Protoss were the big winners in the week of August 25-31, with herO and Classic splitting the orthodox SC2 competitions with two victories each. However, the week may go down in history as 'the one that broke Clem,' with the beleaguered Terran resorting to increasingly desperate measures to try and find an answer for Protoss.
Is another match-up/race swap to PvP a realistic possibility for Clem? Viewers will want to keep an eye on his upcoming matches to see if this is just a momentary overreaction, or if they'll have to start calling him the French Protoss in the near future.
After achieving a triple in the previous week, herO continued his winning ways in WardiTV Mondays #49 with yet another cup title. While herO had been struggling lately against MaxPax and his revived PvP, he showed there are few other Protoss players who can trouble him by taking a convincing 3-1 against ShoWTimE in the finals of the latest Monday competition.
Going back to the Clem subplot, ShoWTimE happened to reach the finals by upsetting the French Terran 2-1 in the semis. It seemed like nothing more than a nice underdog win for ShoWTimE at the time, but given what would unfold later in the week, it may have been one of the moments that contributed to putting Clem on full tilt (VOD).
Without any upsets in the lower rounds, the PiGosaur Cup delivered the herO vs Clem finals that was expected when the bracket was first revealed. Unfortunately, the clash between the titans of the weekly cups resulted in a rather one-sided match, with herO taking a 3-0 sweep in a series where none of Clem's early aggression worked out. While it was the kind of match we occasionally saw back when Clem wasn't struggling quite as hard in TvP, it definitely felt more meaningful in the context of Clem's recent string of big losses (VOD).
One tournament loomed larger than the usual assortment of weekly cups, as the $5,000 WardiTV Summer Championship came to a close with its double-elimination playoffs. In the end, Classic gave a fantastic performance that reminded us of just how well he had played at EWC before running into the Serral in the finals, taking down a slew of the scene's best players on his way to first place.
That list of best players happened to include Clem, who Classic beat in consecutive series to take the WardiTV Summer title. The first game of the upper-bracket finals ended up being the only normal-ish bout between the two, with Classic taking down Clem's bio in a one-sided game reminiscent of the beatdowns in RSL and EWC. For Clem, that loss seemed to be the straw that broke the camel's back, as he completely abandoned bio TvP from that point on (despite having piloted it to victory against Goblin, NightMare, and MaxPax earlier in the tournament). Clem opted to play the trendy battlemech composition for the rest of the series, which actually looked like a decent solution as he used it to tie the series 2-2. However, Clem failed to close the series out with proxy-Marauders in game five, which sent him down to the lower bracket for a match against his old rival MaxPax.
Despite having defeated MaxPax with bio earlier in the bracket, Clem was still determined not to play it for the rest of the tournament. He started the series by playing exclusively mech, and ended up trailing 1-2 at the midway point of the series. There, Clem decided he needed to take even more drastic measures, and swapped to Protoss to face MaxPax in a PvP. Crazily enough, taking on MaxPax's world-best PvP somehow worked out for Clem, as he ended up prevailing in a tight macro game. For some reason, Clem switched back to Terran in game five, and closed the series out quickly with some fast 1/1/1 pressure.
The grand finals rematch against Classic saw Clem pick up where he left off, as he challenged the Chintoss with a mixture of mech and off-race PvP. The first two games saw Clem go for mech, which he tried to set up with heavy early-game aggression/harassment. However, Classic's defenses were rock solid, and he jumped ahead to a 3-0 lead (one-map winners' bracket advantage). Clem attempted another desperate Protoss race-switch in the final game, but this time, he fell haplessly to an unscouted proxy-robo all-in from Classic (VOD).
The LiuLi Cup's three August weeklies culminated in a slightly bigger monthly final, which invited the top eight performers from the earlier events. A three way race between MaxPax, herO, and Classic seemed to be on the cards, but MaxPax was quickly taken out the equation after being upset by Trigger in the first round.
Trigger himself was then taken out by herO, which set up herO vs Classic in the finals with the crown of ultimate Protoss supremacy on the line (at least for that week). As is often the case when Classic and herO face each other, the finals was a cheese-fest full of proxies and devious tactics. It's also often the case that Classic gets a leg up on herO in the mind-games, and such a scenario played out once more as Classic took a 3-1 victory (VOD).
Although WardiTV Summer was the biggest orthodox SC2 tournament to conclude on the week, the most richly prized event overall was the $6,100 StarCraft Evolution League - Season 2 Championship (played in the SC: Evolution Complete mod). Good 'regular' SC2 players tend to also do well in the SC: Evo mod, and that trend certainly held in the SEL championship as Classic took home his second big purse of the week.
