Close Topic Options

[Zutazuta]

StarCraft 2 Interview: HuK

(IMG:http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/images2/5/5f/Huk.jpg)

Zutazuta: Hey HuK, thanks for taking the time to do this interview. I'm sure there are hundreds of people who would like to know a little bit more about the guy behind the nickname.

To get things started, let's get to know the person behind the player a bit. Can you give a brief introduction of yourself? Name, age, hobbies, or anything that makes you, you.

HuK: Well my name is Chris ' HuK ' Loranger, I'm 21 years old and currently live in Ontario, Canada. Besides playing Starcraft I'm a pretty normal guy I guess who enjoys movies, Tv, sports, etc. But overall I guess I'm pretty boring. :P

Zutazuta: What plans do you have in the next months/years (aside from playing SC2)? Work, school, or anything else?

HuK: Go pro sc2, nothing else really is in mind besides this. I mean I think it would be really hard for someone to try to go pro and also stay in school or hold down a steady job.

Zutazuta: Can you give us a run through of a day in the life of HuK?

HuK: Jeez ok well I'll break down this last Sunday for you, which is generally my "day off". Woke up at 5am to warm-up, checkin, play in EU ESL which started at 8am here and check-ins started at 7:30. This tournament lasted until about 12pm when I was knocked out in the quarter finals to a great player named Socke 1-2; after which I did a quick interview and took a break for about an hour to eat and review replays. Then at 3pm I played in the Wolf cup which lasted until about 6-7pm when I was knocked out by another great player KawaiiRice in the quarter finals again 1-2. At this point I'm very tilted with anger after losing lol, but such is life and the best thing you can do is watch replays and improve on your mistakes. So after this tournament I played a quick show match and once again ate, rested, reviewed the replays and prepared for ESL Nationals which started at 8pm. This lasted until 1am when me and Silver both agreed to play the next day for the finals, I was happy I guess at this point and exhausted. The last tournament was the most serious for me because it qualified me for IEM USA which I had not yet been qualified. That is a normal "tournament day" I guess other then that I generally play about 10 hours a day hopefully.

Zutazuta: Can you give us a brief overview of your gaming career? For example what other games have you played and how did you fair? Any other games that you enjoy outside of StarCraft 2?

HuK: Well I played a lot of games but I guess just talk about ones I took semi-seriously. Starcraft Brood War I was "semi-sponsored" and "hired" to play for certain teams/smurf. But I was never in the spotlight as some of the other Starcraft Brood War NA players, although I felt I was pretty good. I also played Company of Heroes a WWII RTS game which is really great but not very popular, not supported well, and generally dieing now. I was pretty good at this game as well but because it had such a small community there was never really any E-sports dreams for it. Other then that I guess at times I was competitive at DoTA and Hon too but never took it to the next level.

Zutazuta: How did you come up with your nickname? Some people's nicknames are pretty self-explanatory, but what is the significants of your name?

HuK: Its a Korean expression of like shock/surprise that was given to me by an old Korean friend before he went into the army. Not really sure of the scenario of how I got it but yea thats pretty much the basics.

Zutazuta: Let's move on to some more StarCraft specific questions. What did you think of the beta (balance/support/etc)?

HuK: I thought the beta was really good, I mean you can't expect much from a game in the beta. The biggest concern is just Bnet 2.0 with no chat channels, LAN, match history, no smurfing, etc. etc.

Zutazuta: What balance wise do you think needs to be changed? Give me three things that you think are the biggest issues at the moment.

HuK: Hmmm it's is really tough for me to talk about balanced because I still don't think this game is full understood and often people use balance issues to cop out of them playing bad. I think that maps are going to be seeing a lot of changes, the maruder could use some tweaking, and maybe... the carrier! I don't really know and don't want to talk specifics because I don't think I am the best person to ask this :P

Zutazuta: Both in the beta and now after release, you've been one of the best Protoss players. What is it about that race that draws you to them? Have you ever considered playing the other races, or do you in the future see yourself playing any of the other races?

HuK: Well initially it wast he play of protoss in Starcraft Brood War particularly Bisu and Nal_ra. When I first started playing the beta I just picked them because of this and I was bored of playing Terran since I had been a Terran player for SC1. I had considered playing zerg but I think I will stick with protoss.

