EPTRongyi Cup Season 3 - Round of 16
by WaxIt's been just a few days since the All-Star Invitational concluded, but the SC2 scene is already moving on to its next big event. Rongyi Cup Season 3 will feature sixteen top players competing for $20,000 of prize money in a hybrid online/offline event, with the RO16 being held this week during January 22-25.
For those of you who are wondering 'what happened to Rongyi Cup seasons one and two?'—the Rongyi Cup is a Chinese esports tournament series that previously did not include StarCraft II, but has added the game to the line-up for its 2026 event (Dota 2, TFT, and Valorant are also featured). While the majority of the SC2 tournament will be held online, the grand finals is scheduled to be held during the live main event in Shanghai on February 7.
RO16 Schedule
The round-of-16 is played in a GSL-style group format. Check TL.net during tournament hours for community streamers covering the event.- Thursday, Jan 22 11:00am GMT (GMT+00:00): Group A - ByuN, Trigger, herO, Rogue
- Friday, Jan 23 11:00am GMT (GMT+00:00): Group B - Clem, ShoWTimE, Zoun, Bunny
- Saturday, Jan 24 11:00am GMT (GMT+00:00): Group C - SHIN, Creator, Classic, Percival
- Sunday, Jan 25 11:00am GMT (GMT+00:00): Group D - Maru, Cyan, Solar, Krystianer
RO16 Mini-Preview
Group A doesn't look like it should cause All-Star champion herO much trouble, as he typically dominates his three group opponents in cup competitions. Trigger probably has the best chance of upsetting herO considering the volatile nature of current PvP, but I wouldn't bet on it. It should be a very close race between ByuN, Rogue, and Trigger for the second place spot, but with Trigger heating up in online cups lately, I'll go with the Canadian to earn an RO8 ticket.Group B is another group with a heavy favorite, with Clem looking like a near lock to take first place. Zoun would have been a dangerous wildcard just a few months ago, but he started slumping before going curiously inactive in mid-December. With Zoun's form being questionable as of now, I'm going to pick Bunny to take second place. Unlike Zoun, Bunny has actually ramped up his activities in the last few weeks, and looks to be in solid form (notably defeating groupmate ShoWTimE in the finals of a recent WardiTV Cup).
While the first two groups at least have an interesting contest for second place, Group C looks pretty clear cut all the way through. Classic and SHIN are massive favorites against Percival and Creator, and it would take a huge stroke of luck for either of the underdogs to steal a quarterfinal spot. To Percival's credit, he did almost cheese out a BO5 win against Classic in an OSC event a few weeks ago, while Creator has looked surprisingly solid in this cheesy PvP meta. Maybe I'm being a little too harsh toward them given that these will be BO3 matches—could we get some GSL-esque upsets due to well-prepared builds?
The outlook for Group D is similar to that of Group C, with Maru and Solar looking like massive favorites against Cyan and Krystianer. Before EWC 2025, I would have said Solar's weak ZvP made him vulnerable to upsets against underdog Protoss players, but he's really turned a corner thanks to his unending bag of all-ins and Zerg tricks. Personally, I'm looking forward to a likely clash between Solar and Maru for first place. Maru has been looking pretty good in the last couple of months, but still a ways off from the player who won DreamHack Dallas back in 2025. Whether or not he can easily take care of personal punching bag Solar will be an interesting check-up on his current level.
