EPTYou all know his name, he is afterall one of, if not, the most successful foreigner in SC2 to date. Some will remember him from his BW days as a very solid but not spectacular player, unfortunately I do not have these memories being a recent convert to the Starcraft community. Many Jinro fans are like myself, not familiar with Jinro - formerly Frozen Arbiter - before his spectacular rise to esports fame late last year.
For many a Liquidian, they knew Jinro as a stalwart member of the Brood War community, accruing more posts on TeamLiquid than is probably healthy, at the time of writing his total stands at an impressive 30,888. Success and fame in SC2 seem to have done little to quell Jinro's posting prowess, not only is he one of the most active pro's in the Strategy forum, but you will find he pops up in virutally any forum you care to look through.
These days however, Jinro is far more well known for his playing prowess. His success during the SC2 beta was enough to find himself signed to TeamLiquid, having previously declined playing for them during his BW career where he played for korean clan Dream.t). Once signed not much was heard from the Swede until MLG Dallas, he had been hidden away at the oGs/TeamLiquid house in Korea practicing hard and preparing to take the esports world by storm. I remember turning on the MLG stream in early november to see Jinro play for the first time, and it was spectacular.
Being a Terran player, I immediately took to Jinro, recognising someone whom I could look up to and try to emulate. At a time in SC2's history where Terrans were playing extremely gimmicky and all-in styles, Jinro was playing for the longer game, using solid macro builds and sprinkling in some cheese just to elicit fear. I am romanticising of course, but this is how Jinro's play during MLG Dallas made me feel. On that weekend, Jinro was virutally unbeatable.
Two weeks later Jinro was playing in his first GSL match, no longer an unknown quantity - atleast to the non korean scene - there were high hopes for his propects in the tournament. He had brought his unbeatable form back across the ocean with him, taking down Warcraft 3 legend Moon among others on his run to the Round of 4; the best result by a non-korean in the GSL. It took the mighty oGsMC to finally break the armour of the man now dubbed The Gorilla Terran and bring his GSL run to an end. Thankfully this wasn't the end for Jinro in the GSL, his 3rd place finish secured him a spot in Code S the following season.
The new year came and went, Jinro took his 4-0 defeat at the hands of MC in his stride and came back for GSL January looking even stronger. After taking down his first group 2-1, beating EG's star Zerg IdrA along the way, Jinro then managed to navigate his way to a 2-1 record in the group of death, losing to MarineKing and then going 2-0 against MC. It seemed that nothing could now stop Jinro from claiming his place in the finals, and perhaps the title. The scene was set for a foreigner vs foreigner showdown in the Round of 8 as IdrA look to take revenge for his loss earlier in the tournament and become the second foreigner to make the round of 4.
I remember the series like it was yesterday, both players were amazing, apart from on Jungle Basin. IdrA took down the first set on Xel'Naga but it was all down hill from there for the Zerg. Jinro took down the second set on Metalopolis with a quick bunker rush into GG, IdrA decided he would rather just get on to the next map than play from behind. The third map went to Jinro with a strong push through the back door rocks on Shakuras, setting him up at match point going in to Jungle Basin and just incase you didn't hear, IdrA 6 pooled and Jinro made a mistake that won him the game; cancelling a marine and then starting it again. At the time there was some concern that Jinro had heard the Korean commentators shout something that gave away the six pool, however this wasn't the case. Jinro himself was the one who brought the issue to light, however he did not react at the time in game.
The Gorilla Terran now found himself back in the Round of 4, showing the doubters that the previous season was not a fluke. Jinro was now undoubtedly the best non-korean SC2 player in the world, and perhaps the best Terran in the world, he would certainly have the chance to find out. This season's Round of 4 consisted of 4 Terrans, NaDa, MarineKing, MVP and Jinro. Whomever could make it out on top would lay claim to both the GSL and best Terran titles. Unfortunately for Jinro, MarineKing's marine only and base trading style caught Jinro off guard and MarineKing took the series down with a scoreline that did not reflect just how close Jinro was to making the finals.
February came and a new season of Code S with it, the world waited with baited breath as the only non-korean in GSL Code S took to the stage for his 3rd GSL run. With high hopes that Jinro would take the step up to the finals this time, the GSL studio was filled with Jinro fans for his group stage matches, which he took down 2-0 playing just as good as, if not better than, he ever had. Jinro was still riding high from his Victory in the Clash of the Titans show match against IdrA, and the confidence showed in his play, taking down both Polt and RainBow to qualify 1st in his group once more.
Unfortunately, this was not to be the season for Jinro to claim the GSL throne, HongUn took down the Terran hero 2-1 in the Round of 16. This loss was the first in a string of losses to Protoss players of all shapes and sizes, taking a quick exit in the first round of the GOM World Championship in March against AnyPro, showing just how frustrated he was screaming obscenities in Swedish after the match. The troubles continued on, falling to WhiteRa at the Dreamhack Invitational as well as being taken down by TT1 twice in the GCPL. It seemed that Jinro was struggling with his TvP, a quick glance down Jinro's TLPD entry shows it wasn't just his TvP that seemed to be troubling him, he was in a slump. It's worth nothing that at this point in time the entirety of the Liquid team were slumping with him.
Anyone who has ever played on a team of any kind will know, when your star player isn't on form, it can be hard for the rest of the team to find their game too. This is all the more trouble when your team is made up of six star players. Three of whom live and train together, the team seems to have bottomed out somewhere in the middle of April and have slowly begun to pull themselves back in to winning form. Unfortunately for Jinro, his woes moved from TvP to TvZ, losing to Morrow in the TSL3 and then being shown the way to the Up/Down matches in GSL. After beating San convincingly he then went on to lose twice to NesTea in the group stages of GSL May (played in late April). The korean Zerg was too much for the Gorilla Terran on the day, a surprising result considering Jinro is usually a TvZ beast.
A lot has happened since that weekend in Dallas, GSL success has seen Jinro become a superstar in his home country of Sweden. When he returned home for the Dreamhack Invitational, he was met by fans at the airport and made appearances on mainstream Swedish media. Jinro's success and fame back home have even sparked a search for the "next" Jinro. His success can't just be atributed to his in game skills either, his constant professionalism and his willingness to interact with fans and anti-fans alike on TeamLiquid.net make him one of the most beloved and respected players in the world.
The story is by no means over for Jinro, after going down in the first round of three straight tournaments, he ended his loss streak against the Chinese player Nv.Comm in Stars War 6, taking the series 2-0 in fairly convincing fashion, lining himself up for another crack at oGsMC in the round of 16. Will Jinro finally take down a top protoss in bracket play, or will his TvP woes continue? Tune in on Tuesday May 10th to find out!
