No Starcraft at EWC? No problem. PiGFest is back to bring some scintillating games like always. Every iteration so far has brought amazing SC2 to the community and supported players in a time when Blizzard has abandoned its games and fans.
SUPPORT THE PLAYERS!
100% of donations/tips will go towards the prize pool so that your support will go where it is needed the most - the players! As with all our events if we go over $10k, the excess will flow 100% into the prizepool for PiGSty Festival 8
PiGFest Qualifier #1 Schedule: Tuesday, 10 February 2026 5pm PST / 8pm EST (11 Feb 10am KST / 12pm AEDT) Qualifying spots: Top 2 who are not already invited. Sign up link:https://challonge.com/pigosaur_68 (this qualifier also functions as PiGosaur Weekly #68)
PiGFest Qualifier #2 Schedule: Thursday, 12 February 2026 10am CET / 6pm KST / 8pm AEDT Qualifying spots: Top 2. Sign up link:https://challonge.com/pigfest7qual
Both qualifiers are open to all regions.
PRIZE POOL
1st = 24% 2nd = 14% 3rd-4th = 9% 5-6th = 7% 7-8th = 5% 9-12th = 3% 13-16th = 2% Total = Minimum $2,000USD (Max $10,000USD - Extra funding will go directly to PiGSty Festival 8 Prize pool)
PLAYERS
GROUP STAGE
Schedule: 19 - 22 February, starting at 10am CET / 6pm KST / 8pm AEDT each day.
Format: 4-player group stages with GSL format. Matches will be best of 3, except Qualifying Matches which will be best of 5.
PLAYOFFS
Schedule: 27 February - 1 March, starting at 10am CET / 6pm KST / 8pm AEDT each day.
Format: AFL format.
HOW TO WATCH
PiGFest will be streamed on www.twitch.tv/x5_PiG in English. All non-english casters are welcome to cast this tournament. Contact PiG on Discord or Twitter for more details.
Congratulations to Percival for securing his spot in PiGFest 7.0! The other spot from today's qualifier will be a 4-way tie between Nicoract, Creator, lemon and YoungYakov which will be determined at a later time.
The final 2 spots will be determined in tomorrow's qualifier.
What is a (pig sty) festival without some fun carnival sideshows?
First up we will have MaNa who will be doing a Twitch Plays showmatch. If you've never heard of it, it is exactly as it sounds - our Twitch audience will tell MaNa what to do on ladder! This is your chance to backseat with your Twitch GM knowledge.
Then we will have the StarCraft 2 GOAT himself, Serral, doing a Holdout Challenge. Noobs (aka volunteers) will have to 1v1 him and see how long they can stay in the game for. To thank Patrons for their continued support, everyone on the $500 Leviathan and $100 D-Town Tiers will be able to play, plus one person in the $25 Bacon Tier. All other participants will be chosen at random on the day.
Shin actually played both games very close but Maru just knew how to navigate that late game TvZ well. And with how Maru answered in his interview, basically anyone but Protoss, it would be fun to see him switch to PvP at some point, lol.
On February 20 2026 01:17 tigera6 wrote: Shin actually played both games very close but Maru just knew how to navigate that late game TvZ well. And with how Maru answered in his interview, basically anyone but Protoss, it would be fun to see him switch to PvP at some point, lol.
Solar rolling Clem like a god, then a lag spike, a minute pause, momentum switches, Clem recovers and Solar loses. Can someone be more unlucky than Solar?
Neat, if Serral wins his group tomorrow, which is a likely outcome, we'll get Maru vs. Serral rematch plus Clem vs. Reynor in the upper bracket quarterfinals. Bangers.
Incredible games so far. If you missed any of the games, I'm releasing them in order in this playlist
This means that our playoff bracket is set. The PiGFest format means that the first placed players of each group have a chance to skip straight to the semis if they beat the other first placed players. Incredibly we will get to witness Serral vs Maru and Reynor vs Clem best of 7s at this stage!
Thanks everyone for helping us reach the 10k goal for PiGFest 7.0!
Now every single dollar above this amount will go towards the next PiGFest and, like before, 100% of all donations to this link will go to the prize pool to support the players https://www.pigstarcraft.com/pigfest-7-0/
Really great stuff so far! I do think that the tournament format is a bit unfortunate in that having lots of games with so many best of sevens and even best of nines strongly favors zerg. That's more of an issue with the way the game is than the tournament, of course.
Zerg has an inherent advantage as the reactive race the longer series go, they can play "standard" and win in the long run. How many prepared builds can a protoss or a terran realistically have when a tournament has two bo7s and a bo9 AFTER the group stage?
I mean, Maru and Clem make it look do-able beating Zerg in a standard game, albeit in very different ways. Clem is more aggressive, active with Bio Mines and Libs until Zerg defense is broken. Maru is more defensive with Tanks into Ghost Mech focus on surviving and slowly grind Zerg down in lategame.
