In the Japanese CvS2 National Tournament, champion Ohnuki Shin'ya demonstrated a new glitch that has the potential to change how CvS2 will be played from this point on. This glitch, simply put, will allow the C, A, and N Grooves to perform invincible Special Moves whenever they want. Ryu can now throw a Hadouken and be mostly invincible while throwing it. Blanka can now perform a Rolling Attack right through a Projectile! Iori can perform a Deadly Flower right through your sweep.

The glitch stems from the fact that you can Kara (Kara being the Japanese word for "empty") cancel a roll (Jab + Short) into a special move. What is a Kara cancel you ask? We are all familiar with Buffering, right? Canceling a Normal move that connects into a Special Move, like Ryu's Crouching Forward into Hadouken Combo. Well, a Kara cancel is essentially the same thing, except you are canceling things that whiff... that hit nothing but air (thus, the term "empty"). This ability was put in to allow leniency on performing Special Moves. Several strategies have come from Kara Cancels before: Proximity Cancels in Alpha 3, Katobbi Cancels in Alpha 3, and Kara Throws in Third Strike. In all those situations, you canceled whiffing Normal Moves into another move, whether it was a Super, a Custom, or a Throw.

This new glitch basically allows you to cancel a Roll into any Special Move of your choice. Thus, you are Kara Canceling the Roll. Once you do this, your Special Move gains some invincibility that was supposed to apply to the Roll. Using this technique allows you to pass through Sonic Booms or to have 100% invincible anti-air Psycho Crushers or to out-invincible Level 3 Supers! Pretty much, it'll could change the way CvS2 can be played on its highest level.

So what happens when you Roll? It looks like just one thing: your character goes into a bunch of animation frames deemed invincible by the game. But that's not actually what's going on. When you press Jab + Short, there are actually TWO events occurring, but they coincide so well with each other, it appears that only one event is occurring. The first and most obvious event is that you roll: your character goes into an animation where they move along the floor with shadow effects. The second obvious thing is that you become invincible to regular attacks. But what is important to note is that though these two things happen in conjunction with each other to form one action (the Roll), they are in fact two separate entities being kept track of by the game. This is very important in understanding this glitch.

The fact that these two things are actually independent allows us to cancel the Roll animation, yet retain the invincibility frames. When a roll is performed, the game creates two "threads". The 1) "animation thread" to control the animation of the Roll and the 2) "invincibility thread" to keep track of the length of the invincibility. However, when a Roll is Kara Canceled, only one thread is interrupted: the animation thread. Thus, the invincibility thread continues to live on. So the Special Move gains the benefit of these invincibility frames rather than the Roll. So the Special Move gets to be invincible for as long as the character's Roll is invincible... so you can see how this can become very deadly.

Of course, this means that the Special Move isn't entirely invincible. Every character’s Rolls have 21-22 frames of pure invincibility (except Chun Li, who happens to have 23, and Eagle and Maki, who have 20). Thus, only the first 21-22 frames of a Special Move will actually be invincible. So although Ryu can Kara-Roll Cancel his Hadouken, he'll still become vulnerable a bit after the fireball leaves his hands. So if you jump over Ryu and he throws a Kara-Roll Canceled Hadouken, you'll still be able to nail him in his delay after the first 21 invincible frames have ended. Or if Blanka does a Kara-Roll Canceled Rolling Attack from across the screen, by the time he reaches you, you can still hit him out of the Rolling Attack. Also, if the move has natural delays, you can always nail the enemy out of their delay. If Guile does a Kara-Roll Canceled Somersault Kick, you can still nail him during his recovery. If Bison does a Kara-Roll Canceled Psycho Crusher and you block it, you can still nail him after he passes through you.

Nevertheless, the Kara-Roll Cancel can still be quite deadly. If Blanka is anywhere closer than 3/4 a screen away, you simply cannot hit him if he charges at you with a Kara-Roll Canceled Rolling Attack, so you just become fearful of trying to poke at him with anything! If Iori does the first part of the Deadly Flower, he's pretty much invincible the entire way through, so he can almost fearlessly attack you with that move all day! And just being able to have the option of an invincible Anti-Air with any character can send shivers down one's spine.

