Classic continued to build momentum ahead of EWC, winning a stacked WardiTV Mondays where several top players were in contention. ByuN took the other 1v1 cup of the week in the PiGosaur Cup, showing that he remains a dangerous dark horse contender at the world championship.
In 2v2 competition, the Shopify duo of Lambo-Harstem took second place in uThermal's weekly cup, giving Zerg-included teams a rare win.
WardiTV Mondays featured a strong field of players, with eight EWC participants looking to test their skills ahead of the world championship. In the end, Classic's well-timed rise couldn't be stopped, as he took down Solar, MaxPax, and SHIN on his way to week's title.
The finals saw SHIN (understandably) show no interest in facing Classic in the late-game, going for aggressive/mid-game tactics… …when he had a chance to actually pull them off. As it turned out, Classic was also looking to show off his aggressive side, with Glaive-Adepts being the key to his 3-1 victory (VOD).
ByuN was the co-star of the cup, taking down both Clem and Reynor before losing to SHIN in the semis. Overall, the cup gave us another reminder of the current parity in the scene, with top players looking more vulnerable compared to the lead-up to EWC 2024.
ByuN built on his WardiTV performance by winning the next day's PiGosaur cup, going through sOs, Solar, and Astrea to take first place. His 3-0 drubbing of Astrea in the finals was a classic ByuN TvP performance, as he broke down the #1 NA player with constant harassment and aggression (VOD).
Protoss-Terran teams have been the dominant power so far in uThermal 2v2 competitions, but with Spirit and Clem declining to compete in this week's cup, we saw Protoss-Zerg teams reign supreme (another strong T/P team in uThermal/Goblin decided to switch up their partners).
This resulted in an entertaining change of pace, with fast-paced aggression replacing the slow and steady macro style typical of T/P teams. In the end, Harstem-Lambo were the best at navigating the chaos, coming out on top with a 3-1 victory versus Shameless-GgMaChine in the finals (VOD).
On July 14 2025 17:58 MJG wrote: Classic seems to have hit a rich vein of form at just the right moment.
If he takes his GSL/RSL winning form into EWC then he has to be the Protoss favourite.
He’s on an absolute tear lately, feels strange but we may actually be going into a big tournament for the first time in forever without herO as the big Protoss hope!
I imagine we’re in for endless balance whining but Toss might have a pretty strong EWC
On July 14 2025 17:58 MJG wrote: Classic seems to have hit a rich vein of form at just the right moment.
If he takes his GSL/RSL winning form into EWC then he has to be the Protoss favourite.
He’s on an absolute tear lately, feels strange but we may actually be going into a big tournament for the first time in forever without herO as the big Protoss hope!
I imagine we’re in for endless balance whining but Toss might have a pretty strong EWC
Imagine we are going into a premier tournament and a Protoss is favored to win it. Has that ever happened?
On July 14 2025 17:58 MJG wrote: Classic seems to have hit a rich vein of form at just the right moment.
If he takes his GSL/RSL winning form into EWC then he has to be the Protoss favourite.
He’s on an absolute tear lately, feels strange but we may actually be going into a big tournament for the first time in forever without herO as the big Protoss hope!
I imagine we’re in for endless balance whining but Toss might have a pretty strong EWC
Imagine we are going into a premier tournament and a Protoss is favored to win it. Has that ever happened?
I think Serral and Clem are still the favourites tbh.
On July 14 2025 17:58 MJG wrote: Classic seems to have hit a rich vein of form at just the right moment.
If he takes his GSL/RSL winning form into EWC then he has to be the Protoss favourite.
He’s on an absolute tear lately, feels strange but we may actually be going into a big tournament for the first time in forever without herO as the big Protoss hope!
I imagine we’re in for endless balance whining but Toss might have a pretty strong EWC
Imagine we are going into a premier tournament and a Protoss is favored to win it. Has that ever happened?
I think Serral and Clem are still the favourites tbh.
On July 14 2025 17:58 MJG wrote: Classic seems to have hit a rich vein of form at just the right moment.
If he takes his GSL/RSL winning form into EWC then he has to be the Protoss favourite.
He’s on an absolute tear lately, feels strange but we may actually be going into a big tournament for the first time in forever without herO as the big Protoss hope!
I imagine we’re in for endless balance whining but Toss might have a pretty strong EWC
Imagine we are going into a premier tournament and a Protoss is favored to win it. Has that ever happened?
I think Serral and Clem are still the favourites tbh.
Frontpage poll has Classic over Clem
I suppose that's not too surprising given how their games in RSL went.
On July 14 2025 17:58 MJG wrote: Classic seems to have hit a rich vein of form at just the right moment.
If he takes his GSL/RSL winning form into EWC then he has to be the Protoss favourite.
He’s on an absolute tear lately, feels strange but we may actually be going into a big tournament for the first time in forever without herO as the big Protoss hope!
I imagine we’re in for endless balance whining but Toss might have a pretty strong EWC
Imagine we are going into a premier tournament and a Protoss is favored to win it. Has that ever happened?
I think Serral and Clem are still the favourites tbh.
i'd agree with this too, but if we just had to predict which race would win, it feels like hero/classic might actually be a higher probability mass than serral/reynor or clem/maru. It's super tight though
EPT
![[image loading]](/staff/Waxangel/misc/weeklies/comcups734.jpg)
![[image loading]](/staff/Waxangel/misc/weeklies/wardimon043.png)
![[image loading]](/staff/Waxangel/misc/weeklies/pig039.png)
![[image loading]](/staff/Waxangel/misc/weeklies/thermy2v2warmup02.png)
