How Team Liquid Nephew leveled up and how he’s preparing for Capcom Cup 11

Capcom Cup 11 is right around the corner, and no one knows that better than Alan “Nephew” Sun, Team Liquid’s star Street Fighter player and one of NA’s brightest talents. He’s trained heavily alongside Punk to become another NA rushdown threat, with a stifling pressure game and incredibly hard-to-read footsies. (The two were also roommates for a while.) All the training has paid off; recently, Nephew has been outperforming even his own expectations, getting second place at the massive Singapore Super Premier. 

On top of all that, Nephew is probably the best Juri main in the world, and the character’s best chance to shine in this Capcom Cup. Unfortunately for him and for Juri, Nephew has been drawn into a group that has two of the best Guiles of the tournament, one of Juri’s worst matchups. Still, the new NA phenom’s confidence is only on the rise.

We caught up with Nephew at Genesis X2 to talk about how he’s preparing for Capcom Cup, cooking a secondary Mai, becoming more confident in big moments, playing less popular characters, and (of course) his ideal Sajam Slam team. 

Groups have just dropped for Capcom Cup. How are you feeling about yours?

I didn't really like my group too much because it's definitely one of the hardest ones, if not the hardest group. And I have two Guile players, which is a really bad matchup for my character, but I have two weeks now to prepare, so I'm gonna do my best. Even though it's hard, I still gotta beat everyone if I wanna win.

You've got every region in attendance, do you find any big stylistic differences between them?

Definitely. Traveling to EU and Japan, you notice differences just playing ranked with people. I would say in EU, they take a lot more risk, at least the ranked players. I feel like the top players, they all kind of have their own play styles, but the general player base kind of changes. Japan, I feel like they focus more on playing properly and having the perfect anti-airs and checks and combos but they’ll not try and read as heavy. They’re a bit more reserved generally.

Going into Capcom Cup? How are you feeling about it? You've been kind of on the rise recently. You think you got it?

I feel pretty good. Honestly, my offline results surprised even myself. I knew I was pretty decent but I feel like my results last year were amazing. Getting second at that supermajor in Singapore really elevated my confidence. I feel like I can beat anyone, I just have to play good on the day. 

What do you think led to your improvement? Do you think it was like a change in something you did in practice? Was it just the confidence coming together?

I think it was mostly a change in practice, and also a bit in my mentality during tournaments. I feel like I'm a bit more focused now, and can shake when bad things happen a little bit more. But in terms of practice I feel like I have notes on every character matchup, and I feel like I'm a lot more studied than I used to be.

You mentioned, just like tournament nerves and mentality. Were there particular things that you changed on the day to help yourself out?

So a few of the earlier tournaments, I was noticing that when it came down to a last round situation, I would get… not really nervous, but I would kind of overthink things. So [I’m] just trying to play every round kind of the same, and not getting into my own head about it being the last round.

I was interviewing Riddles and he said that what made you so good is that you're just so damn good at guessing. You just know that you know what people are gonna do. Is some of that mental clarity that you've gotten helping you with guessing [right]?”

Maybe. I don’t particularly think that I’m good at guessing. I’m good at guessing the risk-reward part of it but not at reading my opponent like crazy. Some players, like Mena and Angry Bird are really good at that somehow but that's kind of magical. It's not really something you can do all the time. 

I feel like as long as you understand all of your options and risk reward and as long as it doesn't get in your head, you can make good guesses. [...] It's just like reading the state of the game. Depending on resources some options are more risky or better than others. 

Do you feel like there is an area in the game where you're sort of over-leveraged, or that brings you from good up to great?

To be honest, I feel like I'm just pretty well rounded. But I learned a lot from Punk — his footsies and decision making are amazing — so I just try and be as close to him as possible.

I saw you playing Mai in TNS. How would you rate her?

She's probably somewhere in the middle. She has some really good stuff, like her fans are really cheap, but she seems to struggle against fireballs the same as Juri does. I definitely think she has some bad matchups, and her anti-air isn't as good so she has some weaknesses that probably won't put her in the top tier but I think she has very good strengths that you can take advantage of. 

You talked [to me] a little bit about bringing out the Mai potentially for the Guile. What do you think makes Mai a little bit better for Guile?

Honestly, I don't really know if it's better for Guile. I think they might both be bad, but I'm trying to figure out which one might be better right now. So I'm not completely decided.

How are you approaching Genesis with it being so close to Capcom Cup?

I just wanted to come here to practice, because I haven't been to an offline tournament since November. And I feel like, if you haven't been to one in a while you can get some nerves. I feel like just playing on stage against other good players like that'll get me in good shape for Capcom Cup, even if I don't win.

You’ve mained Juri for a while, you obviously do well with her, but do you ever watch one of the top Ken's and say, “I could do that! I could pick up Ken.”

I feel like Ken would fit me too but I like playing characters that people don't really play. I feel like it's cool to be unique. I feel like Juri’s a lot better for that — there’s a hundred Ken players and like two or three Juri players.

And do you find there's like, a tangible advantage in that at the top level?

Yeah, I think so, because even if they know the matchup, they're not always gonna be well-practiced and there are going to be things they don't know.

You recently have been doing very well in the Sajam Slams. You won one, and then you got second in the next. How are you enjoying coaching?

It's really fun, all my teammates have been amazing so far. As long as they really enjoy learning Street Fighter, I'm happy to teach them. 

Hell yeah. What's your Sajam Slam all star team?

I would definitely have Lilypichu from my last team and I definitely want eskay too. But other than that, any of my teammates would be amazing.

Is that [eskay] pick guided by the fact that she also plays Juri?

Kinda yeah but she is a grinder, she really loves playing the game and I think that’s really cool.