Kara-Roll Canceled Fireball Special Move:
-- Down, Down/Toward + Jab + Short, Toward + Punch

Kara-Roll Canceled Sonic Boom Special Move:
-- Back, Neutral + Jab + Short, Toward + Punch

The best way to do this is to try a "sweeping" motion of your fingers across the buttons. Place your index finger and thumb over the Jab and Short buttons, respectively. Then put your ring or pinky finger over the button you plan to use to activate the Special Move. Then, when you do the joystick motion, roll your hand from left to right very quickly. You are essentially hitting all three buttons at the same time, but purposely bringing the index and thumb down half a second earlier. That should allow you to Roll right before you activate the Special Move. (For those of you who play cross-handed, I don't have a recommended way of doing this... You might have to try hitting the Jab and Short with your ring and pinky fingers instead, and hit the third button with the index finger or thumb. But I don't know how comfortable that really is, so you'll have to figure something out on your own.)

When all is said and done, it takes precise timing to perform and it isn't easy. You have to practice to become good at it, but some players have already gotten to an 80% success rate. Some players claim a 95% success rate already on most Fireball motions. So it can be done with some consistency, no doubt. It just takes practice so don't be discouraged.

Counters
Characters that have a counter, such as Geese or Rock, become invincible when they perform a Kara Counter. But, essentially, this makes the Counter pointless!!! Hence, they only become useful in order to go through Projectiles or something. But if someone is attacking you, you should NOT perform a Kara-Roll Canceled Counter, or else the enemy cannot hit you, and you will not actually go into your Counter. With Yamazaki, however, you may want to perform a Kara-Roll Cancel on his Counter. The start-up of his Counter eats up most of the invincible frames, and he sits there with his tongue out much longer that the 21-22 frames of invincibility allotted to him. Thus, it makes Yamazaki's Counter, in essence, SAFER because you can't hit him during his start-up anymore. He'll go from invincible straight into his Counter, now.

Reflects
Projectile Reflects, such as Rugal's Dark Barrier or Athena's New Psycho Reflector, work mostly the same way whether Kara-Roll Canceled or not. The only difference is that you can't hit the enemy for those first 21-22 frames if it. Otherwise, the fireball will be reflected back as normal, if the Fireball comes in contact with the Reflect portion of the move. However, there are two cases where the behavior is a little different: Yamazaki's Double Return and Eagle's Saint Andrews Green. In both of those cases, the character doesn't reflect your projectile, per se. They absorb it, and fire backs their "own" projectile. Apparently, these moves work by "trading" with the projectile. It hits the projectile and erases it, but the projectile also hits the move. If the projectile hits the move, it'll shoot back it's own projectile. Thus, if you Kara-Roll Cancel these two particular reflect moves, the projectile can't HIT anything, because it's invincible!! So what happens is that the projectile is hit by the move (and gets erased), but the projectile doesn't hit the move, so nothing is shot back!! So if you are trying to reflect a projectile back at the enemy with these two characters, don't Kara-Roll Cancel it.

Taunts
Yup. Taunts act as Special Moves. So you can Kara-Roll Cancel a Taunt!!! So yes, you can use Taunts to go through Projectiles as well! And to avoid Special Moves and Supers and such! So not only can you avoid these things, you can avoid them IN STYLE!! ^_^ The ultimate Kara-Roll Cancel insult!

Q. Can you Kara-Roll Cancel the Roll into another Roll?
A. No. Rolls, remember, cannot be Buffered into. Thus, they do not have the ability to cancel Normal Moves. In the same regard, then, that means they cannot cancel ANYTHING that can be canceled through Buffering or Kara-Canceling. Thus, they cannot cancel themselves. So no 100% invincible infinite Rolls.

Q. Can you Kara-Roll Cancel into Super Combos?!?
A. Yes. However, Supers have their own "invincibility threads". Thus, whenever a Super is activated, the game will recalculate the intended invincibility of the Super to give it its proper invincibility period. Thus, Level 1's and other weak Supers will not gain the invincibility of a Roll.

