Marvel vs Capcom Infinite: the end of button-bashing fighting games?

With the latest title in its epic tag-team series, Capcom promises to bridge the gap between fighting game pros and the rest of us. Could this be its toughest fight yet?

Frame counting is an often misunderstood skill practiced by vast numbers of the world's best competitive fighting game players. It involves learning the animation frame counts of all the available moves, and comparing the relative speed and power of every attack, so you know instantly how to respond to the punches and kicks coming in from your rival.

In most modern games there are 60 frames of animation per second, and every move is broken down into three sections: activation, execution and recovery. In theory, a really great player will be able to spot a rival's intentions during the activation phase (the milliseconds it takes for a character to bring an attacking move into motion) and select a counter move that reaches execution faster.