitman Stance

Lee's Hitman Stance (HMS) is his main stance, having many moves that transition to it.

Cancelling

There are two ways to cancel HMS: HMS.b cancels to standing, and HMS.D/B (or D or D/F) cancels to crouching. Both of these take 1 frame, the same amount of time it takes to guard from neutral. However, HMS.b can only be done when Lee is in “full” Hitman, with his left hand performing the “come on” gesture.

This is most easily explained with FC.d/f+4,3, which is -12 on block and recovers to HMS-2:

• If you press B, i14 punishers hit, but i15 punishers are blocked, i.e. it will effectively be -14.
• If you press D/B, i12 lows will hit, but i13 lows will be blocked, i.e. it will effectively be -12.
  • With this option you're in crouching guard on the 13th frame. Only then can you get standing guard with b, which takes another frame, thus—
• If you press D/B, then press b with perfect timing, i13 mids will hit, but i14 mids will be blocked, i.e. it will effectively be -13.

These situations can be tested in practice mode using Lee's FC.d+3 as the i13 low and ws2 as the i14 mid. To do so, record Lee doing a dickjab, then crouching guard, then either punisher. Then play the recording, block the dickjab, do FC.d/f+4,3, and try and block the punisher. (It may take a few recordings before the bot is block punishing properly.)

Transitions

Not all HMS transitions are the same. Some transitions, such as d/f+4,3, must wait a while before they can do HMS.b. Other transitions, such as d+3,4, can do it instantly. This is notated by saying that e.g. d/f+4,3 recovers to HMS-17 and d+3,4 recovers to HMS-0. The number indicates how many extra frames after recovery it takes before HMS.b can be done.

Attacks

See also: Lee movelist#HMS

HMS attacks are primarily useful as hard reads, with HMS.2 and HMS.3 having high payoff against highs and mids respectively. If an opponent can't react to HMS.4 it also functions as a mixup stance with HMS.2 and HMS.4 both having high payoff on hit.

For transitions that leave Lee with good frame advantage, HMS.1 and HMS.1+2 can also act as serviceable pokes, with both having great tracking. However, for pokes they are quite slow, so going into HMS just to use them is a bit silly.