As did Korra's turnabout. A rather clever use of waterbending and skill. She diminished the ability of the other two by blocking them with their own teammates which gained her the time she needed to use one of those big flashy bending moves that while extremely effective, usually gets her hit in the middle of it.

I wasn't too keen on them spending the majority of the episode on romance, but Bolin running away in huge gloopy anime tears, then sobbing uncontrollably and overeating to the point where he threw up mid-match was pretty funny.

But they generally accelerated time to get into the finals and whatever is coming out of the pro-bending side of things. The champion team are pretty nasty if they are shattering face-shields. I'm guessing concentrated waterbending made that hole, since anything a firebender or earthbender could do to make that kind of hole is against the rules and would be a foul.