Weekly Cups (Sept 1-7): MaxPax rebounds & Clem saga continues

Weekly Cup Competitions
Week of September 1-7

by Wax

After ceding the spotlight to others in the past few weeks, MaxPax stepped up as the all-around winner in the first week of September with two cup titles. herO, ShoWTimE, and Clem also won a competition a piece, while the latter's CvP saga continued to be the most intriguing subplot of the competitive scene.

*Partial brackets may be shown.

September 1: WardiTV Mondays #50

Clem's late-August TvP crash out had lasting effects, with Clem continuing to use battlemech as his main TvP strategy.

However, if mech had seemed like a desperate last resort in the previous week's competitions, it proved to be a winning foundation in WardiTV Mondays #50. Clem piloted Cyclones and Hellions to victory against both herO in the semis (2-0) and ShoWTimE in the finals (3-2), looking quite strong whenever he could establish a steady, 3+ base macro foundation (VOD).

*****

September 1: Monday Night Weeklies #21

Monday Night Weeklies finally returned after an extended hiatus, restoring the unofficial tradition of having 2+ Monday cups back-to-back. Clem came close to securing a weekly double, but ended up ceding first place to herO as his versus Protoss journey took another turn.

herO and Clem resumed their hostilities from WardiTV Mondays in the upper bracket finals of MNW, where herO got his lick back with a 2-1 victory. This time, herO seemed to have a much better handle on how to deal with his opponent's mech play, only losing a game where a series of early cheeses went wrong.

Clem earned a grand finals rematch opportunity after dispatching ByuN 1-0 in the losers' final, and went right back to his mech-centric TvP. However, his failed Reaper-Hellion opener prevented him from setting mech up ideally in game one, and herO strolled to a relatively easy win.

Having already surprised the SC2 scene with his rather respectable PvP skills in the previous week of cup play, Clem decided to turn to this extreme(?) measure once more and off-raced for the rest of the series. Once again, Clem showed excellent PvP ability, tying the series up at 2-2. One could have said it was hardly noticeable that Clem wasn't a Protoss-main, at least until the final game. There, Clem made the puzzling decision to pull Probes for an ill-fated Stalker-Probe attack at a critical juncture, helping seal herO's 3-2 finals victory (VOD).

Besides the peculiar final game, the finals was also notable for the fact that herO actually missed Clem's race-switch to Protoss in game two. Clem offered a remake once he saw herO was going Gate-Nexus-Core with a Reaper wall, but herO declined and asked to play the game out. Amusingly enough, herO's opener didn't have as big an impact on the game as one might have expected, and Clem ended up taking a more or less 'legitimate' win.

Before moving on to Tuesday, it should be noted that MaxPax was eliminated early in MNW after being upset by both Creator (0-2) and HeroMarine (0-1).

*****

September 2: PiGosaur Cup #47

After his poor showing in MNW, MaxPax bounced back in the following day's PiGosaur Cup with a convincing 3-1 victory against ByuN in the finals.

ByuN had briefly sparked some hope for bio TvP lovers in the semifinals, scoring a 3-2 upset over herO. While the first few games followed the tiresome pattern of the Terran living and dying by their sub-8-minute timings, ByuN closed the series with a fantastic macro performance on Magannatha where he adroitly executed the "just dodge storms and EMP Templars LOL" strategy.

The first game of the finals also offered ByuN a chance to show off his late-game TvP skills, as he nearly dug his way out of a massive mid-game hole by dragging the game out. ByuN actually looked better in exchanges between late-game armies, but he couldn't overcome the significant bank advantage that MaxPax had accrued beforehand.

Unfortunately, the rest of the series wasn't all that interesting—the two players split a pair of games that centered around Terran timings, and MaxPax sealed his victory with a typical Protoss macro bulldozer in game four (VOD).

*****

September 3: LiuLi Cup Weekly #5 / September #1

With herO, Clem, and MaxPax all having won one prior cup on the week, LiuLi Cup Weekly #5 presented a chance for one player to secure a weekly double. herO dropped out of contention early after suffering a 0-2 stunner at the hands of Gerald, setting up a finals between long-time online rivals Clem and MaxPax.

Interestingly enough, Clem's faith in humanity was briefly restored during the LiuLi Cup finals, as he played traditional bio in his first game against MaxPax. Albeit, it was somewhat forced due to it being the most natural follow-up to his proxy-Marauder start, but it did eventually lead to an old school (as in, two weeks old) bio beatdown from Clem.

Clem mixed things up with Mech in game two, but ended up ceding the tying point after a very close, back and forth game. Perhaps that mech loss was what earned bio another appearance in game three, and Clem marched to a 2-1 lead through his unique skill of being better at dodging storms and multitasking than anyone else. It looked like Clem might close the series out with bio in game four, but despite inflicting severe Probe damage with a pair of Banshees, he still fell to MaxPax's storm timing.

While bio had worked out okay for Clem in the series, he decided to switch to Protoss for the deciding game five duel. MaxPax came out with the cup-deciding win, with his DT harassment and well-placed Stasis Wards clinching him game five (VOD).

*****

May 17 - September 5: OSC 2025 - Mid Season Playoffs #1

September also saw the ~$2,000 OSC Mid-Season Playoffs #1 come to a close, completing the double-elimination bracket that had been sloooowly played since May. Interestingly enough, Cham entered the grand finals with the winners bracket advantage—something that might have been a shocking result back in May, but not quite a surprise in September after seeing his strong showing in RSL Season 1.

Unfortunately for Cham, he couldn't find the offensive firepower to bust through die Mauer's defenses, as ShoWTimE rose from the lower bracket to take a 4-2 finals victory (VOD).

Weekly Cups (Sept 1-7): MaxPax rebounds & Clem saga contin…

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