Match-ups
Hugo's matchup spread mostly skews negative. However he is capable of beating all of the cast in the right hands. Hugo's great buttons and offensive game mean he can take games off of anyone - but most matchups will be an uphill battle
Advantage Match-ups
Sean
Sean has a vast array of moves which are SPD punishable, making it awful for him to play close. At longer ranges, Hugo's air normals zone Sean well. There's very little Sean can do to push an advantage in this matchup. The Sean's best bet is to abuse techniques known to be strong against taller characters, such as jump-back hk on wakeup.
Neutral Match-ups
Q
Look to stay close to and overwhelm Q - your close range game is much better than his and without taunts he'll die quickly. Both Hugo and Q possess similar capabilities in terms of air-normals. Hugo's best tool for handling Q is j.HP - which will hit him standing, even at long ranges. Furthermore, it will stop random dash-punch attempts. Hugo should avoid being command thrown at all costs - to achieve this c.lk must be used, as it's the only normal fast enough to interupt the startup of Q's command throw.
To punish Q's taunts, HK lariat can be used to quickly close the distance, and earn a knockdown on Q. Under no circumstance should you engage in a "taunt war". Hugo's taunt health-buff is simply worse than Q's.
Hugo Mirror
Hugo has a lot of trouble dealing with his own buttons - j.hp, 5MP and sweep are immensely powerful in this matchup. Watch out for the other Hugo trying to parry > SPD your claps. Try to maximise any opening you get, as Hugo has a lot of health and this matchup is very volatile. 2HP can be used as a decent if very risky anti air in this matchup - it recovers crouching, leaving you open for a triple-clap combo if they air parry, so don't rely on it.
Disadvantage Match-ups
Urien
Aim to break through Urien's space control and get him knocked down and/or in the corner, then do mixups from there while watching out for headbutt. 2MP will be your go-to poke here. Clap trades or beats out most of Urien's pokes in neutral. SPD is very nice for stopping his pressure if he gets too reckless, usually out of a parry or 50/50 from blocked ex headbutt. *someone write about the body splash setup*
Yun
Yun is the antithesis of Hugo. Because Yun is able to build meter so quickly, being able defend against Genei Jin is a requirement to win. Look for gaps in Genei Jin pressure to use c.lk if safe. This will push Yun back, wasting his super-time and stopping immediate overheads.
Landing Gigas will win a round outright most of the time. Aim to build meter quickly. Be aware of how the Yun's behaviour changes once you have Gigas.
If at all possible, run down weaker Yuns, and abuse the fact that the defence rating difference between the two of you is so great.
Ken
Ken's normals are ideal for keeping Hugo at distance, and avoiding ranges where SPD can be earned. Air ex-tatsu is deadly, and extremely difficult to avoid/parry when used correctly due to Hugo's height and width, you should respect it. Ken has a unique hit-confirm against Hugo (Far HP -> SA3). Don't let Ken get away with whiffing 5HK - he's wide open for a sweep or lariat
Hugo should look to earn red parry -> SPD where possible from low light chains, and from the standing target combo. Both of these scenarios are perfectly reactable.
Claps will trade favourably with ex-DP on wakeup.
Makoto
If the Makoto does too much dashing or Hayates, they can be stuffed with lk/clk/clp and anticipation mp/cmk. If she tries to fight on the ground and use the general Makoto playstyle, she'll likely get destroyed. SPD/Gigas will own her dash punches and close attacks that get blocked or parried. All of her useful pokes can be high parried besides clk and chp. Her only ground poke that can beat Hugo's crouching pokes is cmk which trades w/ Hugo's sweep. (in your favor) If the Makoto knows that she can't do a lot to Hugo on the ground, he will likely play it safe and try to hit with cmk on the ground, jumping tsurugi and safe (to parry/grab) jump ins. You have to then rely on Hugo's pretty bad anti airs and Backbreakers, try to bait her to jump with cmp and pokes, if she jumps for a tsurugi you can sometimes backbreak it on reaction. Cornering Makoto is the best thing you can do in this match... no need to worry so much with the big man about her Karakusa bullshit, she won't likely be able to land it due to Hugo's various throws beating hers and the aforementioned countering her ground offense. SAIII is recommended cause you can use it for another anti air and you're unlikely to Gigas a smart Makoto.
Jump cancel clap/spd is very powerful in this matchup, but very hard and risky to pull off.
