EPT
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Weekly Cup Competitions Week of July 6 - July 12Zergs ruled online cup play during the first few weeks of the 5.0.16 patch/PTR, but Protoss rallied back in the second week of July. Top Protosses herO and Classic took down the two Tuesday cups, while SHIN joined the winners' list with a victory in the Kung Fu Cup.
*Partial brackets may be shown.
July 7: WardiTV Mondays #94
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WardiTV Mondays was humorously moved to Tuesday, possibly due to a scheduling conflict with the ongoing GSL CK series of showmatches. In any case, the cup didn't have quite as robust a line-up as usual (missing MaxPax and Clem), opening the way for Classic to win amid a Protoss-heavy field (VOD).
Small sample-viewing suggests PvP remains a cheesefest in 5.0.16, and Classic continued to thrive in that environment with a 3-1 victory against NightMare in the finals. Also, the volatility of PvP may have brought about the cup's biggest upset, with Trap making a surprise comeback and upsetting herO 2-0 (alas, a streamer who covered this match could not be found).
In balance-watch news, it was notable to see SHIN unable to continue his recent success with a 0-2 loss to Classic in the semis, where he was powerless against a fully assembled Skytoss fleet.
*****
July 7: PiGosaur Cup #89
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herO brought us back to the 'good ol' days' of 5.0.15 by giving Protoss their second cup of the week, taking down Nicoract, SHIN, and Solar in his PiGosaur run. The finals saw herO lean on his own brand of Skytoss play that featured mass Void Rays, and neither Hydralisk nor Corruptor based anti-air approaches worked for Solar in his 2-3 loss (VOD).
Meanwhile, Clem continued to struggle in the post-patch cup environment, losing 1-3 to Solar in the semifinals. Solar succeeded with a macro-based approach, and it was interesting to see Clem gamble (unsuccessfully) on a proxy-Barracks cheese that he rarely used in the previous version.
*****
July 8: Kung Fu Cup #14
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While Protoss was the roadblock for SHIN in the earlier cups, Terran proved to be a balm as he conquered the Kung Fu Cup in a ZvT heavy run (wins against ByuN, Ryung, and Clem) (VOD). SHIN showed off the breadth of his skills in his 3-1 finals victory over Clem, winning with an unusual Hydra-Ling timing, solid Muta-Ling-Bane play, and stalwart defense against another proxy-Barracks cheese.
The cup also featured a huge upset with Ryung taking down herO 2-1 in the RO8, where he won with both straight-up macro and a cheesy 2-base Marine-Tank-SCV timing.
*****
May 23 - July 11: StarCraft Evolution League - Season 3 Ladder Invitation
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StarCraft: Evolution Complete (SC2 vs BW mod) finished up its lengthy Season 3 Ladder Invitational, which concluded with Classic once again demonstrating his supremacy in the mod (VOD (Korean)). While Cure found an answer for Classic's dreaded Reaver play in the finals, he was unable to overcome the might of SC2 Protoss in a 4-3 loss. Curiously, the SC2 side won every game of the finals, which is probably the subject of its own heated balance debate within the SC:Evo community.
*****
July 12: Sparking Tuna Cup #137
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herO earned a weekly double-lite with a win in the Sparkling Tuna Cup, taking down Terrans in all of his matches (VOD). A proxy-heavy finals saw herO initially go down 0-2 against ByuN, but rally back to earn the reverse sweep.
