IdrA


Gregory "Greg" Fields, better known by his in-game name IdrA is a former professional StarCraft II and Brood War player who predominantly played as Terran in Brood War, but switched to Zerg for StarCraft II. He is currently sponsored by Tt eSports. After a retirement to focus on school, he has returned to former team Evil Geniuses for Heroes of the Storm.
IdrA is known for his macro abilities and an excellent grasp of fundamentals and mechanics. The "IdrA Build" is so-called because IdrA rarely deviated from this build during the beta. Such pertinacity is exemplary of his play style, which has occasionally proven to be somewhat vulnerable to unconventional or unexpected enemy tactics. His standard play and strength in the late game has caused IdrA to become the target of many cheeses and early-game all-ins.
Despite garnering much respect from both fans and players alike for his abilities, IdrA has gained considerable notoriety for his displays of poor etiquette both during ladder and online tournament matches. His habit of trash talking, vocalizing perceived game imbalance and "rage quitting" games have made him a colourful and controversial player within the StarCraft scene.

Biography

Greg Fields was born in 1989 and is from Kalamazoo, Michigan. His alias - "IdrA" - was originally inspired by the Hindu mythological character "Indrajit". He chose to pursue a professional StarCraft career over attending Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute on scholarship to study theoretical physics.
IdrA lived in Korea for three years and achieved considerable success in Brood War's foreign scene, winning numerous international tournaments. Notable among these was the eSTRO SuperStars tournament in 2007 that opened doors for him in Korea. He initially moved into the CJ Entus dorm, then in with the commentator Nick "Tasteless" Plott and lastly in his own apartment.
When the Starcraft II beta was released in February 2010, IdrA officially switched over from Brood War and quickly imposed himself as one of the strongest players through various tournaments and ranking 1st in the Platinum League with a record of 62–8, an impressive run culminating with his victory in the Day 9's King of the Beta tournament.

''StarCraft II'' Player Career

Early SC2, Korea and Code S

Following his success in beta, IdrA was among the 10 invitees to the IEM Season V - Global Challenge Cologne, the first major live StarCraft II event in Europe. In that tournament, he beat all his opponents in the group stages and advanced to the finals, only to fall against the heavily aggressive style of play from MorroW, which featured heavy Reaper usage. IdrA would also leave Korea for MLG D.C. 2010 where he took 1st place, defeating players such as SeleCT, KiWiKaKi, and HuK.
In September 2010, departing from CJ Entus on good terms, IdrA began talks with most foreign organizations but ultimately it came down to choosing between Team Liquid or Evil Geniuses. He said that he felt EG was more established and had a better business plan and so joined the US-based organization Evil Geniuses. The offers that both teams made were very similar. However, he stayed in Korea and managed to qualify for the first three GOMTV Global Starcraft II Open Seasons, reaching the Round of 32, Round of 16, and round of 32 respectively. This allowed him to secure a code S spot for the first GOMTV Sponsorship League in January in which he would have his most successful run to date; IdrA managed to defeat Ensnare and Check in the group stage and made a surprising run, eliminating Clide, Genius and NaDa, going 3–0 in his group stage, but ultimately losing 1–3 against fellow foreigner Jinro in the Round of 8. At that point, and despite his significant success, IdrA seriously considered retiring, frustrated with the state of Zerg in StarCraft II. IdrA subsequently relinquished his Code S status as EG would announce on February 16, his indefinite return to the United States at the beginning of March after playing in Korea for 3 years.

