Clem wins HomeStory Cup 28

by Wax

StarCraft II's longest running tournament series welcomed its 19th unique champion, as Clem obliterated the competition to win the HomeStory Cup 28. Despite conquering tournaments ranging from local LAN's to the world championship, Krefeld's merry melee had remained a surprising gap in the Team Liquid ace's resume. Clem checked off that box with an utterly dominant showing, going 9-0 in matches (22-2 in maps) over the course of the three day event.



+ Show Spoiler [Click to see group stage results] +

It even seemed like a perfect, undefeated run was on the table after the winners' semifinal, where Clem took a one-sided 3-0 victory over rival Serral. Although Serral had given Clem many tough battles in the past, the Finnish Phenom was made to look as helpless as any other Zerg in this particular clash.

It was ShoWTimE, a two-time runner-up of HomeStory Cup, who managed to finally draw blood from Clem, catching him off guard with Dark Templars in the winners' final. However, Clem took convincing victories on the three other maps, advancing to the grand finals by a 3-1 score. ShoWTimE would earn another shot at Clem through the losers' bracket, but the end result was the same. Die Mauer took one more map with a signature, rock-solid macro performance, but was ultimately overrun as Clem took a 3-1 victory.

Even as Clem won his first HSC title and ShoWTimE achieved the milestone of three runner-ups in the event, HSC 28 had another worthy co-star. Third place HeroMarine earned his podium finish with two huge victories, toppling the previous HSC champion Zoun 3-2 in the quarterfinals and upsetting Serral by the same scoreline in the losers semifinals. While HeroMarine had been 4-27 in career matches against Serral prior to the tournament, he managed to pull off the upset on the back of immaculate mech play.

Outside the games, HSC organizer TakeTV gave fans even more to cheer for by confirming the next two HomeStory Cup tournaments. A 'standard' HomeStory Cup (#29) is set to take place during July 3-5, while HomeStory Cup 30 was announced for early 2027 as an outsized, anniversary extravaganza. While the location and venue for HSC 30 have yet to be finalized, viewers can look to HSC 20—held at a waterpark in Berlin—as an example of what TakeTV can do when they want to invite the community to a truly special event.

---