Weekly Cups (Sept 21-27): herO and ByuN double

Weekly Cups (Sept 21-27): herO and ByuN double - Page last

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September 28 2026 10:03 GMT

Weekly Cup Competitions Week of September 21 - 28

by Wax

September closed out with a week of anniversaries, with PiGosaur Cup holding its 100th event while WardiTV celebrated its ten year anniversary with a special WardiTV 10 tournament.

Overall, herO and ByuN were the most successful players on the week as they both picked up a pair of cup wins (across both live-version and modded StarCraft II), while Solar and SHIN took a win a piece in the aforementioned anniversary events.

*Partial brackets may be shown.

September 21: WardiTV Mondays #105

herO started off his strong week with a victory in WardiTV Mondays, notching victories against players like Percival, Cure, and SHIN along the way (VOD).

Trickery has been a key part of herO's PvZ in 5.0.16, and nearly all of his gambits worked out in his 3-1 finals victory against SHIN. Game one saw SHIN get duped by herO's delayed Glaive-Adept timing from a 3-base start, which inflicted severe economic damage and allowed herO to stroll to victory. herO hit a brief roadblock in game two as his strategy of fast-Mothership into Stalker-Zealot didn't work out, but his cunning was once again rewarded in game three as he hit a deadly fast Blink-Stalker timing (utilizing Warp-boosted Gateways). Finally, herO closed things out with 2-Stargate Oracles in game four, with his fast five Oracles catching SHIN off guard and fatally damaging the Zerg economy.

*****

September 21: Monday Night Weeklies #64

Played under Patches' Versus Mod

herO proceeded to 'unite' the divided SC2 world in Monday Night Weeklies, picking up a first place finish in Patches' Mod as well. The cup also saw Clem return after a short cup hiatus, and he achieved a third place finish in his return (VOD).

The version 5.0.14-15 base of the Patches' mod has allowed Protoss to return to their old ways of defending and macroing to victory, and for the most part, that was the story of herO's first place run. However, he did throw in the good old 'random Dark Templars' to great effect, taking advantage of the Dark Shrine's faster build time to close out his 3-0 finals win against ByuN (starting with a one map winners' bracket advantage).

*****

September 22: Sparking Tuna Cup 147

Played under SHIN Balance Patch

There's now a third faction in the great StarCraft II schism of 2026, with Zerg player SHIN putting out his own balance mod. Actually, this mod has been around for several weeks now, but Sparking Tuna Cup #147 was the first regularly held weekly to utilize it.

Like the Patches' mod, the SHIN mod is a partial 5.0.15 revert—however, it focuses on tweaking the stats of existing units and buildings instead of adding new abilities and upgrades to the game (VOD).

Regardless of the patch or mod, ByuN was always going to be the likely winner as he was by far the best player competing (due to SHIN himself deciding to off-race). The finals saw ByuN get a straight-forward 3-0 over Perceive, with the outmatched Protoss unable to deal with ByuN's harassment and army movements.

*****

September 22: PiGosaur Cup #100

Played under Patches' Versus Mod

PiGosaur Cup celebrated its 100th event with an enhanced $1000 prize pool, and Solar ended up being the player to step up and claim the $400 first place prize (VOD).

Blink-Tachyon-Shield Stalkers have defined the herO vs Zerg meta in Patches mod, but Solar found some answers (at least temporarily) in his 3-1 grand finals win over the T1 Protoss. The solution in game one was mobility, as Solar outmaneuvered and backdoored his way to victory with mass Muta-Ling. Solar gave Lurkers a shot in game two, with Lurkers recently being patched in Patches' mod to be cheaper at the cost of durability. While this almost worked out for Solar, he ultimately lost in protracted mid-game combat.

Solar broke the tie in game three thanks to an early Zergling drop, which didn't deal much damage but alerted him to herO's Carrier rush. The advance notice allowed him to get out Corruptors with plenty of time to spare and take an easy win. Finally, Solar closed the finals out by pre-empting the triple-upgrade Stalkers with a timely Zergling backdoor, dealing enough damage to give him the winning edge.

*****

September 23: 2026 Kung Fu Cup Weekly #24

herO's attempt at a triple was thwarted again in the Kung Fu Cup, as ByuN ran the table to take the weekly title (VOD).

The five game finals was great all around fun, featuring standard macro, chaotic basetrades, and even a humorous proxy vs proxy game. ByuN had a particularly impressive showing on the fifth and final map, weathering waves of Protoss attacks before turning the tables with a mighty Ghost-Liberator-Bio army.

*****

September 22-26: WardiTV 10 (Ten year anniversary cup)

Check Liquipedia for group stage results

PiGosaur Cup #100 wasn't the only milestone competition on the week, as WardiTV celebrated its TEN YEAR anniversary with the five day WardiTV 10 event. SHIN took the tournament with a fantastic 15-3 map record, including a 3-2 win over Clem in the finals (VOD (final day)).

Aside from Clem's Hellbat timing in game three (which actually worked for once), the finals was all about the classic, macro TvZ action that WardiTV has delivered time and time again for the past decade. SHIN took the final game at the end of intense basetrade, managing to stall out Clem's army while he took out the Terran production.