Weekly Cups (July 13-19): Terran & Protoss rise; Zerg falters

Weekly Cups (July 13-19): Terran & Protoss rise; Zerg falt…

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July 20 2026 07:57 GMT

Weekly Cup Competitions Week of July 13 - July 19

by Wax

The week's cup competition showed how quickly things can change in the early phases of a patch, with Zerg's initial dominance being mostly stamped out in the weekly cups. Protoss and Terran split the cups two a piece, with ByuN, Clem, MaxPax, and herO all taking a single victory. However, Zerg still looked dominant in the GSL CK race war, muddying the balance picture even further.

It should be noted that the recent 5.0.16b patch was largely a non-factor, with most of the competitions taking place prior to its deployment.

*Partial brackets may be shown.

July 6 - 13: GSL CK #5

The GSL CK series of showmatches continued to mix up its format, this time holding an old school 'race war.' Rogue led Team Zerg to a crushing victory, as he earned a quasi all-kill in the group stage, followed by a close-out series win against herO and Team Protoss in the playoffs (VOD (Day 2)).

Besides Zerg's one-sided victory, GSL CK was also notable for strong performances from the "legendary"/inactive players who joined the fray. While such players are typically more nostalgia-bait than viable competitors, both INnoVation (win vs Classic) and Trap (wins vs ByuN, Maru, and Cure) made vital contributions to their teams. If the new balance patch was an even greater reset of the game than expected, perhaps we will see more old fan-favorites in competitions going forward.

*****

July 13: Monday Night Weeklies #58

ByuN got his first weekly cup win of the new patch in Monday Night Weeklies, taking out two of the old cup kings in MaxPax and Clem along the way (VOD).

ByuN's two matches against Clem were particularly interesting, as he defeated both the Protoss and Terran versions of the Liquid ace. In the initial upper-bracket clash, ByuN defeated Clem's Protoss with a pair of two-base pushes, which either ended the game outright or inflicted heavy damage. That loss seemed to convince Clem that PvT isn't the match-up it used to be, and he switched back to his main race to defeat fellow Terran player Cure in the lower bracket.

Clem stuck to TvT in the finals rematch against ByuN, but even the race 'switch' couldn't save him as he suffered another defeat. The first game suggested there was barely any rust on Clem at all, as he nearly earned a comeback victory in a late-game showdown between Tank-Viking-Thor armies. Clem then tied up the series in a much shorter game, defeating ByuN in the appointed early-game clash between Marine-Tank-Raven armies. The series then ended on a rather anticlimactic note, as Clem GG'd out early after his attempts at early-game harassment failed catastrophically and left ByuN with a significant advantage.

*****

July 14: WardiTV Mondays #95

Once again, we got WardiTV Mondays on Tuesday instead—a temporary scheduling quirk before returning to its usual timeslot in the coming week. In any case, WardiTV Somedays gave us our second Terran cup winner, with Clem defeating Denver, NightMare, SHIN, and Solar on his way to victory (VOD).

Clem's TvZ struggles had been notable earlier in the patch, but he made a stark course correction in the cup by drubbing both SHIN (2-0) and Solar (3-0) in games that looked very reminiscent of 5.0.15. While Clem was surely aided by getting away with fast 3-CC builds in many of the games, it was still surprising to see Clem look so dominant just a week after losing 0-6 to Serral at HomeStory Cup. In another sign that the matchup may have changed drastically in a short period of time, Solar sarcastically chatted "Z v T is balanced" before bowing out of the finals.

*****

July 14: PiGosaur Cup #90

Protoss got on the board in the PiGosaur Cup, with MaxPax taking a close 3-2 victory over Cure in the finals (VOD). While herO has made cheese a major part of his post-patch PvT, MaxPax stuck to a macro-first approach—with both Robo and Templar styles figuring in. In the end, it was good enough for MaxPax to eke out a victory, clinching the 3-2 by winning a basetrade in game five.

The cup was also notable for an unexpected off-racing incident, with herO deciding to try out Terran in the final game of his 1-3 semifinal loss to MaxPax. It's unknown whether herO thought TvP is Terran favored or simply considered PvP to be too random at the moment, but either way, it ended up being a poor decision. While he had moderate success with Mine drops, he was powerless to stop MaxPax from picking him apart with Blink-Stalkers.

*****

July 15: Kung Fu Cup #15

The wins might not be stacking up quite like before, but herO showed he's still a force to be reckoned with by defeating two of the week's earlier champions (Clem and ByuN) en route to a Kung Fu Cup title (VOD).

As mentioned above, cheese has been a big part of herO's post-patch PvT, and he sure let Clem know it in his 3-1 finals victory. Both proxy-Robo and proxy-Stargate builds hit the mark, with herO also throwing in a late-game macro win to remind everyone he's a threat at any stage of the game.

*****

July 17-18: EPIC.LAN #48

The UK's EPIC.LAN is one of the oldest running live tournament series in StarCraft II, with the first event being held as far back as July of 2013. Dozens of events later, EPIC.LAN is still being held on a regular basis, with the latest competition occurring over the weekend at EPIC.LAN #48.

PtitDrogo ended up taking the championship, losing to Fjant in the upper-bracket final but coming back to win in the grand finals. The grand finals had a clear theme running throughout, with Fjant striking hard in the early/mid-game while Drogo did his best to withstand the attacks. Defense ended up triumphing over offense, with Drogo overcoming a 1-map lower bracket disadvantage to win 4-3 (VOD (Day 2)).