EPT
![[image loading]](/staff/Waxangel/misc/weeklies/comcups734.jpg)
Weekly Cup Competitions
Week of January 5 - 11
by Wax
HeroMarine's Big Gabe XPERIONCRAFT #3 headlined the week, bringing the majority of Europe's top players to Cologne for a one-day, $5000 LAN event. Clem took the first place prize, fighting off a spirited challenge from rival Reynor.
Despite Clem's strong showing in Cologne, the weekly cups reminded us that he's not invincible. Although the French Terran managed to win the PiGosaur Cup, he suffered a major upset in WardiTV Mondays as underdog Trigger took a 3-2 win in the finals.
*Partial brackets may be shown.
January 5: WardiTV Mondays #68
![[image loading]](/staff/Waxangel/misc/weeklies/wardimon068.png)
Almost one year since Trigger earned his first ever series win against Clem in Monday Night Weeklies #1, the Canadian Protoss claimed his second ever series win against the #1 Terran to clinch a cup victory in WardiTV Mondays.
The tight, five-game series saw Trigger play mostly straight-up games, with Clem happy to oblige his opponent. After splitting the first four games 2-2, Trigger sealed his cup victory on Winter Madness by showing excellent defense to wipe out a group of overextended infantry. Trigger gave Clem no time to recover from the mistake, immediately launching a counterattack that forced the final GG (VOD).
*****
January 6: PiGosaur Cup #63 Mid-Season Playoffs #2
![[image loading]](/staff/Waxangel/misc/weeklies/pig063.png)
Clem made up for his WardiTV loss on the following day, taking down herO in the finals of the PiGosaur Cup to win his first tournament of the week.
While Clem vs herO has been a very familiar sight in weekly cups, this particular series didn't feel repetitive at all. herO opened the series by getting into Clem's head with consecutive fast DT builds (even getting fast DT Blink in game two), forcing his opponent to play around the threat for the rest of the games. Furthermore, herO also diverged from his usual Robo-centric builds by playing around fast Storm—something he's been loath to do since the latest balance patch. While this unpredictable play was enough to get herO to 2-2, he fell victim to one of SC2's great inevitabilities in the final game: Clem's late-game TvP. While herO came closer than most to cracking the Terran shell, he was ultimately outvalued by Clem's Ghost-Liberator armies (VOD).
*****
January 10: Big Gabe XPERIONCraft #3
![[image loading]](/staff/Waxangel/misc/weeklies/biggabexp3.png)
The competitive SC2 scene got its first significant offline event of 2026 at Big Gabe XPERIONCraft #3, held at the XPERION LAN center in Cologne. With Serral skipping the proceedings, the race for the $1500 1st place prize predictably came down to several clashes between top Europeans Reynor and Clem.
Clem prevailed 3-1 in the initial winners' final clash, but Reynor rallied from the lower bracket to earn a rematch in the grand finals. The story of the two-leg grand finals was that Clem continued to look unstoppable in TvZ's where there were no complications, but Reynor proved quite capable of throwing a wrench in the works.
The initial BO5 saw Reynor take two maps with the help of his signature Zergling runbys, which set himself up to win in longer macro games. Reynor then earned the bracket reset in game five, hitting Clem with early Ling-Roach pressure into a Roach-Ravager timing. Unfortunately for Reynor, he couldn't find ways to knock Clem off balance in the following, all-deciding BO3. Reynor tried to create an opportunity for himself on the final map with an early Zergling strike, but it wasn't enough to impede Clem from marching to a 2-0 victory (VOD (Polish; no free English VODs)).
