I decided to come back to the lab on this tech because of how good I've gotten with the upwards DITCIT, and knowing how different several matchups would be if only I could do the forward version. Spent two hours last night to no avail - not even one forward DITCIT. Made a special stage for it and everything.
I will go on a little tangent here, though, because I don't ignore learning, even when I'm failing to perform a tech. This tech has never really been accurately described, to my knowledge, in terms of what is actually happening. Almost every other tech I can think of has a really long, technical description of what's happening and why it's happening, while this one never really got that kind of treatment, so whether or not its common knowledge, I'm gonna put it out on the table:
While I know DITCIT is supposed to stand for Dash Item Toss Canceled Item Toss, what is actually happening is more of a Smash Item Toss Canceled Dash Item Toss, but that doesn't really roll off the tongue. There are three item throwing states in Smash - the normally thrown item, the dash thrown item, and the smash thrown item. In terms of the Metal Blade, and in terms of ending lag, there is no meaningful difference between these two states, as the Metal Blade has a set movement speed and distance it can travel.
The reason I point out the difference between the Smash item toss and normal Item toss is that every time a player performs a successful DITCIT, the player is Smash Item tossing out of a dash, not normal, and to my knowledge, there is no known way to perform a 'normal' item toss to perform the tech. The cause is anyone's guess, but the sliding is created by the player performing a smash item toss when the state machine says it should be a dash item toss (which actually does have noticeable lag difference). This is why the upwards DITCIT is so much easier than the forward DITCIT - it's easier to buffer an upwards smash item toss because the interference of the C-Stick doesn't conflict with the direction the control stick is in, probably for around the same reason jump canceling exists.
I'm bringing this up because hopefully, knowing the more technical details of the tech will bring forth some insight on how to more effectively perform the forward DITCIT, since the question becomes a bit more tangibly phrased as "what is the easiest way to forward smashed item toss while dashing". Also I should mention that there have been several times that I got exactly that functionality, a forward smash item toss out of a dash, but did not slide anywhere near as far as a DITCIT should take me, only as far really as the dash toss would have, but with less end lag. If anyone else has managed this, we might be able to shed light on what makes the sliding actually happen. Godspeed, Mega Men.