Back From Korea

Now turning his efforts into the steadily growing international scene, IdrA met decent results in spring 2011 with five important tournament event podiums in three months, convincingly winning the first season of the IGN ProLeague and the WCG USA 2011 Qualifier #1, but also placing 4th in MLG Columbus 2011, 2nd in the 2011 DreamHack Stockholm Invitational and 7th in the MLG Dallas 2011, in which IdrA played the infamous hallucination match with HuK : after substantial back and forth, he seemed to have taken a lead that would allow him to win, but left the game, not realizing HuK's Void Rays were hallucinated. IdrA would often be the last foreigner or Zerg player left in a tournament, especially with the influx of South Korean players in international tournaments through the GSL/MLG exchange program but drew harsh criticism by sometimes seceding matches with a notable advantage and displaying a culture of defeat in the Protoss vs Zerg match-up that he judged unbalanced and thus unwinnable. Later on in June, IdrA participated in DreamHack Summer 2011 and saw a disappointing result with a 3–2 score in the group stages, although he was allegedly ill throughout most of the weekend. Despite his poor finish in the Top 16, losing to MC, he began to play many of his games out for a longer duration even with a disadvantage.
Summer 2011 was punctuated by more modest performances but a consolidation of his position as one of the best foreigner Zerg players, although he continued to struggle with South Korean players, losing to BoxeR in MLG Anaheim 2011 in group play, to Heart in the finals of the TeamSpeak TL Open 21 and to Terran players Bomber, Noblesse and SjoW at MLG Raleigh 2011, only finishing 20th, his worst performance in an MLG tournament to date. Invited to the 2011 North American Battle.net Invitational, IdrA would lose to Sheth and place fourth in the tournament behind HuK. He however claimed revenge over Sheth and won the WOGL IeSF US Qualifier that took place in Korea. After EG acquired his long-time rival HuK, it was announced that IdrA would travel back to Korea to train later in the year.
September 2011 marked a change with a stronger international presence, as IdrA played in various tournaments around the globe. IdrA participated in the DreamHack Valencia Invitational 2011 alongside seven other players including teammate HuK, South Koreans HerO, Rain, and DongRaeGu, Sweden's ThorZaIN and NaNiwa, and local representative LucifroN where he was quickly eliminated by HerO. He then met more success in IEM Season VI - Global Challenge Guangzhou, claiming the first place, crushing his opponents, beating South Korean player Revival 3–1, teammate PuMa 3–0, and finally elfi in the grand finals 3–1. After his performance in this tournament, many casters have noted that IdrA had improved significantly in his mental state, and had started to heavily employ counter-attacks, aggressive openings, and upgrades along with his usual macro style.
Back on US soil in MLG Orlando, IdrA would place 4th, his best rank since MLG Columbus, impressively defeating on the way BoxeR, HongUn and Bomber but losing again to his rival MC. Less than a week later, he participated in the Electronic Sports World Cup 2011 in Paris, dominating the group play, but surprisingly losing to the Russian Zerg player LiveZerg in the first round of the playoffs. November would continue the trend with the ASUS ROG Stars Invite in Finland where IdrA convincingly knocked out SjoW, and SeleCT to win the tournament, followed by MLG Providence and DreamHack Winter 2011 in Sweden.
IdrA participated in the North American Star League Season 2 in Division 3 with MorroW,, KiWiKaKi, Jinro, SjoW, and Chinese Terran SoftBall. IdrA would finish second in his group behind MorroW, losing only to Socke and MorroW with a final score of 5–2. At the Grand Finals in Ontario, he demolished his first opponent Strelok 3-0 and advanced to play PuMa, but fell 0–3 to his teammate and was eliminated with a RO8 finish and a $3,000 prize.
IdrA qualified for the MLG Winter Arena 2012 due to his performance at MLG Providence. There, he faced quick elimination from the winners' bracket by FXO's Oz 2-1 and would be ousted from the tournament itself by NesTea in the losers' bracket 2–0.
IdrA was one of the participants of the IEM Season VI World Championship, where he was placed into Group D with Kas, ReaL, DarKFoRcE, SuperNova, and Feast. He placed last in the group with a total score of 1–4, losing against every player in his group save for SuperNova, eliminating his presence in the tournament. IdrA would also offer commentary and analysis alongside several other players.
IdrA participated in IPL 4 and was seeded into Group D with an ensemble of vicious South Korean players: Bomber, MMA, and. IdrA would face a brutally quick elimination from the tournament, placing last in his group with a total score of 0–4, taking only two games off of Bomber and jjakji respectively. IdrA's final placing in IPL 4 would be one of the 17-20th spots alongside his teammate PuMa with a $1,000 prize.
IdrA continued a spree of modest performances, his next event being the MLG Spring Arena 2. In the first round, he was defeated by Socke 2–0, dropping down to the loser's bracket. There however he would face another rapid elimination by Dream, who swept him 2-0 as well. He would ultimately take the 25th-32nd place.
IdrA would return to compete in the MLG 2012 Spring Championship, seeded into the Open Winner's Bracket Round 4 due to his performance in the Spring Arena 2. IdrA fell to the loser's bracket in his first match against former teammate Axslav 2–1. There he would fight valiantly for survival defeating TAiLS 2-1 and STX 2-0 before being eliminated by Sleep 2–0. IdrA would take a poor 33rd-40th place in the tournament's conclusion.
His next tournament would be HomeStory Cup V, where in the first group stage he was placed into Group B against BlinG, Bly and Cloud. IdrA was able to place first in his group with a score of 3-0, dominating his opponents—many saw this as a return to form. However, IdrA would not be able to replicate his success in the second group stage in Group A against HasuObs, Sleep and Happy, where he placed last in his group with a score of 1–4, taking only one game off of Sleep and with no match against Happy. IdrA was eliminated with a Ro16 placement. In addition to participating in the tournament itself, IdrA would also commentate many games alongside his teammate iNcontroL.