Last year, Nemo had to fight tooth and nail to get into Capcom Cup. He did so by winning the last chance qualifier in stunning fashion against Infiltration. Then for good measure, he made it all the way to third place at Capcom Cup itself, capping off one of the most impressive runs in fighting game history.

With his berth clinched through the Asian Regional slot, will he replicate the same success as last year?

Destroy

Nothing that can be said about Nemo’s Urien hasn’t already been said. He has long been the originator of Urien tech, showing off stunning displays of Aegis Reflector usage, zoning, V-Skills, and beautiful hit confirms.

While Urien may have dropped slightly in the tiers since Season 2, Nemo has hardly slipped. It’s really hard to find an active Urien that has been complete of a player as Nemo has been. With players like Dogura focusing primarily on Dragon Ball FighterZ, and upcoming Urien mains like Sabour and Ryusei barely travelling, Nemo has been the most consistent, easily.

Not Winning

Much like last year, Nemo hasn’t won much. In fact, this is worse than last year; at least last year he had a second place under his belt at East Coast Throwdown. This year, the closest he got to such a placing is third at Tokyo Game Show.

While that in itself is admirable — a third at a tough Premier over second at a smaller Ranking event — it doesn’t mean that he’s capable of winning a tournament like Capcom Cup. Last year for me would’ve been the year he could’ve done it, given the tear he went on to win the LCQ just to make it in at all.

But he doesn’t even have a primer tournament such as this to give him the confidence that he might be able to win everything. This could be one of his sails without wind.

Clutch Factor

But it’s really hard to take away Nemo’s clutch factor. In so many sets in 2017 at Capcom Cup, he seemed to grab victory from the jaws of defeat. Going down two games to Didimokof and coming back to take the set, after Didimokof looked incredibly in control.

And this wasn’t the only set where this happened. Problem X also suffered the same 3-2 defeat at the hands of Nemo. When he wasn’t doing that, there were multiple 3-0 victories on his hands. So while many would fold under that level of mental exhaustion, Nemo seems to soar.

Final Thoughts

It’s not outside the realm of possibility that we could see Nemo in the top 8 once more. He still has all the tools, and is very good at adapting on the fly. I would say it’s harder because he doesn’t have the momentum to ride like he did last year, but that adrenaline rush doesn’t always guarantee a good performance.

Will he win it all? Most likely not. While he’s got a great clutch factor, riding that alone doesn’t always guarantee results either. He would literally have to play far less with his back to the wall to convince me he could do that. But given his results this year, he hasn’t.