As usual, SC: Evo is a recommended watch for anyone who wants somele variety amidst the dozens of hours of normal SC2 action we get every week. It so happens to be that the SEL playoffs featured two of the week's most entertaining games—the first being a late-game clash between TaeJa's BW Terran and Rogue's SC2 Zerg on Holy World (VOD), and the other being TaeJa's SC2 Terran taking on Classic's BW Protoss on Sylphid (VOD).
On September 02 2025 03:42 LostUsername100 wrote: Holy shit, where is Zerg?
They probably found something more fun to do than play Zerg in the current state of the game. Maybe after 20 consecutive games (19 losses) of Storm into Tempest, being subjected to medical experiments feels relieving you know?
On September 02 2025 03:42 LostUsername100 wrote: Holy shit, where is Zerg?
Zerg are extinct. I asked Reynor today what he thought about his Maestros group and he was not happy because "protoss" yes, he didnt comment on who he was facing, i dont think he cared too much, he was just tilted because its protoss. Zerg are tired of playing 100 ZvPs in a row every online tournament they sign up for. And now that Clem is practicing PvZ and PvP to fully play protoss until next patch, it is only going to get worse. Zerg players perceive ZvP to be in a bad spot, so of course they don't want to play. Of course Serral almost never plays online cups, Maru doesn't either, but for protoss all the top guys play so that doesn't help either.
On September 02 2025 03:42 LostUsername100 wrote: Holy shit, where is Zerg?
Zerg are extinct. I asked Reynor today what he thought about his Maestros group and he was not happy because "protoss" yes, he didnt comment on who he was facing, i dont think he cared too much, he was just tilted because its protoss. Zerg are tired of playing 100 ZvPs in a row every online tournament they sign up for. And now that Clem is practicing PvZ and PvP to fully play protoss until next patch, it is only going to get worse. Zerg players perceive ZvP to be in a bad spot, so of course they don't want to play. Of course Serral almost never plays online cups, Maru doesn't either, but for protoss all the top guys play so that doesn't help either.
Geez Zergs start crying just because they think current patch is not good for them. Where were they when Zergs were completely dominating Protoss for the past 5 years to the point of extinction.
Cool Protoss are only winning these online small cups. Wake us up when Protoss actually wins a world championship
Zergs have no place or right to complain about balance until we see someone like showtime beating any of the top Zergs at a regular basis
On September 02 2025 03:42 LostUsername100 wrote: Holy shit, where is Zerg?
Zerg are extinct. I asked Reynor today what he thought about his Maestros group and he was not happy because "protoss" yes, he didnt comment on who he was facing, i dont think he cared too much, he was just tilted because its protoss. Zerg are tired of playing 100 ZvPs in a row every online tournament they sign up for. And now that Clem is practicing PvZ and PvP to fully play protoss until next patch, it is only going to get worse. Zerg players perceive ZvP to be in a bad spot, so of course they don't want to play. Of course Serral almost never plays online cups, Maru doesn't either, but for protoss all the top guys play so that doesn't help either.
Geez Zergs start crying just because they think current patch is not good for them. Where were they when Zergs were completely dominating Protoss for the past 5 years to the point of extinction.
Cool Protoss are only winning these online small cups. Wake us up when Protoss actually wins a world championship
Zergs have no place or right to complain about balance until we see someone like showtime beating any of the top Zergs at a regular basis
5 years? It started in 2018 which saw a tier 4 Zerg player dominate a 3-time world champion off the back of some of the worst balance since early Wings of Liberty and never stopped.
On September 02 2025 03:42 LostUsername100 wrote: Holy shit, where is Zerg?
Zerg are extinct. I asked Reynor today what he thought about his Maestros group and he was not happy because "protoss" yes, he didnt comment on who he was facing, i dont think he cared too much, he was just tilted because its protoss. Zerg are tired of playing 100 ZvPs in a row every online tournament they sign up for. And now that Clem is practicing PvZ and PvP to fully play protoss until next patch, it is only going to get worse. Zerg players perceive ZvP to be in a bad spot, so of course they don't want to play. Of course Serral almost never plays online cups, Maru doesn't either, but for protoss all the top guys play so that doesn't help either.
Geez Zergs start crying just because they think current patch is not good for them. Where were they when Zergs were completely dominating Protoss for the past 5 years to the point of extinction.
