Weekly Cups (April 7-13): A Rare Korean Sweep

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April 14 2025 04:23 GMT

Weekly Cup Competitions
Week of April 7 - 13

by Wax

The second week of April saw herO maintain his momentum from last week's triple, winning a double-crown in WardiTV Mondays and Monday Night Weeklies. Meanwhile, the PiGosaur Cup delivered a pair of startling upsets with SHIN taking down Clem and ByuN defeating MaxPax, leading to a ByuN victory and a rare Korean sweep of the cups.

While it's too early to draw conclusions, the TL.net's resident Korean elitists must wonder: is this a sign the Korean scene is locking in after the announcement of StarCraft II EWC?

*Partial brackets may be shown.

April 7: WardiTV Mondays #30

herO began the week with a dominant run in WardiTV Mondays, going nearly undefeated on his way to the weekly title. His most impressive performance was a 3-0 finals win over Clem—his first BO5+ sweep against the French Terran since June of 2024.

herO scored his first map win on Amygdala, continuing his recent trend of winning the longer macro games against Clem. The score soon became 2-0, as Clem conceded a very fast GG (as he often does in weekly cups) after his fast Widow Mine drop was picked off by Stalkers. herO closed the series out in a wild game three on El Dorado, where both players began with aggressive builds and continued to brawl for almost ten minutes (VOD).

Amusingly enough, herO was unable to go perfect in maps due to a single loss in the very first round of the tournament. His opponent? French Zerg player "Matt," who is currently ranked #198th in the world on Aligulac.com. Bien joué, indeed.

*****

April 7: Monday Night Weeklies #12

herO logged a weekly double in Monday Night Weeklies, once again besting Clem in the race for the title.

Their first BO3 clash in the upper bracket was a quick affair, with herO taking the 2-0 thanks to a proxy-Gate attack in game one and 4-Gate Blink strike in game two.

Clem promptly earned a rematch by stomping ByuN in the lower bracket, and proceeded to achieve a bracket reset by defeating herO 2-1 in the initial leg of the finals. While herO took game one with solid macro play, Clem rallied back with sturdy defense against 4-Gate blink in game two, and then clinched the reset by capitalizing on herO's overaggression in game three.

That left the two players to play one final BO3 for the week's MNW championship. Game one went in favor of Clem, with his 7-minute attack with infantry and Mines ripping through herO's fast Chargelot opener. Clem's offense nearly powered him to another win in game two, but herO eventually outlasted a HotS-esque parade push to tie up the series. Game three saw Clem fall behind after his 2-base push was narrowly stopped, and despite his impressive efforts to drag the game back to even, herO closed the game out to clinch his cup victory VOD.

*****

April 7: PiGosaur Cup #26

herO was content to call it quits with two wins in the bag, leaving Clem and MaxPax as the heavy favorites headed into the final Monday event. However, both favorites were upset in the semifinals, with ByuN taking a 2-1 comeback win over MaxPax, while SHIN stunned Clem with a pair of deadly Roach-Ravager timings.

The all-Korean final was over in a flash, with ByuN failing to connect with three consecutive unorthodox builds. His 2-Barracks proxy was scouted almost immediately in game one, leading to fast GG. ByuN then attempted a two-Staport Banshee build in game two, but couldn't deal enough damage to survive his transition to BC's. Finally, ByuN tried for a 3-Barracks Reaper build on Last Fantasy, but SHIN held once more to finish the sweep (VOD).

*****

April 11-12: Chicken King Grand Cup #1

The Chinese scene produced yet another cup competition to entertain the SC2-loving masses, this time in the form of the Chicken King Grand Cup #1 (or just regular Chicken King Cup #7—I'm not quite sure of the details). Previous editions of the humorously named tournament had been focused on the domestic scene, but this time around, the prize money was increased to entice international luminaries.

Dark came out as the ultimate victor, taking the $300 first place prize with a 4-2 win over Zoun in the finals. It truly appears as if he's walking in Zest's footsteps as a player whose 'impending' military service is being delayed forever—could an EWC run actually be on the cards? ( Day 1 VOD - Day 2 VOD).

*****

April 9: Kung Fu Cup 2025 #7 - StarCraft Evolution Mod

Finally, in non-standard SC2 competition, we saw the Kung Fu Cup revert to the StarCraft Evolution mod after the previous cup's adventure in the absolutely insane WarCraft vs StarCraft 2 vs Brood War mod. ByuN, who was easily the best player to sign up for the competition, blew through the opposition to win with a perfect run (VOD (Korean)). Personally, the most entertaining part of the tourney was getting to see more of Monty Hall—the stupidest and most fun map in the history of RTS.