Q. Can you Kara-Roll Cancel a Roll into a Custom Combo in A Groove?
A. No. At least, not that we've found yet... And this is a moot point anyhow. By the same virtue as the Super Combos, a Custom Combo would recalculate it's own invincibility right upon start-up. So even if you could Kara-Cancel a Roll into a Custom, there really isn't much point to it.

Q. Can you Kara-Roll Cancel a Dodge in S Groove?
A. So far, no. Repeated attempts have been made to perform a Kara-Dodge Cancel, but so far to no avail. There are no solid theories as to why this is, but the best we can come up with is this: Dodges are very "specific" in their properties and their three phases that a Dodge is made of are treated very carefully. So there was no carelessness in accidentally allowing the Dodge to be Kara-Canceled at the beginning. This reason doesn't make much sense, admittedly. ^_^ But there really is no clear reason why this doesn't work.

(Do note, though, that you CAN Kara Cancel certain Dodge Attacks into Specials, but this does not create any sort of invincible benefits like a Kara-Roll Cancel does. Every character has one Dodge Attack that is Bufferable. However, this Dodge Attack doesn't need to connect in order to be canceled in that frame. You can actually miss with the attack and still cancel on that frame. So characters like Zangief can cancel his Punch Dodge Attack in its first frame into an SPD, even if it whiffs. This essentially lets him go from a Dodge straight into the SPD with only ONE vulnerable frame that can be struck: the frame with his arm just starting to come out.)

Q. Can you Kara-Roll Cancel a Counter Movement in N Groove?
A. No. Even though Counter Movements ARE just Rolls, it appears that because they are done in a non-Neutral situation (during a Block), Capcom wasn't worried about Roll commands and Special Move commands interfering with each other. Thus, you are not allowed to Kara-Roll Cancel a Counter Movement. At least, so far, we haven't been able to do it. ^_^

Q. Can you use the Negative Edge (button release) to perform a Kara-Roll Cancel?
A. Yes. But this isn't easy at all. It sounds like it should make performing a Kara-Roll Cancel MUCH easier... a breeze, even. But for some reason, it is MUCH easier to perform a Kara-Roll Cancel the "normal" way: by pressing a button. Normally, you would think that it would be more effective to do the motion, hit Jab + Short part way through the motion, and then activate the Special Move by releasing the Jab or Short that you pressed down (depending on what Move you are trying to do). However, after trying this repeatedly, it's pretty conclusive that this method is actually HARDER to do. Why is that? We're not sure why, but it may, in fact, be quicker to hit another button down by rolling your fingers across Jab and Short and the third button then it is to releasing Jab or Short after pressing them down.

Q. Can you Kara Cancel a Roll into a Jab or Short versions of Special Move?
A. Yes, but, again, it's MUCH harder to do. This is because you have to tap Jab + Short VERY VERY VERY VERY quickly. You have 3 frames to cancel a Roll, right? So in 3 frames, you have to have let go of the Jab and Short and have pressed Jab or Short again for your Special Move! 3 frames is a VERY short period of time, folks, so this is not going to happen very often at all. You're better off sticking with the other four buttons for activating the Special Move.

Q. Can you extend Zangief's SPD range with this, in a way that the Extended SPD Range in Alpha 3 worked?
A. By virtue that you move slightly forward because of the Roll before it's canceled, yes, by a tiny bit.

Q. Hmmm... Speaking of Zangief's SPD... Since these are a Roll's invincibility, can you throw the enemy during these invincible frames?
A. Yes. All properties of the Roll are still there. So even if Iori does a Kara-Roll Canceled Deadly Flower and you do a Final Atomic Buster with Zangief, you're going to grab the enemy. Rolls do not have invincibility against Throws, so since you are only gaining the Roll's properties, you will get thrown. However, if the Throw isn't instant, or if it has less range than the attacking move, or has no invincibility, you will probably hit the person trying the Throw attempt, rather than getting thrown yourself. You can only be thrown if you are within their range and they can grab you past (or through) your attack. And, of course, ONLY if the move you are doing is still on the ground. You still can't grab if you do a Blanka Rolling Attack, for example, unless it's an Air Throw of some sort (like Zangief's Aerial Russian Slam).

Thanks to bas for providing us with this information.