There are many times when we get accidental victories, or basically, anytime you win the round or exchange by doing something you did not intend to do.
We usually play fighting games by doing two things:
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Strategy - putting together a strategy of things we intend to do, and how we plan to react to what the opponent does with his own character
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Execution - try and actually implement 1) by Executing it (often much easier said than done)
So “Accidental Victory” is any time you win an exchange by messing up your Execution. You had a specific strategy in 1) you intended to do, but weren’t able to do 2), yet still came out ahead in the exchange. You can count accidental trades that work out in your favor as well for these.
The question is, when this happens, did you win by playing an honest game? Or was it more, just a bunch a bullshit and you got lucky. You can argue it was “honest enough” because you can make note of it for next time you play the game and improve based on it (if you can remember all the details of what just happened, after all, you messed it up). It’s fair to argue this, since many people don’t even seem to mind “figuring out” learning where the hitboxes are instead of getting to view them. However, you still got rewarded for something you did not even intend to do.
So I am leaning more towards “bunch a bullshit” because Volition is not adequately represented in these cases.
Examples in ST:
The best one is probably Ryu’s towards+fierce (hard punch) move, the 2 hit rush-in punch, but getting a throw instead. This makes people sad. This punch move is usually done at the beginning of Ryu’s big damage combos, eg: Ryu dizzies opponent, great, so he goes for 8 or more hit combo OH SNAP I threw them instead because I slightly mistimed the rush-in fierce punch move by a frame or two. Even if you have the timing down for the bigger combos beginning with rush-in fierce punch, that all gets thrown (literally) right out the window. Sadness ensues and later games alleviate the sadness-from-throw problem by implementing more sensible volition recognition TWO button throws. In A3 for example this allowed for an interesting air throw game.
A lot of times when I tried Fei’s chicken wing kick arc kick move, I get standing roundhouse or the normal kick but that would hit anyways.
At least one of Ken’s new funky kicks sometimes comes out when I intended a low kick instead (do any of the funky kicks end in down+towards?). That usually does make me sad, as the intended low kick really was what would have been better for me, but I get hit instead. Occasionally, though, the opponent outfoxes my INTENDED strategy of low kick, so he jumps, but since he underestimated my ability to fuck up a simple basic move, and he got hit instead.