Rivalry/HuK-IdrA

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HuK-IdrA[edit]

The history of IdrA and HuK's rivalry is perhaps the longest on the StarCraft 2 scene to date. In summer 2010 IdrA was already a well-established name because of his background as a StarCraft: Brood War progamer, while HuK was building his reputation playing on the North American ladder and participating in online tournaments. At the time he was mostly known for relying heavily on all-ins and cheese to succeed, which led to IdrA's criticism. After his victory at MLG Raleigh 2010 brought him more fame, the exchanges intensified. This led to a lot of anticipation for their meeting at MLG D.C. 2010, where IdrA won the Winners Bracket final 2-0 in a dominating fashion to knock HuK out to the Losers Bracket. In it, HuK famously lost to SeleCT after making a Mothership, which was widely regarded as throwing the game away. A few hours after the finals djWHEAT organized a special live show, which featured, amongst other progamers, IdrA. In his typical manner, he described the decision as "retarded" and gave his opinion of HuK being a player that tries to win fans by gimmicky play.

Later in 2010 they met again after HuK won the EG Masters' Cup Series 3 and thus qualified to play against the tournament's "final boss", IdrA. IdrA dominated once again, winning 3-1, and even attacking with his drones and attempting to build hatcheries in HuK's main during the final game [1]. Soon after that HuK moved to Korea and started playing on the Korean ladder, where he often played against IdrA. During this period IdrA also started streaming his ladder practice games for the first time, so many of their encounters were observed by fans of both players. The games were often accompanied by a lot of trash-talk and cheesy play, particularly the - at the time very popular - Cannon Rush.

Their next notable meeting was MLG Dallas 2011. During the group stage, IdrA won the first game and appeared to be on the course to victory in the second, only to surrender without a fight when he saw a group of Void Rays that HuK had hallucinated. [2] During the final game of the series (which HuK would win) HuK taunted IdrA in the chat and IdrA was quick to respond. Both players were criticized for their behavior; HuK for breaching the gaming etiquette and the official rules and IdrA for using obscene language in return. The two met again in the tournament the next day and this time IdrA dominated, winning all three games of the extended series match to proceed with 4-2. In the post-game interview, he dissed HuK once more, saying that he was prepared for the all-in because HuK could not win against him in a "real game".

HuK's first major victory over IdrA took place when they met on the semi-finals for the HomeStory Cup III Winners Bracket, which guaranteed him a top 3 finish. Both players demonstrated friendly behavior prior to the matches, which discarded the claims that there was strong animosity between the two.

IdrA lost to HuK in the third round of the losers bracket in the North American Blizzard Invitational, and finished 4th in the tournament, and so missed out on a place at BlizzCon 2011.

August 16th, 2011 brought a strange twist to the rivalry as HuK was acquired by EG and was now to 'join forces' with IdrA. The two will even spend time living together with PuMa when IdrA travels to Korea in late 2011. [3]


References[edit]

  1. EG MC - Notebook - IdrA v HuK - G4 blip.tv.
  2. IdrA vs HuK Hallucinated Voidrays MLG2011. youtube.com. April 3rd 2011.
  3. Evil Geniuses: Rivals Shall Unite. youtube.com. August 16th 2011.