Hugo is a really fun character to play. I like his moves, his combos, etc.
But frankly, he might be the absolute worst character in the game when played online.
What kills him is speed. specifically, lack of it. Even more specifically, frames.
Hugo’s moves are slow. staggeringly slow. while his normals often have great range due to his size, they come out with the blazing speed of a sleeping tortoise, and recover about as quickly. not only does this put him at a sever disadvantage when he’s under pressure, but characters with faster moves can take advantage of his extended hitbox and slow recovery to land more hits on him during footsies. enemy grapplers can even grab him with proper timing.
And of course, all this makes him INCREDIBLY free to any decently fast reversal. he can get shoryukened out of pretty much anything he does, with very little risk.
Even his two armored space-closing special, EX meat squasher and lariat, can both lose to even non-armor breaking reversals due to 1:meat squasher’s armor ends before the grab actually begins(I’ve even been jabbed out of it before), and a decent reversal’s iframes will almost always beat out Lariat’s single hit, then proceed to hit hugo after his armor stops.
Because of his massive hitbox and slow moves, Hugo somehow manages to be even worse against shotos than Gief and hawk, whilst offering no real advantages over them.
And finally, the lag. As I said, Hugo is slow and many of his moves are situational in nature, which gives him more of a reactionary play-style. strong reads, choosing the right counter, etc.
And like anything that requires reaction, it’s nerfed online. I’m sure many other enthusiastic players have found themselves being repeatedly stuffed out of everything they try to do, not just by reversals, but by typical normals. it’s even fairly easy to safejump his backbreaker once you know it’s angles(and indeed even knock him out of it with jumpins. yes, even EX)
Basically Hugo very much relies on surprise to win. If your opponent knows what you’re going to do, they can typically easily counter it. The longer the game goes on, the weaker Hugo will be as more people become familiar with his moves, learn safe setups against him, etc.
And all these issues are exacerbated online due to the weakened ability to react. you’ll just always be a step behind, getting all your moves stuffed.
I really like Hugo, and plan to continue playing him, but for the love of god capcom, people should not be able to beat out my jabs with their heavy 
And btw, that’s not hyperbole. Hugo’s jab has a 6 frame startup(with 11 frame recovery, because why not). that’s twice as long as, say, Ryu’s.
Ryu’s hard punch? 5 frames.