Cool Protoss are only winning these online small cups. Wake us up when Protoss actually wins a world championship
Zergs have no place or right to complain about balance until we see someone like showtime beating any of the top Zergs at a regular basis
It's not about Zerg not winning these tournaments. Tournament wins were a horrible way to describe the state of Protoss, they are a horrible way to describe the state of Zerg now. When Serral and Reynor, the only two S-Tier Zergs in the worlds, don't play the tournament, of course chances of a Zerg winner deplete rapidly, especially when other S-Tier players like Clem, herO or Classic compete.
But to not have any Zerg at all in this is...a bit concerning to say the least.
On September 02 2025 03:42 LostUsername100 wrote: Holy shit, where is Zerg?
Zerg are extinct. I asked Reynor today what he thought about his Maestros group and he was not happy because "protoss" yes, he didnt comment on who he was facing, i dont think he cared too much, he was just tilted because its protoss. Zerg are tired of playing 100 ZvPs in a row every online tournament they sign up for. And now that Clem is practicing PvZ and PvP to fully play protoss until next patch, it is only going to get worse. Zerg players perceive ZvP to be in a bad spot, so of course they don't want to play. Of course Serral almost never plays online cups, Maru doesn't either, but for protoss all the top guys play so that doesn't help either.
Geez Zergs start crying just because they think current patch is not good for them. Where were they when Zergs were completely dominating Protoss for the past 5 years to the point of extinction.
Cool Protoss are only winning these online small cups. Wake us up when Protoss actually wins a world championship
Zergs have no place or right to complain about balance until we see someone like showtime beating any of the top Zergs at a regular basis
5 years? It started in 2018 which saw a tier 4 Zerg player dominate a 3-time world champion off the back of some of the worst balance since early Wings of Liberty and never stopped.
Ah yes, 2018, that horrible year for Protoss when almost half of the BlizzCon players were Protoss...
I want to point out that Clem is still in 'fuck bio' mode this week, playing mostly mech as Terran (might by exclusively mech; didn't check all his lower round games) and some PvP (very credibly, btw)
On September 02 2025 03:42 LostUsername100 wrote: Holy shit, where is Zerg?
Zerg are extinct. I asked Reynor today what he thought about his Maestros group and he was not happy because "protoss" yes, he didnt comment on who he was facing, i dont think he cared too much, he was just tilted because its protoss. Zerg are tired of playing 100 ZvPs in a row every online tournament they sign up for. And now that Clem is practicing PvZ and PvP to fully play protoss until next patch, it is only going to get worse. Zerg players perceive ZvP to be in a bad spot, so of course they don't want to play. Of course Serral almost never plays online cups, Maru doesn't either, but for protoss all the top guys play so that doesn't help either.
Geez Zergs start crying just because they think current patch is not good for them. Where were they when Zergs were completely dominating Protoss for the past 5 years to the point of extinction.
Cool Protoss are only winning these online small cups. Wake us up when Protoss actually wins a world championship
Zergs have no place or right to complain about balance until we see someone like showtime beating any of the top Zergs at a regular basis
It's not about Zerg not winning these tournaments. Tournament wins were a horrible way to describe the state of Protoss, they are a horrible way to describe the state of Zerg now. When Serral and Reynor, the only two S-Tier Zergs in the worlds, don't play the tournament, of course chances of a Zerg winner deplete rapidly, especially when other S-Tier players like Clem, herO or Classic compete.
But to not have any Zerg at all in this is...a bit concerning to say the least.
On September 02 2025 03:42 LostUsername100 wrote: Holy shit, where is Zerg?
Zerg are extinct. I asked Reynor today what he thought about his Maestros group and he was not happy because "protoss" yes, he didnt comment on who he was facing, i dont think he cared too much, he was just tilted because its protoss. Zerg are tired of playing 100 ZvPs in a row every online tournament they sign up for. And now that Clem is practicing PvZ and PvP to fully play protoss until next patch, it is only going to get worse. Zerg players perceive ZvP to be in a bad spot, so of course they don't want to play. Of course Serral almost never plays online cups, Maru doesn't either, but for protoss all the top guys play so that doesn't help either.
Geez Zergs start crying just because they think current patch is not good for them. Where were they when Zergs were completely dominating Protoss for the past 5 years to the point of extinction.
Cool Protoss are only winning these online small cups. Wake us up when Protoss actually wins a world championship
Zergs have no place or right to complain about balance until we see someone like showtime beating any of the top Zergs at a regular basis
5 years? It started in 2018 which saw a tier 4 Zerg player dominate a 3-time world champion off the back of some of the worst balance since early Wings of Liberty and never stopped.
