JinrO advanced to the Round of 8 after defeating team mate and reigning champion MC twice with some brutal mech hammering. MarineKing takes the first seed, defeating Jinro and RainbOw.
MC vs. RainbOw
The first game of today saw MC really punishing RainbOw for taking his second expansion very early. After having taken his first expansion after his first barracks, RainbOw took his second expansion in the upper left corner. MC, having pounded the natural expansion defense of RainbOw with a lone stalker, took his natural expansion and added some more warp gates to a total of five. RainbOw, on the defensive, built four bunkers at his natural while gearing up to produce masses of infantry units.
But at the 9 minute mark, MC moves out with tons of sentries accompanied by six or so stalkers and a handful of zealots. RainbOw's defense seemed solid, but MC could lay down force fields all over the expansion to hinder the marines and marauders to be utilized in the fight. The Protoss units could then just roam free at the Terran base.
Jinro vs. MarineKing
Jinro opened up with a double refinery opposed to MarineKing's early expansion. Going for an early hellion harass transitioning up to banshees, Jinro was able to harass and slow down the young Terran's mineral line. But MarineKing acted accordingly and could chase away the banshee and the hellions after laying down some bunkers at his expansion. With the harass in motion, Jinro took his natural expansion as well.
Both players then opted up for vikings, but while Jinro focused more on mixing it up with banshees and hellions, MarineKing felt content with marines, vikings, tanks and medivacs. With an okay force to attack with, MarineKing rolled in to Jinro's expansion and gets greeted by siege tank shots. Jinro's more mixed up army could intercept the attack, leaving MarineKing with nothing but softened up marines which fell back to live another day.
Jinro took the opportunity in hand, and went to contain MarineKing, just outside the expansion. His banshees did some heavy damage on MarineKing's forces, razing a couple of siege tanks. MarineKing does hold it back, and decides to counter-attack by dropping marines from two medivacs in to Jinro's own expansion. Being busy with the containment attack at the expansion, Jinro had no defence at home which gave MarineKing the chance to roam free and take out Jinro's production buildings to see a 'gg'.
Jinro vs. MC
The reigning champion against the fourth placed from last season. MC opted for a very quick stargate, taking advantage of the decreased build time for the phoenixes. The early phoenixes gave him the ability to scout his opponent. JinrO could eventually chase it back with a viking coming out.
Both players took their natural expansions at the 9 minute mark, but MC made sure to keep the harass on the mineral line of Jinro.
MC then attempted a finisher attack, with his immortals, sentries, phoenixes and zealots, but Jinro was able to hold it off, being ultra quick in reparing his bunker. With nothing but zealots and phoenixes left, MC fell back.
Jinro then went in to mech mode, pumping out tons of siege tanks and hellions. And with some blue flame hellion drops, the game was evened out.
Jinro, feeling confident, moved out from his natural, and set up a contain at the bottom xel'naga watch tower. The contain was eventually broken by MC with the many immortals dealt heavy damage against the mech. As it looked even for a while, Jinro made sure to take the island expansion.
Jinro, gearing up to take the gold expansion inbetween them, could re-take the containment, filling up the battlefield with tons of siege tanks, now backed up by Thors.
And in an attempt to break it once again, MC's immortals, colossi and zealots went in to the fray. But with too many units from the Terran, the Protoss says 'gg'.
RainbOw vs. MarineKing
The game between RainbOw and MarineKing turned to be quite one-sided, with RainbOw's failing with his marine, SCv all-in attack. MarineKing could then just hold off and have a more sturdy economy up and then run over his opponent with more marines.
Jinro vs. MC
The fifth game, once again between Jinro and MC, was on Scrap Station. MC went for a five warp-gate all-in attack, but JinrO held it off with his double bunkers and great SCV micro. Jinro's banshee got out just in time to hold off the attack.
Jinro, down at 15 SCVs after the attack, thus came a bit behind in economy but ahead in tech with that banshee out.
At the 11 minute mark both players took their natural expansion. MC also warped in two stargates, phoenixes once again for MC. The phoenixes found a raven and took it out. MC went on to do some mineral line harass, Jinro then forced to spend money on turrets.
15 minutes in, we see MC going for some carriers to counter Jinro's mech troop. As the fans cheer, Jinro probably cheered as well, being able to scout it with a cloaked banshee.
Tons of vikings, tanks and thors built from Jinro, backed by lots of marines. Jinro broke the destructible rocks between them, and then went right in to MC's base. The carriers had nothing against the many vikings, and the thors taking care of the rest. But MC opted for a counter attack, with stalkers being sent in to Jinro's. Jinro then moved back, killing off the stalkers.
23 minutes in, MC is heavily crippled but still had the bottom left gold expansion, not ready to call 'gg' yet. But when Jinro decided to move in to the gold expansion, there was no way to MC to defend. A 'gg' from MC, and the Swede moves on after eliminating the reigning champion from the tournament.
In Code A we saw both Lyn and Moon advance after defeating ButterflyEffect and August respectively.
