Week #231 of the Open Cups saw the regulars return to the competition after EPT Spring/Dallas, and thus it was no surprise to see the trinity of herO, Clem, and MaxPax prevail on the three servers. MaxPax's win also saw him tie an Open Cup record by winning a cup for seven consecutive weeks (a total of nine victories when taking doubles into account), matching Dark's streak earned during Weeks #166-172.
As usual, the path to the Korean server championship was lined with Code S-quality competition, with herO besting SHIN, Dark, NightMare, and Solar on his way to the title. Last week's winner Solar came one map away from a repeat, but ended up ceding the 2-3 defeat in the finals.
Clem was dominant as usual in the European Cup, dropping just a single map on his way to another championship. While Clem took down rival MaxPax 3-0 in the finals, it was former EU Cup king HeroMarine who prevented his perfect run by taking a map in the semifinals. Chinese Protoss Cyan was a curious interloper in the EU cup, fighting through the lag and making it all the way to the quarterfinals. While Coffee realistically clinched the #2 spot in EPT China last week (thus earning a spot at the Esports World Cup), it didn't stop Cyan from putting in a last ditch effort to try and overtake him.
The ESL cups ended with the familiar pattern of MaxPax making up for a loss in Europe with a victory in the American cup. The reclusive Dane won the week in impressive fashion with a perfect run, including victories against herO, Creator, and Solar in the final rounds.
In non-ESL cups competition, MaxPax won Kung Fu Cup #5 with a perfect record (which ended in a peculiar, ultra-fast 3-0 over herO's off-race Terran, VOD), while Dark won KSL #52 (3-1 vs herO in the finals).
On June 12 2024 11:09 Kitai wrote: Man, it's so sad we'll never see Maxpax at LAN. If Clem hadn't taken him down in the EU finals he could have had three perfect runs this week.
If they are not turning up for the biggest price pool in SC2 history, I doubt they ever will :/
On June 12 2024 11:09 Kitai wrote: Man, it's so sad we'll never see Maxpax at LAN. If Clem hadn't taken him down in the EU finals he could have had three perfect runs this week.
If they are not turning up for the biggest price pool in SC2 history, I doubt they ever will :/
if he does not show, that proves that he is Danish royalty.
On June 12 2024 11:09 Kitai wrote: Man, it's so sad we'll never see Maxpax at LAN. If Clem hadn't taken him down in the EU finals he could have had three perfect runs this week.
If they are not turning up for the biggest price pool in SC2 history, I doubt they ever will :/
if he does not show, that proves that he is Danish royalty.
On June 12 2024 20:39 Harris1st wrote: For starters we need a showmatch Bo9 between MaxPax and Serral. Just to gauge where MaxPax is Rotti or Wardi, please make it happen :D
He is more or less slotted into the role of gatekeeper that HeroMarine had previously : unlikely to win THE tournament, but could easily block you at the door if you are even a bit worse than him
On June 12 2024 20:39 Harris1st wrote: For starters we need a showmatch Bo9 between MaxPax and Serral. Just to gauge where MaxPax is Rotti or Wardi, please make it happen :D
He is more or less slotted into the role of gatekeeper that HeroMarine had previously : unlikely to win THE tournament, but could easily block you at the door if you are even a bit worse than him
In the past year he's been showing consistently better results against top Koreans than HM did on average. He's also 5-0 against Maru in series since March of last year. While it's true that most of the results I'm talking about are in weeklies or low stakes matches, I still think he's got more potential than just being a gatekeeper. Then again, nobody is likely to win THE tournament if Serral is involved.
On June 13 2024 15:42 Kitai wrote: In the past year he's been showing consistently better results against top Koreans than HM did on average. He's also 5-0 against Maru in series since March of last year. While it's true that most of the results I'm talking about are in weeklies or low stakes matches, I still think he's got more potential than just being a gatekeeper. Then again, nobody is likely to win THE tournament if Serral is involved.
I think it would be a bit different if he won against Clem during the regional and did further than 7-8th in Masters' Coliseum, But if you only count the wins and not the tier of the tournaments, then yeah absolutely (doesn't seem he really cares about said tiers either).
Putting a bit of nuance about what being a gatekeeper is : it (very) often has a negative meaning, but in this case not really. You always need somebody who can separate the contender from the pretender. Not the most glamorous "job" but somebody has to do it. As for whether he can one day get past that, for sure the potential is there.
From his results in weekly online cups, he seems much more than a Gatekeeper. He actually seems like the best Protoss in the world at the moment. If he could transfer that to some big offline event (were he to take part) is another question entirely
On June 14 2024 16:20 Harris1st wrote: From his results in weekly online cups, he seems much more than a Gatekeeper. He actually seems like the best Protoss in the world at the moment. If he could transfer that to some big offline event (were he to take part) is another question entirely
In sheer ability perhaps, but I’d still go for herO when it comes to a higher stakes tournament. Although I do think MaxPax is starting to deliver more consistent deep runs in the likes of the EU regional so he’s definitely getting there
On June 14 2024 16:20 Harris1st wrote: From his results in weekly online cups, he seems much more than a Gatekeeper. He actually seems like the best Protoss in the world at the moment. If he could transfer that to some big offline event (were he to take part) is another question entirely
In sheer ability perhaps, but I’d still go for herO when it comes to a higher stakes tournament. Although I do think MaxPax is starting to deliver more consistent deep runs in the likes of the EU regional so he’s definitely getting there
Definitely agree with this. Maxpax is probably the best Protoss in the world when you're looking purely at textbook gameplay, but herO is king when it comes to being a terrifying, chaotic force on the big stage. For example, Maxpax beats herO and top Terrans all the time in weeklies and Clem seems to be the only player that can reliably halt his nearly unstoppable force. It stands to reason that Clem should have at least even odds if not better against herO since he's beating Maxpax all the time, but on the big stage herO beat him Clem so hard it was demoralizing. Stage presence is a thing that comes naturally for some players, and takes a lot of practice and experience for others.
EPT
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herO besting SHIN, Dark, NightMare, and Solar on his way to the title. Last week's winner Solar came one map away from a repeat, but ended up ceding the 2-3 defeat in the finals.![[image loading]](/staff/Waxangel/EPT/OpenCup/week231KR.png)
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