Yang
With SA3, Yang has the ability to set-up unblockables on Hugo midscreen and in the corner. Attempt to escape this pressure with wakeup lk backbreaker - if the Yang mistimes their unblockable, you get off the ground, get hit, then reset next to Yang, for a 360 or 720, ending the scenario.
Akuma
Use j.HP to zone the life out of Gouki. Respect his zoning, and defend against it well enough to force Gouki to come close where he can be pinned down. Akuma's forward+mp is throw invulnerable. Wait about 10 frames after parrying it, before executing a 360/720. All tatsus are SPD punishable on block.
Ibuki
Play your absolute best defence and positioning to control the pace of the match - always be prepared for the Ibuki to jump in on you as they are out-normalled on the ground. Avoid being cornered at all costs - her corner mixups are a pain to deal with. Try to challenge Ibuki with anti-air parry if she EX DP's you - if you guess right you can get big damage. Zoning with air normals is very important - due to Ibuki's height you'll want to use j.HK or deep splash.
Necro
Use stand-jab to push Necro back after the twirly dive. Show respect to SA1 - they are great antiairs vs Hugo. Watch out for tricky crossups and divekick -> jump-back MP. If Hugo parries a slow long range move (HP for example), he can punish with Hammer Mountain or ex lariat by holding down punch/kick to run forwards. Try to punish SA3 with ex lariat on block if possible.
Oro
Be prepared for anti-air fireballs to hit at weird timings - MP fireball is especially strong due to Hugo's size. Oro struggles to deal with Hugo's buttons in neutral, so walk him down, trading with fireballs using 5MP or sweep. Backbreaker does a decent job at catching awkward double jumps. Learn to parry/red parry chicken feet, as this can score you great oki.
Be aware, Oro sometimes lands from ex-DP in a crouching state. This allows you to use the triple clap combo, scoring great damage.
Ryu
Look to punish all failed specials with SPD. Backdash is a useful answer to Ryu jumping in - you can buffer a Gigas and punish accordingly. LK and tatsu are always SPD bait on block - MK tatsu when properly spaced is harder to punish, though you should be able to get an SA3. SA3 is very useful to punish mistimed denjins.
Alex
Look to claim as much ground as possible and always be prepared for the Alex to forward jump, as Hugo struggles to anti air in this matchup. Important to know Alex's risk-reward on his mixups, especially in the corner, you'll want to be in his head. Alex struggles against clap mixups if spaced properly as his reversals aren't great. EX slash elbow is punishable with SA3 if you parry the first hit.
Remy
The ultimate keep-away match. I've heard some say this is 8-2 in Remy's favour, but I don't agree. Stand MP is an awesome tool to trade at mid range with any fireball, throw this out at round start to get in the Remy's head. Win round 1 with full meter, then go into round 2, land Gigas, then literally anything will kill Remy. LEARN TO PARRY THE SECOND HIT OF SWEEP! Hugo can blow Remy up with triple clap up close - further away you can get a lk meat squasher to put him in a really bad spot.
Parrying divekicks on reaction is very possible if you try hard. It's useful to know
Twelve
Twelve has all the tools needed to zone and run away all day. Be careful when jumping in, since Twelve can low profile you. If Twelve gets to fullscreen, they can safely poke at you with needles/ glider mixups until you die.
Chun Li
Hugo can stand toe-to-toe with Chun in neutral at the best of times. 2MP and sweep are great at beating out Chun's buttons, with 2MK beating out her 4HP clean. Capitalise on all knockdowns vs Chun as she has no good reversals. Beware of overusing 5MP if she has a super stocked. Don't let Chuns get away with overusing SA1 - free lariat on block, and her neutral options are much less scary.
Worst Match-ups
Elena
Many of Elena's normals hit at odd angles or make her OTG. This can make landing a command grab challenging.
Because Elena is quick relative to Hugo, she has no issues using Healing after a decent knockdown. Nothing can be done about this, so avoid getting knocked down or being too far away at all costs. Elena is crouching during healing, so you can't lariat her for it. 2MP isn't a real low
Backbreaker is important here, as Elena will be in the air for most of the round.
Dudley
Dudley's 5HP and 6HP do serious work in this matchup, very hard to punish unless you hard callout with a forward parry, sweep also beats it if misspaced. Hugo also has a lot of trouble anti-airing Dudley's jump arc - always be primed to parry > backbreaker. Look to punish mistimed roses with SPD/Gigas.