Zutazuta: Can you give us a brief description of your general play style?

HuK: Well I like to think that I can be aggressive as possible while still adding a lot of flavor to my play. Trying to add in extra value like dts, mother ship, void rays, phoenix, storm drop; etc is always good and I am trying more and more to add these little buffers to my play.

Zutazuta: Are there any strategies that you heavily favor? What are your favorite builds in both PvT and PvZ? No need to go into huge detail, just a little overview.

HuK: I like to be as diverse as possible, generally PvZ I will FE then go from there, PvT I react after what I scout and usually open 1gate> robo > observer, really depends a lot on oppenent, map, etc.; and PvP pray I win coin flip and micro as best as I can.

Zutazuta: What is your best match up as Protoss? PvP, PvZ, PvT?

HuK: Best matchup, I would say PvT.

Zutazuta: Who in your eyes, not including youself as an option, is the best player for each race?

HuK: Well if I have to pick one from the world I would say...
Terran: Morrow
Zerg: Idra
Protoss: Tester

Zutazuta: We've been seeing a lot of successful Terran players lately, especially in many of the tournaments. What do you think about the game as a whole balance wise? Is Terran, or any other race for that matter, too strong?

HuK: I think overall the game is pretty balanced, I mean its not perfect but it just was released. I don't think any race is "to strong" I think there are some issues that need to be addressed but generally speaking me, you, or the random reader really won't be in the spot to make that judgment.

Zutazuta: Speaking of tournament play, you've played in many tournaments yourself. What do you think your personal strengths and weakness are as a player? Are there any particular strengths that you have that you think make you a good tournament player versus a good ladder player?

HuK: Well as a player I need more LAN experience for sure, I have almost absolutely none. My strengths I think are that I'm in good physical/mental condition to play long hours and play hard. I think that if I get proper rest and prepare for only certain tournaments I will have better results because I do get a decent amount of exercise everyday that I think a lot of players don't.

Zutazuta: Not all of us can be successful in tournaments or on the ladders. There are thousands of people out there looking to improve their game play. What are some general tips that you can give them to improve their game play?

HuK: Play a lot, consciously make an effort to improves your play, review your replays and tweak your mistakes -ev moves. Other then that watch day9, watch other top players, ask for tips/lessons from better players on spare time.

Zutazuta: Let's move on to some quick questions. I'll say something, and you tell me the first thing that comes to mind:

Favorite Map.

HuK: steppes

Zutazuta: Favorite Race?

HuK: protoss lawl

Zutazuta: Favorite Unit?

HuK: high templar

Zutazuta: Favorite Opponent?

HuK: morrow

Zutazuta: Terran?

HuK: ugh

Zutazuta: Protoss?

HuK: slick

Zutazuta: Zerg?

HuK: bad

Zutazuta: Blizzard

HuK: yea

Zutazuta: StarCraft I

HuK: old

Zutazuta: StarCraft II

HuK: new

Zutazuta: Before we end the interview, is there any last thing you want to say?

HuK: Thank you to everyone and all my fans for supporting me. I will do my best to keep performing well and improving! Thanks to you of course for doing this interview as well.

Zutazuta: Thanks so much for your time, we greatly appreciate it!

[Narcotic]

Nice one, 10 hours a day :lol:

[arron the 1st]

Nice, interview. Im enjoying the protoss recs.

[Vorg]

+1 zutas recs own

[Adacc]

go go pro gamer!

Nice interview!

[Mafkees331]

Nice interview ^^

[[MMC]ShiNi]

Nice stuff, White-Ra and IdrA please! :P

[criss_521]

nice interview

[[A-USi]James246]

Nice!

[Druidz.Patjuh]

Hell of an interview, way to go :)

[LeGenD_]

very nice interview.

[sG EmIL]

n1 !

[BoBThEImaM]

10 hours a day? Playing more than you sleep is not healthy :P

[goodspeed]

but good for your skills

[DukeLeto]

Good interview, I liked some of the old words for the aoe3 interview better though :P
These just seemed a bit too obvious IMO ;)