I didn't even think of this when I first heard about MIDI event chase, but it's a HUGE advantage if you're using MIDI notes to drive a pattern based drum machine like Geist or Tremor in which the patterns are set to Gated mode (i.e. a certain pattern will keep playing as long as you hold a note down). 
 
Without MIDI event chase, if you have long extended MIDI notes triggering the same gated pattern, you'd have to rewind back to the start of that note every time if you wanted your drums to play. Now I can start playback anywhere and the pattern will play back. Absolutely fantastic!

Very cool. It is a marvel of modern science I have to say.

I have not tried it yet but I am sure its going be a big advantage using the pattern based strum sequencers on virtual guitars, for similar reasons.

It's a game changer!

I agree :) Long expected and absolutely great feature for working with VSTi :) 
Many thanks for this :)

Never occurred to me that this would be even possible - I had just accepted the status quo. I'm not a huge midi user, with the exception of drums and a bit of VB3, but it will be useful I'm sure.

I'm surprised there's not been more buzz about this. 
 
For anyone uses a lot of drum loops or arps, this is sooo great.  I'm having a blast sketching out songs with Omnisphere in Stack Mode and it's so much quicker to edit for me now.
 

Hmm...hadn't thought of that case and that might be quite useful.  I just have so many evolving synths in use that the majority of the time, I wouldn't actually hear the right sound when using note chase (and why I've argued against it...I think it's a misleading feature to have, as users may well make decisions based on something that isn't correct).

Has anyone had a look how it does perform regarding MIDI patch changes and CC events that are e.g. used to control external devices but are like 20 or 30 measures earlier but searchback still applies when jumping to a later part of the song ... previous versions used to have some issues in that case ...

The only true 'issue' with patch/controller searchback (now 'Event Chase') I was ever able to verify is in the very specific and unusual case that a separate MIDI clip later in the project has been slip-edited so the clip boundary is earlier than the first event in the clip. Since Note Chase will never involve looking back across a gap between clips, this shouldn't be a problem.
 
And it needs to be understood that Event Chase is strictly a playback function; it's not going to apply when bouncing a section of a track where the selection doesn't include the relevant controller or note-on event.