Ah yes, 2018, that horrible year for Protoss when almost half of the BlizzCon players were Protoss...
PvT was also awful in 2018 and only didn't see massive balance changes because Maru kept winning GSLs. His TvP magic famously came to an end when he ran into someone who knew it just as well as he did from being on the other side of it all year in practice games.
Ironically, early 2018 TvZ was in by far the best state it has ever been in SC2 from a game design standpoint prior to the Raven nerf which happened because Serral couldn't handle them. Both Dark and Rogue figured it out and it wouldn't have been as strong on a better map pool e.g. Backwater let the Terran get 4 bases for nearly free.
On September 02 2025 03:42 LostUsername100 wrote: Holy shit, where is Zerg?
Zerg are extinct. I asked Reynor today what he thought about his Maestros group and he was not happy because "protoss" yes, he didnt comment on who he was facing, i dont think he cared too much, he was just tilted because its protoss. Zerg are tired of playing 100 ZvPs in a row every online tournament they sign up for. And now that Clem is practicing PvZ and PvP to fully play protoss until next patch, it is only going to get worse. Zerg players perceive ZvP to be in a bad spot, so of course they don't want to play. Of course Serral almost never plays online cups, Maru doesn't either, but for protoss all the top guys play so that doesn't help either.
Geez Zergs start crying just because they think current patch is not good for them. Where were they when Zergs were completely dominating Protoss for the past 5 years to the point of extinction.
Cool Protoss are only winning these online small cups. Wake us up when Protoss actually wins a world championship
Zergs have no place or right to complain about balance until we see someone like showtime beating any of the top Zergs at a regular basis
It's not about Zerg not winning these tournaments. Tournament wins were a horrible way to describe the state of Protoss, they are a horrible way to describe the state of Zerg now. When Serral and Reynor, the only two S-Tier Zergs in the worlds, don't play the tournament, of course chances of a Zerg winner deplete rapidly, especially when other S-Tier players like Clem, herO or Classic compete.
But to not have any Zerg at all in this is...a bit concerning to say the least.
On September 02 2025 23:08 RogueTheGOAT wrote:
On September 02 2025 22:47 TeamMamba wrote:
On September 02 2025 12:53 CicadaSC wrote:
On September 02 2025 03:42 LostUsername100 wrote: Holy shit, where is Zerg?
Zerg are extinct. I asked Reynor today what he thought about his Maestros group and he was not happy because "protoss" yes, he didnt comment on who he was facing, i dont think he cared too much, he was just tilted because its protoss. Zerg are tired of playing 100 ZvPs in a row every online tournament they sign up for. And now that Clem is practicing PvZ and PvP to fully play protoss until next patch, it is only going to get worse. Zerg players perceive ZvP to be in a bad spot, so of course they don't want to play. Of course Serral almost never plays online cups, Maru doesn't either, but for protoss all the top guys play so that doesn't help either.
Geez Zergs start crying just because they think current patch is not good for them. Where were they when Zergs were completely dominating Protoss for the past 5 years to the point of extinction.
Cool Protoss are only winning these online small cups. Wake us up when Protoss actually wins a world championship
Zergs have no place or right to complain about balance until we see someone like showtime beating any of the top Zergs at a regular basis
5 years? It started in 2018 which saw a tier 4 Zerg player dominate a 3-time world champion off the back of some of the worst balance since early Wings of Liberty and never stopped.
Ah yes, 2018, that horrible year for Protoss when almost half of the BlizzCon players were Protoss...
PvT was also awful in 2018 and only didn't see massive balance changes because Maru kept winning GSLs. His TvP magic famously came to an end when he ran into someone who knew it just as well as he did from being on the other side of it all year in practice games.
Ironically, early 2018 TvZ was in by far the state it has ever been in SC2 from a game design standpoint prior to the Raven nerf which happened because Serral couldn't handle them. Both Dark and Rogue figured it out and it wouldn't have been as strong on a better map pool e.g. Backwater let the Terran get 4 bases for nearly free.
This is astute commentary, 2018 TvZ was indeed by far the most state it's ever been.
EPT
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herO continued his winning ways in WardiTV Mondays #49 with yet another cup title. While herO had been struggling lately against MaxPax and his revived PvP, he showed there are few other Protoss players who can trouble him by taking a convincing 3-1 against ShoWTimE in the finals of the latest Monday competition.![[image loading]](/staff/Waxangel/misc/weeklies/pig046.png)
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