• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EST 01:53
CET 07:53
KST 15:53
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
RSL Revival - 2025 Season Finals Preview8RSL Season 3 - Playoffs Preview0RSL Season 3 - RO16 Groups C & D Preview0RSL Season 3 - RO16 Groups A & B Preview2TL.net Map Contest #21: Winners12
Community News
$21,000 Rongyi Cup Season 3 announced (Jan 22-Feb 7)8Weekly Cups (Dec 29-Jan 4): Protoss rolls, 2v2 returns6[BSL21] Non-Korean Championship - Starts Jan 103SC2 All-Star Invitational: Jan 17-1822Weekly Cups (Dec 22-28): Classic & MaxPax win, Percival surprises3
StarCraft 2
General
Chinese SC2 server to reopen; live all-star event in Hangzhou Weekly Cups (Dec 29-Jan 4): Protoss rolls, 2v2 returns SC2 All-Star Invitational: Jan 17-18 Weekly Cups (Dec 22-28): Classic & MaxPax win, Percival surprises Starcraft 2 Zerg Coach
Tourneys
$21,000 Rongyi Cup Season 3 announced (Jan 22-Feb 7) WardiTV Winter Cup WardiTV Mondays SC2 AI Tournament 2026 OSC Season 13 World Championship
Strategy
Simple Questions Simple Answers
Custom Maps
Map Editor closed ?
External Content
Mutation # 507 Well Trained Mutation # 506 Warp Zone Mutation # 505 Rise From Ashes Mutation # 504 Retribution
Brood War
General
Potential ASL qualifier breakthroughs? BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ I would like to say something about StarCraft BW General Discussion StarCraft & BroodWar Campaign Speedrun Quest
Tourneys
[Megathread] Daily Proleagues [BSL21] Grand Finals - Sunday 21:00 CET [BSL21] Non-Korean Championship - Starts Jan 10 SLON Grand Finals – Season 2
Strategy
Game Theory for Starcraft Simple Questions, Simple Answers Current Meta [G] How to get started on ladder as a new Z player
Other Games
General Games
Mechabellum Beyond All Reason Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Awesome Games Done Quick 2026! General RTS Discussion Thread
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
Vanilla Mini Mafia Mafia Game Mode Feedback/Ideas
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Trading/Investing Thread
Fan Clubs
White-Ra Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Anime Discussion Thread
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
The Automated Ban List TL+ Announced
Blogs
Life Update and thoughts.
FuDDx
How do archons sleep?
8882
Psychological Factors That D…
TrAiDoS
James Bond movies ranking - pa…
Topin
StarCraft improvement
iopq
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 2304 users

All-in & Cheese

Blogs > Heen
Post a Reply
Normal
Heen
Profile Blog Joined November 2003
Korea (South)2178 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-12-10 11:50:39
December 10 2010 11:49 GMT
#1
Ok, we've all noticed the increasing use of terms 'all-in' and 'cheese.' However, a lot of people seem to be using them inappropriately. For example, in today's GSL thread, some people referring to MC's plays as all-in (doesn't matter which game, MC never all-ined).

Here's my definition of Cheese and All-in (which are different by the way)

Cheese: An early game strategy that relies on the opponent not gathering enough scouting information in time to work OR an unorthodox strategy that relies on catching the opponent off-guard to win.

Examples: Cannon rush PvP (esp on 4 player maps), 2 rax scv rush, 6 Pool, Inca's cannon rush in GSL 1

Not Examples: 3 Gate Void push, Cloak Banshees

All-in: A planned strategy that has no realistic transition afterwards.

It's harder to define all-ins as a 4 gate could or could not be an all-in depending on the circumstancs.

Examples: Thor rush, Nazgul's blink stalker rush PvZ

And of course, something can be both cheese and all-in at the same time like Leenock's 6 pool vs Nada in GSL 2. However, Leenock's 6 (or was it 7?) pool vs GuineaPig in GSL 3 was not all-in, as he only made the initial 6 zerglings and power drones afterwards to catch up in economy fast. Interestingly, I'm not sure if we can call it 100% cheeese either since LT is one of the best maps to FE on PvZ so it was a calculated decision on his part. And the only way GuineaPig can defend it is by cutting probes and a complete wall-in which hurts his economy enough to warrant a 6 pool since there's a realistic chance that if GuineaPig guessed standard and put down a Nexus or even a forge at his nat, he would've lost.