On February 27 2026 14:21 Telephone wrote: Really great stuff so far! I do think that the tournament format is a bit unfortunate in that having lots of games with so many best of sevens and even best of nines strongly favors zerg. That's more of an issue with the way the game is than the tournament, of course.
Zerg has an inherent advantage as the reactive race the longer series go, they can play "standard" and win in the long run. How many prepared builds can a protoss or a terran realistically have when a tournament has two bo7s and a bo9 AFTER the group stage?
That was definitely true a couple years back but nowadays I don't think that's the case anymore, and terran and protoss are more then fine playing straight up every game. Especially in ZvP I think it's more the opposite nowadays with Zerg always throwing allins/timings at the toss to prevent him from reaching lategame.
Guess serral needs to do some homework and figure out a counter to Marus play if he wants to win a tournament anytime soon, or just have the luck o the draw
On February 27 2026 19:22 Charoisaur wrote: Serral is like wtf I used to beat this guy
Combination of both Serral not being as good as before and this patch is heavily Terran favoured. Also years of nerf on zergs
I swear this is like 1 to 1 a comment justifying a Maru loss to Serral in one of the previous years. Nice to see Serral fans are just as good at making excuses.
On February 27 2026 19:22 Charoisaur wrote: Serral is like wtf I used to beat this guy
Combination of both Serral not being as good as before and this patch is heavily Terran favoured. Also years of nerf on zergs
I swear this is like 1 to 1 a comment justifying a Maru loss to Serral in one of the previous years. Nice to see Serral fans are just as good at making excuses.
The situations seems very similar as in this patch marus way of playing is just insanely strong like seerals way of playing was in the past.
Maru lategame has been insanely strong even in previous patch, the issue has been him not able to get there consistently. I remember how Serral just won 2 game in a Bo 5/7 easily just by marching Roach or Ling Bane all-in while Maru on 80+ worker and not enough army supply. Not sure how he fix that in recent months, but it has less to do with the patch, but more like how he approach the early and mid-game, plus maybe the map with less gold base to take advantage of.
Feels like the Zerg matchups currently are pretty much the reverse of where they were 2018-2021 (round about that), where it felt like Zergs were just comfy getting into the lategame and enjoying the options it gave them to just be stronger there.
On February 28 2026 23:20 darklycid wrote: Feels like the Zerg matchups currently are pretty much the reverse of where they were 2018-2021 (round about that), where it felt like Zergs were just comfy getting into the lategame and enjoying the options it gave them to just be stronger there.
Jup, Zerg really weak rn in lategame in both matchups
On February 28 2026 23:20 darklycid wrote: Feels like the Zerg matchups currently are pretty much the reverse of where they were 2018-2021 (round about that), where it felt like Zergs were just comfy getting into the lategame and enjoying the options it gave them to just be stronger there.
Jup, Zerg really weak rn in lategame in both matchups
Serral still makes me think that ZvP lategame is doable but ZvT looks a lil rough.
On February 28 2026 23:20 darklycid wrote: Feels like the Zerg matchups currently are pretty much the reverse of where they were 2018-2021 (round about that), where it felt like Zergs were just comfy getting into the lategame and enjoying the options it gave them to just be stronger there.
Jup, Zerg really weak rn in lategame in both matchups
Serral still makes me think that ZvP lategame is doable but ZvT looks a lil rough.
Zvt late game is as unplayable as it gets once mass libs / ghost hits the field. Similar as tvp. This is the new brood lord/infestor
Also viper not being able to abduct siege tanks makes it harder for Zergs to break Terran as well
On February 28 2026 23:20 darklycid wrote: Feels like the Zerg matchups currently are pretty much the reverse of where they were 2018-2021 (round about that), where it felt like Zergs were just comfy getting into the lategame and enjoying the options it gave them to just be stronger there.
Jup, Zerg really weak rn in lategame in both matchups
Serral still makes me think that ZvP lategame is doable but ZvT looks a lil rough.
Zvt late game is as unplayable as it gets once mass libs / ghost hits the field. Similar as tvp. This is the new brood lord/infestor
Also viper not being able to abduct siege tanks makes it harder for Zergs to break Terran as well
So far i have only really seen maru pull it off like this (Clem beats Serral differently), BL Infestor gave noname zergs ways to do things they wpuld have never beeen able to otherwsie that promptly disappeared after it so i wouldnt be doing this comparison
It's a very interesting final 4. Let's see how Serral does against a Terran that isn't Maru in Clem and how Maru does against Showtime, who has been in fine form lately. Personally, I would not be at all surprised to see a Serral vs Showtime final. I don't know how likely it would be, but it seems like both of the final four match ups are fairly even at this moment.
