Melee Specifics

There's a lot of melee out there and there's a few things i can't find anywhere. When two people are locked and both swooping towards eachother, what decides which one gets hit? It usually seems that it's the last one who starts their swoop so one guess is that it's determined by amount of ki left, but that's not always the case... Anyone know how it works?
Also there's the times of counterattacking a counterattack, where the person who attacks blocks the counterattack and immediately hits the original blocker.. does it have anything to do with release time?

Question #1
It doesn't always give you the total advantage, but you have a little higher chance to hit them more than they can hit you. Having a Higher PL and KI pool brings those chances up, starting the at a certain time isn't the reason.

Question #2
Yes blocking and hitting is all in practice and timing.