Weekly Cups (March 16-22): herO doubles, Cure surprises

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19 hours ago

Weekly Cup Competitions
Week of March 16 - March 22

by Wax

The iron grip of the Clem-MaxPax-herO trinity continued to be tested in the third week of March, with Cure joining the list of winners with a great showing in the PiGosaur Cup. While herO and MaxPax did sweep the rest of the cups, the increased competitiveness of the cup scene remains a trend to keep an eye on.

*Partial brackets may be shown.

March 16: GSL CK #2

The week of games did NOT begin with WardiTV Mondays as usual, with the second GSL CK series of showmatches coming slightly earlier on the schedule. The captain's draft-style tournament changed things up with the addition of a few 2v2 matches, but otherwise stuck to the 'Match 1 Proleague, Match 2 all-kill' format.

In any case, this match-up saw Team Solar triumph over Team Classic, with Maru besting Classic in the super ace match to break a 1-1 tie. Amusingly enough, team captain Solar barely played for his side in the series, even letting Maru take over super-ace duties (VOD).

*****

March 16: WardiTV Mondays #78

The first regular cup of the week saw MaxPax come out on top, running through the gauntlet of Nicoract, herO, Clem, and Solar (VOD). The grand finals saw Solar stick to his 'never-Hive' approach to ZvP, with MaxPax narrowly winning 3-2 after holding off a Nydus all-in in game five.

It was also notable to see Percival continue his hot streak with a top four finish, although he benefited from dodging most of the weekly cup monsters in his bracket.

*****

March 16: Monday Night Weeklies #44

ByuN looked to continue his recent run of cup success in Monday Night Weeklies, but was stopped just short of the summit by the formidable herO. Although ByuN did pick up a cheesy TvP win against MaxPax in the losers' final, he was unable to stop the familiar PvT macro-steamroller from flattening him in a 0-2 finals loss (VOD).

Another eye-catching result was HeroMarine's run to fourth place, with the OG weekly cup king even upsetting ByuN 2-1 earlier in the bracket.

*****

March 17: PiGosaur Cup #73

It fell upon Cure to continue the trend of surprising cup results, with the Team Liquid Terran defeating Creator, Clem, and herO to win PiGosaur Cup #73 (VOD). Cure's form had been highly inconsistent over the past few months, with TvP sticking out as a major weakness. While Cure has previously looked to cheese as the solution in his problem match-up, this time he was able to take down his Protoss opponents with mostly macro play (though he did pull out an old-fashioned SCV-pull all-in during his final set against herO).

*****

March 21: Korean StarCraft League #87

Check Liquipedia for group stage results

KSL made its return for the first time since February, giving us four cup competitions on the week. herO took the opportunity to secure a weekly double, defeating ByuN 3-1 in the finals (VOD). The finals was notable for both players pulling out quirky builds and cheeses, going against their recent inclination toward straight-up TvP play.

*****

March 21: 2026 uThermal 2v2 Circuit - Bonus Cup #6

uThermal's 2v2 circuit produced another pair of first-time winners, with the duo of Maru and herO winning Bonus Cup #6. Maru had been historically poor at transitioning his 1v1 skills to 2v2, but found success in this competition by focusing on defensive mech play (VOD).