On March 01 2026 09:35 breaker1328 wrote: It's a very interesting final 4. Let's see how Serral does against a Terran that isn't Maru in Clem and how Maru does against Showtime, who has been in fine form lately. Personally, I would not be at all surprised to see a Serral vs Showtime final. I don't know how likely it would be, but it seems like both of the final four match ups are fairly even at this moment.
On February 28 2026 23:20 darklycid wrote: Feels like the Zerg matchups currently are pretty much the reverse of where they were 2018-2021 (round about that), where it felt like Zergs were just comfy getting into the lategame and enjoying the options it gave them to just be stronger there.
Jup, Zerg really weak rn in lategame in both matchups
Serral still makes me think that ZvP lategame is doable but ZvT looks a lil rough.
Imo ZvT is more doable than ZvP as you can just keep swarming in ZvT and starve the terran out, while in ZvP you're kinda forced to transition to Broodlord Corruptor Lurker Viper comp if you don't kill them early
On February 28 2026 23:20 darklycid wrote: Feels like the Zerg matchups currently are pretty much the reverse of where they were 2018-2021 (round about that), where it felt like Zergs were just comfy getting into the lategame and enjoying the options it gave them to just be stronger there.
Jup, Zerg really weak rn in lategame in both matchups
Serral still makes me think that ZvP lategame is doable but ZvT looks a lil rough.
Imo ZvT is more doable than ZvP as you can just keep swarming in ZvT and starve the terran out, while in ZvP you're kinda forced to transition to Broodlord Corruptor Lurker Viper comp if you don't kill them early
I feel like i've seen good ZvP lategames with ultras etc from payers like rogue too if they dont just get rekt in the midgame and ZvT looks doable in the lategame if its not maru (for the top dogs), not quite sure about clem but i think clem isnt the guy to play these kinda lategames like maru does.
Serral either in better Form today or found Something to tackle the issues He Had, unsure. Feels Like He is Just getting more Eco damage + better fungals in this series.
Yeah Maru just lost those games that felt like the old Maru way, he wasnt massing Bio - Tanks early and just die to a strong timing. PiG pointed out multiple times that Maru leave his production open to wait for better unit and didnt have enough to defend, classic way of die to Serral push.
feels like bo9 is too much for Maru, looked a lot less sharp towards the end of the series. Similar to their previous series where he relied on 2 rax to finish the series
On March 01 2026 23:21 Charoisaur wrote: feels like bo9 is too much for Maru, looked a lot less sharp towards the end of the series. Similar to their previous series where he relied on 2 rax to finish the series
I dont think he did a single Mech build this game, nor went with any sharp timing push, and his defensive setup was lacking. Very generic build and was very greedy. Basically this was the Maru that lost to Serral 10 out of 11 matches in the past 3 years.
Thanks for the tourney, Pig! Saving Starcraft once more in 2026.
Congrats to Serral--carrying the torch for us mere mortals once again. Absolutely loathe laddering as Z these days, but at least there's still some fleeting enjoyment in sc2 for me, lol.
Man, Serral just hates good storytelling. This could have been an amazingly close comeback story of a "fallen champion", fighting back for the glory against his biggest rivals - instead he just slaps them off the server...
On March 03 2026 06:27 Balnazza wrote: Man, Serral just hates good storytelling. This could have been an amazingly close comeback story of a "fallen champion", fighting back for the glory against his biggest rivals - instead he just slaps them off the server...
Maru already got his lick back against Serral in LiuLi Cup tho. The narrative is more that we're still in a very high parity era where lots of players can win (I actually feel like it's been this way for 1 year+ now, with Serral winning EWC so convincingly being a bit of an outlier).
Was just now able to finish the tournament and holy moly what a ride! So first of all, thanks PiG for organizing these Stys... your work in keeping SC2 alive is very much appreciated! There is a theme evolving in Serral versus Maru. Similar to MC7, Maru is able to greed his way to victory one time, only to be dismantled after Serral figures it out. And I have to disagree with some commentators here, that Maru destroyed Serral in their first match. Imo, his openings already showed what transpired in the finals. He was simply too hesitant to finish Maru off. Thus, I overall liked their first encounter more, as it was a much closer match because of Serral's indecisiveness. Showtime played amazing and I am looking forward to the 8th iteration... keep em coming, PiG!
On March 03 2026 06:27 Balnazza wrote: Man, Serral just hates good storytelling. This could have been an amazingly close comeback story of a "fallen champion", fighting back for the glory against his biggest rivals - instead he just slaps them off the server...
Maru already got his lick back against Serral in LiuLi Cup tho. The narrative is more that we're still in a very high parity era where lots of players can win (I actually feel like it's been this way for 1 year+ now, with Serral winning EWC so convincingly being a bit of an outlier).
Mostly agreed on the parity, but let's not forget that Serral is the only Zerg to win a relevant tournament since mid 2024.
EPT![[image loading]](https://imgur.com/Ncphy1r.png)
PiG Sty Festival/7 ![[image loading]](https://imgur.com/wlG4hvf.png)
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