EPT
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Weekly Cup Competitions Week of August 31 - September 6Patches' Versus Mod continued to build momentum in the first week of September, converting both Monday Night Weeklies and PiGosaur Cup over to the alternative game mode.
The ongoing schism posed no issues to herO, who was the big winner of the week with four cup wins total—two in live SC2, and two in Patches' mod.
*Partial brackets may be shown.
August 31: Sparking Tuna Cup #144
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Due to WardiTV Mondays' temporary rescheduling, the week kicked off with Sparking Tuna Cup and some regular 5.0.16 StarCraft II. The cup ended up producing a surprising winner, with GgMachine winning thanks in part to SHIN's Random-race antics in the finals (VOD).
SHIN rolled off-race in every single game (1 Protoss, 3 Terran), and even managed to steal a map as Terran with methodical battlemech play. However, the rest of the games went as you might expect in an off-race match, with GgMachine winning with relatively straight-forward play. Despite getting a partial gift from SHIN in the finals, GgMachine still deserves plenty of credit for his two late-game dismantlings of ByuN in the semi-finals.
The cup was also notable for the participation of Neeb, who has started playing in the odd cup after his return from retirement. It was hard to ascertain his level in his quick 1-2 loss to SHIN—Neeb took game one with a Blink-Stalker all-in, but lost the next two games to early Ling-Roach aggression, followed by a difficult basetrade against Mutas.
*****
August 31: Monday Night Weeklies #61
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Played under Patches' Versus Mod
Monday also saw us get into modded SC2 action, with Monday Night Weeklies making the switch to the popular Patches' Versus Mod. With the mod's bones being in the 5.0.15 era of StarCraft, it was not surprising to see herO come out on top with a 3-2 win against Solar in the finals (VOD).
The finals was a throwback to those 'good old days' of ZvP, where Solar tried to deal severe damage or finish his opponent outright with early/mid-game attacks. While this was enough to get Solar two map wins, herO was able to ride his 1-map winners' bracket advantage to a 3-2 win.
There wasn't any extreme strategic experimenting that stood out, but it was fun to see herO continue to refine his 'blink-tachyon-shield-Stalker' timing in PvZ, while Solar got a chance to learn that the restored Infested Terran ability is just as niche as it was before.
*****
September 1: PiGosaur Cup #97
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Played under Patches' Versus Mod
PiGosaur cup joined Monday Night weeklies in converting to Patches' mod play, which now makes it three of the long-established cups that have made the switch—at least for the time being (MNW, PiGosaur, and KSL). As mentioned above, with much of the base gameplay of the mod being in 5.0.15, it wasn't surprising to see that era's dominant cup player herO come up with another win on the week (VOD).
herO took a 3-1 finals win against Cure in a manner that was all too common in 5.0.15, daring Cure to stop him from taking every expansion on the map and beating him to death with a bag of money. The only map Cure took was the one where herO tried to get cute in the early-game with the new Conduit Pylons, only to have it backfire.
The cup did feature a notable mod-specific strategy in a TvT between ByuN and Cure, where ByuN took advantage of the altered Raven (cheaper, no-tech lab required) to go for a funky Hellions + 2-Starport Raven opener. While he ended up losing the game, the strategy seemed like it might be the foundation for a 'real' TvT build with some more refinement.
*****
September 2: 2026 Kung Fu Cup Weekly #21
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The Kung Fu Cup took us back to orthodox StarCraft II, where Solar continued his reign of terror in the weekly cups. Lambo got in on the 5.0.16 Zerg party as well, making it to the finals before being ultimately felled by our new cup king (VOD). The 3-1 finals was your standard ZvZ fare, with a mixture of Ling-Bane knife-fighting and some solid mid-game combat.
*****
September 2: Rotti's Patches Open #2
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Played under Patches' Versus Mod
RotterdaM hosted another cup under the Patches' mod, and fortunately for the arc of the popular new game mode, herO proved to be quite fallible as he was eliminated in third place with losses to both ByuN and GgMaChine (VOD (Polish)).
ByuN's 3-1 win over GgMaChine in the finals looked like your standard TvZ fare on the surface, but the variety of late-game oriented changes to Ghosts, Brood Lords, and Siege Tanks did make the one marathon turtle-fest feel slightly more dynamic than previous versions of SC2. In particular, the Brood Lord's increased structure damage makes it easier for Zerg to force its way into a base, though it's hard to say which side has the overall edge given the many subtle tweaks.
*****
September 4: IntoTheTV X SOOP SC2 Weekly #3
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Back in normal StarCraft land, the IntoTheTV X SOOP weekly saw herO interrupt the recent run of Zerg domination, showing he's a force to be reckoned with in any version of the game. (VOD). herO's 3-0 over Cure in the finals was a textbook demonstration of his 5.0.16 style, where cheesy early-game tactics such as proxy-Gates set him up for mid-game success.
*****
September 6: Sparking Tuna Cup #145
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herO got himself yet another standard cup win in the Sparking Tuna Cup, this time getting a finals sweep against another top Korean player in ByuN (VOD). Proxy-Gates figured in again once more in game one, but otherwise this ended up being a more defensive series for herO as he parried ByuN's own attempts to get an early-game edge.
*****
September 6: The Berry Patch Open #3
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Played under Patches' Versus Mod
The week concluded with another competition in Patches mod, where Lambo went on an impressive title run with wins against Solar and herO (x2) (VOD). While Lambo managed to take a late-game win against herO in their first series on the back of great spellcaster use and army control, his overall approach to facing herO was the familiar one from 5.0.15: kill him before it's too late. At this, Lambo was quite successful, with a slew of aggressive tactics leading him to a 4-1 grand finals win.