Cheese and All-ins aren't black and white but I hope people that throw around these terms so loosely read this and get a better sense of when it's appropriate to use them.

*
('''(G_G/'''')
FataLe
Profile Joined November 2010
New Zealand4519 Posts
December 10 2010 11:52 GMT
#2
Pretty much agree with everything.
hi. big fan.
Niso
Profile Joined November 2010
Australia148 Posts
December 10 2010 11:57 GMT
#3
A nice post, but aside from clearing up what a cheese or an all-in is I fail to really see the point. Also i think cheese can go a little further than mentioned.
http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/Cheese
I think this is an good explanation.
Television version of a person
Caphe
Profile Blog Joined May 2007
Vietnam10817 Posts
December 10 2010 11:58 GMT
#4
Good effort OP. I gave up my hope in many newcomers of TL already.
Hope this will reduce the amount of ignorance fool out there in the SC2 forum.
Terran
BottleAbuser
Profile Blog Joined December 2007
Korea (South)1888 Posts
December 10 2010 12:07 GMT
#5
I'm always all-in. It's the only way to play. No, fuck you. Yes, fuck you.
Compilers are like boyfriends, you miss a period and they go crazy on you.
Heen
Profile Blog Joined November 2003
Korea (South)2178 Posts
December 10 2010 12:08 GMT
#6
On December 10 2010 20:57 Niso wrote:
A nice post, but aside from clearing up what a cheese or an all-in is I fail to really see the point. Also i think cheese can go a little further than mentioned.
http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/Cheese
I think this is an good explanation.

Well.. that is the point really. Semi inspired by the notorious metagame thread.
('''(G_G/'''')
Entropic
Profile Blog Joined May 2009
Canada2837 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-12-10 12:09:35
December 10 2010 12:09 GMT
#7
Threads reiterating the definition of cheese, all-ins, and metagame will NEVER get irrelevant.
Heen
Profile Blog Joined November 2003
Korea (South)2178 Posts
December 10 2010 12:11 GMT
#8
On December 10 2010 21:07 BottleAbuser wrote:
I'm always all-in. It's the only way to play. No, fuck you. Yes, fuck you.


Yes, you're an all-in player -_-
('''(G_G/'''')
BottleAbuser
Profile Blog Joined December 2007
Korea (South)1888 Posts
December 10 2010 12:14 GMT
#9
All-in is lazy. You choose a thing to do, do it until you win or die, and no second guessing yourself. No effort spent in decisions or reflection. All-in is so fucking awesome for the lazy gamer.
Compilers are like boyfriends, you miss a period and they go crazy on you.
Metalwing
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
Turkey1038 Posts
December 10 2010 12:16 GMT
#10
Agree with everything except cloaked banshees.
#1 CheckPrime fan // Terrans gonna Terran
Stoned
Profile Joined July 2010
United States69 Posts
December 10 2010 12:20 GMT
#11
i think the masses of new people who got into sc2 that heard the term "cheese" refer to anything and everything that involves early aggression/unorthodox strategies/ or a zerg playing greedy and losing before he can mass units off 5 hatchs as cheese

so i just ignore everyone refering to stupid garbage as cheese
ANY CHEESE is a strategy
like it or not
Legalize
HwangjaeTerran
Profile Blog Joined October 2009
Finland5967 Posts
December 10 2010 12:34 GMT
#12
I've noticed an increasing amount of posts trying to educate the herps and derps on this subject.
All-in & cheese are malicious terms, let's just leave it at that mkay?
https://steamcommunity.com/id/*tlusernamehere*/
shannn
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
Netherlands2891 Posts
December 10 2010 12:38 GMT
#13
This can help really newbies who don't really know the meaning of cheese / all-in but there's also liquipedia that you can use but I feel the majority of newcomers haven't discovered liquipedia yet.

