Weekly Cups (Sept 29-Oct 5): MaxPax triples up

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Weekly Cup Competitions
Week of September 29 - October 5

by Wax

The weekly cups entered full 5.0.15 mode in the past week, with nearly every cup being played on 5.0.15 PTR or the live version. However, anyone who was anticipating a huge shake-up would have been sorely disappointed, and we began the official 5.0.15 era with a Protoss sweep—and MaxPax triple—in the cups.

*Partial brackets may be shown.

September 29: WardiTV Mondays #53

WardiTV Cup #53 was one of our last weekly cups on the old version of the SC2, which MaxPax helped send off with yet another victory. MaxPax winning a cup is no surprise, but the competition featured an unexpected co-star in NightMare who upset Rogue, Classic, and ByuN on his way to the finals. NightMare actually came close to pulling off one of the greatest underdog cup wins ever, forcing MaxPax to a game five in the BO5 finals (VOD).

*****

September 29: Kaelaris-Steadfast-Rotterdam Cup 12

From here on out, all but one of the cups were either on the 5.0.15 PTR or live version. First, the KSR cup made a surprise return, temporarily filling in for Monday Night Weeklies (due to the ComebackTV crew taking a well-earned break after Maestros of the Game).

Without NightMare to haunt his dreams, MaxPax had an easier time picking up his second win of the week, taking down SKillous 3-0 in the finals (VOD).

*****

September 30: PiGosaur Cup #51

herO and Clem were back in action on Tuesday, having taken Monday off in the wake of Maestros of the Game. As expected from a cup featuring the pair, Clem and herO took down the rest of the field and booked a clash in the finals (shoutout to Shameless for upsetting ByuN and then taking herO to five games in the semis).

We didn't get to see much of the new PvT in the finals, with herO taking a pretty quick 3-0. Two of the games were decided by early-game combat, but Storm did look just fine in the one game where it did appear (VOD).

*****

September 30: Sparking Tuna Cup: September Finals

Tuesday also brought us the Sparking Tuna Cup September Finals, putting $500 up for grabs to the month's best players (the weekly Sparkling Tuna Cups are typically not covered in these recaps due to being smaller in scale). This would also be our final cup on the 5.0.14 version, with the added twist of being played on the TLMC #21 finalist maps.

herO walked in as the heavy favorite among the eight finalists, and lived up to expectations by taking down SHIN 3-1 in the finals (VOD). SHIN took the all-in-or-die-trying approach to ZvP, which worked out for at least the first game of the series. However, it was all downhill from there, with herO deflecting the next two all-ins and hitting with a Blink-timing of his own to seal the 3-1 victory.

There wasn't a lot to be said about the new maps used, with the standard maps playing out standard-y as always. However, the gigantic 3-player Mothership could be an interesting wrinkle if allowed into the official ladder—macro-favoring players might actually let it survive a round of bans! Also, it was amusing to see SHIN immediately try out his pocket strategy of proxy-Hatch all-inning on maps with an easily mined mineral wall, as he attempted to do so against herO on 10000 Feet (herO got an early scout and deflected it easily).

*****

October 1: LiuLi Cup October #1 / Weekly #8

The first LiuLi Cup of October gave us one of the most stacked cup line-ups in a while, with Clem, herO, MaxPax, and Classic all in participation at the same time. Clem and Classic ended up being the survivors of the gauntlet, setting up a showdown for all the marbles in the finals.

Clem's travails in TvP has been the most intriguing storyline in StarCraft II over the last few weeks, and tough matches against Classic contributed to Clem's experimentations with mech and even off-racing as Protoss. While it had seemed like Clem had turned a corner in the Maestros of the Game playoffs—defeating both Classic and herO with mostly bio play—Classic suggested the saga may not be over quite yet by taking a convincing 3-1 against Clem in the finals (VOD).

The finals didn't seem to suggest that PvT has changed all that much so far—the ol' Blink-into-Templars framework seemed to be working just fine for Classic. Perhaps that's why Clem went straight back into tinkering mode, bringing out his off-race Protoss after falling behind 1-2. While Clem has had some success PvP'ing top players in other cups, this time he ended up surrendering the match-deciding point after a close macro game.

*****

October 3: WardiTV Mondays/Weekly #54

The week closed out with a make-up edition of WardiTV "Mondays," presumably as a replacement for the week skipped for Wardi's wedding in September. herO's early 0-2 upset at the hands of Gerald cleared the way for a MaxPax title run, with the PvP master going perfect against Gerald, SKillous, and then Classic to secure a weekly triple (VOD).