HomeStory Cup 27 - Info & Preview

by Wax

The heated summer circuit will make one final offline stop before EWC, dropping by Krefeld over the weekend for the 27th HomeStory Cup. While some fans may be disappointed that several top players are keeping a low-profile and declining to compete at the event, it's also an opportunity for HSC to get back to its roots of taking the intensity down a notch and celebrating the live StarCraft II experience with its fans.

Schedule and Players

Schedule: Start times - June 27-28 games begin at 11:00 GMT (+00:00) // June 29 games begin at 12:00 GMT (+00:00)

• June 27: RO24 Groups A & B (6 player round-robin)
  
• June 28: RO24 Groups C & D (6 player round-robin)
  
• June 29: Playoffs (8 player single elimination)

Streams: TakeTV (main English stream) + check TL.net sidebar when live for community and non-English streams

Players and Initial Groups:

Tournament Preview

As it turns out, we won't get one final check-up on the EWC roster as most of the top contenders have decided to sit this HomeStory Cup out. While that means the primary focus of this tournament will be on the usual HSC hijinks such as Big Gabe's pizzeria and gossiping at the casters desk, there may still be some competitive knowledge to glean from the proceedings.

The key player of interest should be Zoun, who looks to be the tentative championship favorite at HSC 27. While he's taken out the likes of Serral and Clem in his best series, his inconsistent performances have left fans to wonder what his true level might be. Zoun's rapid rise during the off-season was tempered by a poor showing in Code S Season 1, but he quickly rebounded by taking first place in the EWC Korean qualifier. After that, he seemed to build some sustained momentum by taking third place at BGE Stara Zagora, but stumbled with an RO8 exit in Code S Season 2.

As of now, it's hard to tell if Zoun is a fringe title contender at EWC, or another middle-of-the-pack player hoping for a fortunate bracket and favorable match-ups. A strong HSC run wouldn't be a definitive indicator of Zoun's abilities, but it would certainly help nudge the evaluation in a positive direction. One particular thing to keep an eye on is Zoun's PvP. The Protoss mirror is his self-professed weak match-up, and any struggles against the middling Protoss field at HSC might portend bigger problems at EWC.

The German trio of ShoWTimE, HeroMarine, and Lambo are next in line as title favorites, having proved their abilities by nabbing the last few remaining EWC tickets. While that also means they project to be some of the weaker players at the world championship, a strong showing at HomeStory Cup might help improve their outlooks. No, none of them are going to reveal themselves as unexpected world championship contenders at HSC, but they could prove that they have the potential to go on memorable underdog runs.

Speaking of German fans, one intriguing subplot of HSC is that it's the best chance the tournament has ever had of producing a champion from the host country. Actually, maybe it's the main plot for German fans? Despite being one of the longest running tournaments in StarCraft II, the stars have never aligned for a German player to go all the way—not even during event #1 that was held with just eight players.

ShoWTimE came closest to winning the title at last year's HomeStory Cup 25, where he narrowly lost 3-4 to GuMiho in the finals. While Zoun is an intimidating favorite—and arguably stronger than GuMiho was at HSC25—the Germans still hold a numerical advantage as they make up three of the top four players at this particular event. Neutral fans should be rooting for die mannschaft to finally get the job done, if only to see the special victory celebration TakeTV surely has prepared.

HomeStory Cup will have the typical contingent of fan-favorites in participation, but it will also feature one extremely unusual guest in sOs. The legendary Protoss officially retired in 2021 but never fully walked away from the game, and after years of sporadically appearing in online cups and qualifiers, he finally made a shocking comeback in 2025. No one seems to really know what's going on with sOs—why did he decide to come back now, and how long is he going to stick around for? We may not get any definitive answers to those questions at HomeStory Cup, but it will still be great to see him in action again. sOs looked as devilish as ever in his return to GSL for Code S Season 1, so whether he wins or loses, he's bound to play entertaining StarCraft II.

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