I don't know why but the majority just don't search througuh liquipedia when they don't know what the general meaning is (defined by liquipedia). This results in threads like this where a minority will feel annoyed about the majority not finding out themselves through liquipedia to find out but rather let others (the minority) do all the work for them.

When I needed to get some Terran strategies few weeks back I just searched through liquipedia and made great use out of it. Now I always look on liquipedia for alot of things when concerning BO/unit stats etc.

I believe this is just a phase and maybe half a year or longer then the majority will probably search through liquipedia to find out and drastically reduce threads which can be answered by searching on the right place.
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewpost.php?post_id=6321864 Epic post.
Abenson
Profile Blog Joined December 2009
Canada4122 Posts
December 10 2010 12:38 GMT
#14
Well said (written)
I agree 100% with this definition :D
Zim23
Profile Joined August 2010
United States1681 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-12-10 12:56:31
December 10 2010 12:55 GMT
#15
All-in is cheese that meta-game-shifted into timing attacks, but in the early meta-game cheese turns into all-in and then back into cheese in the meta-shift.

On a serious note, I agree. It does bother me quite a bit when people get them confused AND when people assume it's always bad to do them.
Do an arranged marriage if she's not completely minging, and don't worry about dancing, get a go-kart, cheers.
Bosu
Profile Blog Joined June 2008
United States3247 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-12-10 13:18:52
December 10 2010 13:16 GMT
#16
ZvT on ladder is a fucking joke now. 5/5 of my last zvt have been terran marine/svc all ins. yay.

And I am pretty sure there actually won't be any timings figured out to stop these things consistently. There is no way to know exactly how they are all-inning there are 20 different viable ways for them to do it. The game needs to be totally overhauled in the expansion to get rid of how much luck plays a factor in so many matchups. Games play out so beautifully when they become macro oriented without insanely powerful all-ins and timing attacks.
#1 Kwanro Fan
NIIINO
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
Slovakia1320 Posts
December 10 2010 14:25 GMT
#17
4 gate push is not cheese and please stop calling it like it !
after 4 gate fail you still can win and you still have realistic transition.
pullarius1
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
United States523 Posts
December 10 2010 15:13 GMT
#18
Ha, accidentally did an image search instead of a normal google search and this guy came up (NSFWish?):
+ Show Spoiler +

[image loading][image loading]
From Wikipedia: GG Allin is perhaps best remembered for his notorious live performances which typically featured transgressive acts, such as Allin defecating and urinating onstage, rolling in feces and often consuming excrement, performing naked, committing self-injury, and attacking audience members.
Made me laugh. Sorry for the thread jack. I'll go back and edit it out if you want.
@pullarius1
mizU
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
United States12125 Posts
December 10 2010 16:21 GMT
#19
What would you say about a DT rush? Cheese? No cheese?
if happy ever afters did exist <3 @watamizu_
vnlegend
Profile Blog Joined December 2006
United States1389 Posts
December 10 2010 16:30 GMT
#20
how silly. My thor rush kills their expo and gets my own expo up safely.
Marines > everything
Chef
Profile Blog Joined August 2005
10810 Posts
December 10 2010 17:03 GMT
#21
Increasing? People not agreeing on what cheese and all-in means?

What is this, every year since BroodWar came out? Maybe even since WarCraft II?

Cheese: An early game strategy that relies on the opponent not gathering enough scouting information in time to work OR an unorthodox strategy that relies on catching the opponent off-guard to win.

So it's cheese if someone walls off their main and uses deception to beat their opponent? That's standard play. You're not supposed to let your opponent see what you're doing. If they do, you'll get perfectly countered by a smart player. Your definition has been boiled down to 'an unorthodox strategy.'

I think more people agree that cheese is when you do something incredibly risky without regard for your opponent. For example, building 2 gateways in the centre of the map before scouting, or 5pooling. Even then, it's kind of debatable.
LEGEND!! LEGEND!!
BottleAbuser
Profile Blog Joined December 2007
Korea (South)1888 Posts
December 10 2010 17:09 GMT
#22
The reason that cheese is so often all-in is because to catch your opponent off guard, you usually have to do something like cut workers.

