Zergs 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Zerg has it so easy, whenever some big changes happen they are the easiest race to adjust to the changes and play efficiently, while Protoss especially have to map up openings and playstyles for months to years before it starts to get figured out and viable. It's actual BS
On July 15 2026 23:41 ejozl wrote: Not true, it takes zergs the longest to adjust to all the "new timings", problem is, there are no timings, and zerg is just overtuned.
Yeah, usually people say the opposite lol. That Zerg takes the longest to adjust to a new patch because they have to learn the responses to all the new timings/strats
On July 15 2026 20:36 Drahkn wrote: Zerg has it so easy, whenever some big changes happen they are the easiest race to adjust to the changes and play efficiently, while Protoss especially have to map up openings and playstyles for months to years before it starts to get figured out and viable. It's actual BS
Are you uh, reading the results of these tournaments or?
On July 15 2026 20:36 Drahkn wrote: Zerg has it so easy, whenever some big changes happen they are the easiest race to adjust to the changes and play efficiently, while Protoss especially have to map up openings and playstyles for months to years before it starts to get figured out and viable. It's actual BS
Are you uh, reading the results of these tournaments or?
On the topic of the SEL Ladder Invitational finals: not really any balance discussion to be had, both sides just played BW poorly. Classic rushing into BW Carriers (which are much worse on their own than SC2 Carriers are) and Cure playing mech while not using scans to scout, not laying down all the mines he had, and doing runbys with ALL of his Vultures while getting all-inned on a supply deficit. Crank even started sending whispers to Cure mid-series begging him to build a wall and turrets and not place all his buildings behind his mineral lines.
Couldn't really say Classic won the finals by being dominant in the mod (though his journey to the finals was another story) rather he got bailed out by getting to play as SC2 first in the finals. His usually strong form as BW was completely absent.
Frankly the 3rd place match was much more entertaining even though it involved Solar playing a matchup he insists is impossible to win in this mod. I might even go as far as to say the finals was the least watchable series in the entire playoffs
Also Cure's performance specifically may have been impacted by the fact he didn't know he was playing that day until 15 minutes after the finals was supposed to start and he was playing from a friend's house on short notice .-. (the Cure vs Solar semis match was preplayed so he didn't have a warmup)
EPT
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Weekly Cup Competitions Week of July 6 - July 12![[image loading]](/staff/Waxangel/misc/weeklies/wardimon094.png)
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