Chris Loranger, better known name HuK, is a former professional ''
Starcraft II'' player and former president of gaming for the
Boston Uprising of the
Overwatch League.
Loranger spent most of his ''Starcraft II'' career playing for
Evil Geniuses. He was the first player to win two
Major League Gaming championships and one of the few foreigners to compete in the
Global StarCraft II League in Video games in
South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...
.
Playing career
VT Gaming
Loranger began his professional ''StarCraft II'' career with VT Gaming.
Millenium
In June 2010, Loranger signed a three-month contract with French organization Millenium. Two months later, in August, Loranger took home the first-ever
Major League Gaming (MLG) ''StarCraft II'' tournament title, defeating Jonathan "Kiwikaki" Garneau in the MLG Raleigh 2010 finals.
Team Liquid
On September 25, 2010,
Team Liquid
Team Liquid is a multi-regional professional esports organization based in the Netherlands that was founded in 2000. With the release of '' StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty'', Team Liquid signed their first professional players.
In 2012, Team Liq ...
announced that Loranger would be joining their team. After moving to the Team Liquid team house in
Incheon
Incheon (; ; or Inch'ŏn; literally "kind river"), formerly Jemulpo or Chemulp'o (제물포) until the period after 1910, officially the Incheon Metropolitan City (인천광역시, 仁川廣域市), is a city located in northwestern South Kore ...
, Korea in January 2011, Loranger competed in Code A, the second-tier bracket, of the
Global StarCraft II League (GSL).
In May 2011, he advanced to Code S, the top-tier bracket where the best 32 players competed. Loranger competed in the GSL May 2011 tournament, and after failing to advance to the Code S Round of 16, he defeated Mun "MMA" Seong Won in an Up & Down match to retain his Code S status.
In between the May and July GSL tournaments, Loranger took home two major offline tournament titles. He defeated
Jang "Moon" Jae Ho
Jang Jae-ho (known as spirit_moon or moon) is a South Korean professional gamer of the popular Blizzard real-time strategy games ''Warcraft III'' and ''StarCraft II''. He is seen by many as the best Night Elf player in the world. Jang Jae-ho i ...
at
DreamHack Summer 2011
DreamHack is an ESL Gaming brand specializing in esports tournaments and other gaming conventions. It is recognized by the Guinness Book of Records and Twin Galaxies as being the world's largest LAN party and computer festival with the world's fa ...
in the finals in
Jönköping
Jönköping (, ) is a city in southern Sweden with 112,766 inhabitants (2022). Jönköping is situated on the southern shore of Sweden's second largest lake, Vättern, in the province of Småland.
The city is the seat of Jönköping Municipali ...
, Sweden, and a week later, he took down Johan "NaNiwa" Lucchesi at the HomeStory Cup III in
Krefeld
Krefeld ( , ; li, Krieëvel ), also spelled Crefeld until 1925 (though the spelling was still being used in British papers throughout the Second World War), is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located northwest of Düsseldorf, i ...
, Germany.
Returning to Korea for the July 2011 GSL tournament, Loranger made it past the group stages to advance to the Code S Round of 16. However, he was eliminated in the first round by his teammate
Jang "MC" Min-chul
Jang Min-chul (, born June 17, 1991), better known as MC, is a former Korean professional ''StarCraft II'' player, playing as the Protoss faction. MC has accumulated more than $500,000 in tournament winnings, and won the Global StarCraft II Leag ...
.
Evil Geniuses
In August 2011, Loranger joined
Evil Geniuses, in a move that he described as "one of, if not the biggest team change in all of ''Starcraft'' history."
After several failed GSL runs, Loranger headed back to North America in October 2011 and picked up his second MLG championship at MLG Orlando 2011, making him the first player win two MLG titles.
The next month, after five seasons in GSL Code S, Loranger was dropped down to Code A.
He, again, returned to North America and competed in the 2011 MLG Pro Circuit Championship Providence; however, after dropping to the lower bracket, he was eliminated from the tournament by a 0–2 loss to Lee "Leenock" Dong Nyoung. After the loss, Loranger competed Season 2 of the
North American Star League
The North American Star League was a professional e-sports league that features the games ''StarCraft II'' and ''Heroes of Newerth''. Originally modeled after successful South Korean professional ''StarCraft'' leagues, it was founded in 2011 by Ru ...
(NASL), but his struggles continued, as he was eliminated in the first round of playoffs by Dennis "HasuObs" Schneider.
Returning to South Korea, Loranger competed in GSL Code A, but he failed to qualify for GSL Code S. The same month, he competed in the
World Cyber Games (WCG) 2011 in
Busan
Busan (), officially known as is South Korea's most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.4 million inhabitants. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economic, cultural and educational center of southeastern South Korea, w ...
, South Korea. Loranger found success in the group stages, finishing at the top of his group and qualifying for the Round of 16 of the tournament, but he fell in the first round.
Four months later, in April 2012, he was knocked out of GSL Code A, prompting him to make the decision to shift his focus to American and European tournaments.
In January 2013, Loranger returned to South Korea to compete in the 2013 GSL Season 1; he qualified directly for Code S after finishing second in his Up & Down group, making him one-of-two foreigners in the league. He finished at the bottom of his Code S group, relegating him to Code A. After a first-round elimination in Code A, Loranger was knocked out of the GSL. Loranger returned to North America, and after two years without winning a major tournament, he won LANHAMMER 2013 in August 2013.
Four months later, he swept Maru "MaSa" Kim 4–0 in the SHOUTCraft North America Winter Finals to claim his second major title of the year.
In September 2015, Loranger and his teammate
Jang "MC" Min-chul
Jang Min-chul (, born June 17, 1991), better known as MC, is a former Korean professional ''StarCraft II'' player, playing as the Protoss faction. MC has accumulated more than $500,000 in tournament winnings, and won the Global StarCraft II Leag ...
won the 2015 Red Bull Battle Grounds.
On January 1, 2017, Evil Geniuses ended their nearly eight-year ''StarCraft II'' division and parted ways with Loranger, officially ending his playing career.
Executive career
In 2017, Loranger was named President of Gaming for the
Kraft Group
The Kraft Group, LLC, is a group of privately held companies in the professional sports, manufacturing, and real estate development industries doing business in 90 countries. Founded in 1998 by American businessman Robert Kraft as a holding com ...
, the owners of the
Overwatch League team
Boston Uprising. Loranger served a dual role as general manager and head coach of the Uprising; under his leadership, the team finished their first season with a 24-16 regular-season record and a loss in the first round of the playoffs. In June 2022, Loranger parted ways with the Uprising.
Personal life
Chris holds a
dual citizenship from Canada and the US, although he usually identifies solely as Canadian for competitions.
He grew up in
St. Petersburg,
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
. He had a troubled childhood, with his family affected by poverty, "domestic-, drug and alcohol abuse".
After a run-in with the law during "rebellious" teenage years which led to a stay in juvenile prison,
he moved to
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
,
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
, Canada with his father. Later Chris praised his father's decision to move saying, "Had I not moved to Canada my family and I both agree that I would most likely be in the military, jail, or dead". Chris said during an interview, in May 2014, that he "played StarCraft II instead of joining military in order to eventually pay for school".
References
{{Evil Geniuses
1989 births
American esports players
Canadian esports players
Living people
StarCraft II players
Team Liquid players
Evil Geniuses players
Millennium players
Boston Uprising
Overwatch coaches