If the guy didn't get into your base, he still knows you can get 5 marines out of 2 rax at a particular timing, and will play so that it wouldn't fuck him over. But you cut workers much earlier, and have those 5 marines in front of his base. He could have, with more information, delayed his nexus by 15 seconds and have had a huge advantage, but he didn't.
Compilers are like boyfriends, you miss a period and they go crazy on you.
Heen
Profile Blog Joined November 2003
Korea (South)2178 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-12-10 19:32:17
December 10 2010 19:27 GMT
#23
On December 11 2010 02:03 Chef wrote:
Increasing? People not agreeing on what cheese and all-in means?

What is this, every year since BroodWar came out? Maybe even since WarCraft II?

Show nested quote +
Cheese: An early game strategy that relies on the opponent not gathering enough scouting information in time to work OR an unorthodox strategy that relies on catching the opponent off-guard to win.

So it's cheese if someone walls off their main and uses deception to beat their opponent? That's standard play. You're not supposed to let your opponent see what you're doing. If they do, you'll get perfectly countered by a smart player. Your definition has been boiled down to 'an unorthodox strategy.'

I think more people agree that cheese is when you do something incredibly risky without regard for your opponent. For example, building 2 gateways in the centre of the map before scouting, or 5pooling. Even then, it's kind of debatable.


Are you going to put down 2 more raxs behind your wall and make a mass marine push with SCVs and not bother mining gas? If not, no it's not cheese. Really.. pretty much all cheese strats are executed before the ~6 minute mark.

And to answer the 1st part of your post..

yes.. the misunderstanding of what cheese/all-in is at an all time high as far as I can see. Have you seen the SC2 forums lately?
('''(G_G/'''')
Normal
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
AI Arena Tournament
20:00
Swiss - Round 1
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
WinterStarcraft668
StarCraft: Brood War
Sea 7699
Zeus 284
Shuttle 113
Sexy 38
Sacsri 20
Noble 20
Bale 16
Larva 10
Dota 2
NeuroSwarm563
League of Legends
JimRising 778
Counter-Strike
summit1g8960
m0e_tv551
Super Smash Bros
Mew2King142
Other Games
Sick164
RuFF_SC2128
minikerr86
Liquid`Ken10
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick46558
StarCraft: Brood War
UltimateBattle 125
Other Games
BasetradeTV51
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 15 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• Berry_CruncH133
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
League of Legends
• Doublelift6333
• Scarra1926
• Lourlo1322
• Stunt462
Upcoming Events
WardiTV Invitational
6h 7m
ByuN vs Percival
Percival vs Rogue
Percival vs Classic
ByuN vs Classic
ByuN vs Rogue
Classic vs Rogue
IPSL
13h 7m
DragOn vs Sziky
Replay Cast
1d 2h
Wardi Open
1d 5h
Monday Night Weeklies
1d 10h
WardiTV Invitational
2 days
WardiTV Invitational
3 days
The PondCast
4 days
All Star Teams
5 days
INnoVation vs soO
sOs vs Scarlett
uThermal 2v2 Circuit
6 days
[ Show More ]
All Star Teams
6 days
MMA vs DongRaeGu
Rogue vs Oliveira
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2026-01-10
Big Gabe Cup #3
META Madness #9

Ongoing

C-Race Season 1
IPSL Winter 2025-26
BSL 21 Non-Korean Championship
OSC Championship Season 13
Underdog Cup #3
NA Kuram Kup
eXTREMESLAND 2025
SL Budapest Major 2025
ESL Impact League Season 8
BLAST Rivals Fall 2025
IEM Chengdu 2025
PGL Masters Bucharest 2025

Upcoming

CSL 2025 WINTER (S19)
Escore Tournament S1: W4
Acropolis #4
IPSL Spring 2026
Bellum Gens Elite Stara Zagora 2026
HSC XXVIII
Rongyi Cup S3
Thunderfire SC2 All-star 2025
Nations Cup 2026
BLAST Open Spring 2026
ESL Pro League Season 23
ESL Pro League Season 23
PGL Cluj-Napoca 2026
IEM Kraków 2026
BLAST Bounty Winter 2026
BLAST Bounty Winter Qual
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.