• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 22:54
CEST 04:54
KST 11:54
  • 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
[ASL22] Ro16 Preview: Rough Waters9[ASL22] Ro24 Preview: Siren's Call8[ASL22] Ro24 Preview: Summer's End9Serral wins HomeStory Cup 2915Serral wins Maestros of the Game 244
Community News
Weekly Cups (Aug 30-Sep 7): herO thrives amid growing schism8Official StarCraft website teases new content ahead of BlizzCon?124Stellar Fest TWO the Moon (Dec 16-20)9Weekly Cups (August 24-30): Patches' balance mod takes over3New 3v3 BGH Ladder (and more) on ShieldBattery!46
StarCraft 2
General
Weekly Cups (Aug 30-Sep 7): herO thrives amid growing schism SC4ALL: II Winner will earn a spot at HSC 30! SC4ALL II: StarCraft 2 Player Announcement 7/8 Nexon wins bid to develop StarCraft IP content, distribute Overwatch mobile game Balance hotfix patch 5.0.16b (July 16)
Tourneys
2026 GSTL Announcement Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament Sea Duckling Open (Global, Bronze-Diamond) Stellar Fest TWO the Moon (Dec 16-20) IntoTheTV X SOOP SC2 League : Weekly & Monthly
Strategy
[G] Having the right mentality to improve
Custom Maps
Nexus Wars 2021 GUIDE [M] (2) Industrial Park
External Content
Mutation # 542 The Ascended Mutation # 541 Binary Choice The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 540 Dodge This
Brood War
General
[D] Brainstorming a balance patch for Brood war Practice Partners (Official) BW General Discussion Terran or Protoss Official StarCraft website teases new content ahead of BlizzCon?
Tourneys
[Megathread] Daily Proleagues [ASL22] Ro16 Group A [ASL22] Ro16 Group B KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 3
Strategy
Replay Review Process - What do you do? Simple Questions, Simple Answers Odyssey Mineral Stack Saturation Game Theory for Starcraft
Other Games
General Games
Nintendo Switch Thread EVE Corporation Diablo IV [Maplestory Hardcore] Let's Play~!! General RTS Discussion Thread
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
[TL LoL EUW IHs] Teemo shall perish TSM pausing esports and CLG Dead
Heroes of the Storm
Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Power Rank TL Mafia Community Thread NeO.D_StephenKing vs This Guy From 1 Million Dance
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Russo-Ukrainian War Thread European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread Trading/Investing Thread
Fan Clubs
MarineLorD Fan Club The Creator Fan Club The ShoWTimE Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Movie Discussion! Anime Discussion Thread
Sports
Football (Soccer) Thread TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 MLB/Baseball 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
The Automated Ban List Northern Ireland Global Starcraft
Blogs
Virtual Romance, Real-Life C…
TrAiDoS
Regacy Esports:Our Goa…
regacyesports
Dreaming of BW patches (mod…
c3rberUs
LOCKPICKING NOOB
LUCKY_NOOB
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 5744 users

Tournament Strategy?

Blogs > SupplyBlockedTV
Post a Reply
SupplyBlockedTV
Profile Blog Joined September 2011
Belgium313 Posts
August 12 2012 15:21 GMT
#1
I am going to play playhem today, but not done tournaments in a while.

What are good strategies?

During the BO1, would you go for a standard build with a decent winrate, or a wonky/cheesey build wich you know has a higher winrate, but can get shut down entirely if reacted to in the right way?

Also, in a BO3, would you play standard the first game, or non-standard, because your opponent will often think it is common that people play standard in the first game and only take refuge to cheesing once they are behind, meaning cheese will have higher odds in the first game?


Also, when getting matched against someone who you know will beat the shit out of you in a standard game, is it better to just try and take the win with wonky builds most people dont even know existed? :D

I did try some searching for tournament strategy on TL, but didnt find anything about this subject.

What are your common tournament strategies?


PEW PEW PEW
Lokk
Profile Blog Joined September 2011
Canada635 Posts
August 12 2012 15:24 GMT
#2
usually play macro game first them see if i wanna cheese after
+ Show Spoiler +
who am i kidding im terran cheese all game
@Lokk_2/Go Woori 우리
Provocateur
Profile Joined October 2010
Sweden1665 Posts
August 12 2012 16:18 GMT
#3
I would say that your strategy of choice should depend fully on who you're facing. If you're up against someone at equal or lower level you should probably play safe and go for the macro game, but if you're up against for instance a GM player just bust out your nastiest cheese ^^ at least do one cheese or very aggressive play in a bo3.
Nymphaceae
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
United States350 Posts
August 12 2012 20:58 GMT
#4
On August 13 2012 00:21 SupplyBlockedTV wrote:
I am going to play playhem today, but not done tournaments in a while.

What are good strategies?

During the BO1, would you go for a standard build with a decent winrate, or a wonky/cheesey build wich you know has a higher winrate, but can get shut down entirely if reacted to in the right way?

Also, in a BO3, would you play standard the first game, or non-standard, because your opponent will often think it is common that people play standard in the first game and only take refuge to cheesing once they are behind, meaning cheese will have higher odds in the first game?


Also, when getting matched against someone who you know will beat the shit out of you in a standard game, is it better to just try and take the win with wonky builds most people dont even know existed? :D

I did try some searching for tournament strategy on TL, but didnt find anything about this subject.

What are your common tournament strategies?

I would say play standard till your BO3s. If you get to the BO3s, then that's when you can start doing meta cheeses for poor scouts.

Cheesing in the BO1s is extremely inconsistent, since the better players know how to scout for the cheeses and will be counting your minerals. You might win 1-2 rounds with cheese, but probably not anymore. Good luck in the tourney though.
MysteryMeat1
Profile Blog Joined June 2011
United States3292 Posts
August 13 2012 09:15 GMT
#5
For tournaments i woulnd't cheese until the bo3 unless you know the player. Me and my friends will enter tournaments together and I always cheese them if I play them. This is only because we practice all of our builds against each other that we know how to react properly.

As for people you dont know. In BO3 you should see how they scout the first game. If they scout on 13 then throw in a 2gate proxy or w/e because you know it will be really hard for them to react in time. If they scout earlier than i'd be wary of throwing a cheese and might switch to a one or two base all-in.
"Cause ya know, Style before victory." -The greatest mafia player alive
SupplyBlockedTV
Profile Blog Joined September 2011
Belgium313 Posts
August 13 2012 20:03 GMT
#6
Damn, managed to kill axslav and fenixhero (and two master leaguers before that)....but then got killed by TSL Revival...his skills are so insane..first game my all-in got shut down entirely.. then i just went desperate because it was my strongest PvZ build...and went for skytoss..for fun...and lost ofcourse.

I only recently got promoted to master league...feels good :D, but need a better BO3 strat..pulling out your best build in BO1 is easy..but BO3 hard..especially against some korean with insane skills.
PEW PEW PEW
Nymphaceae
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
United States350 Posts
August 13 2012 20:58 GMT
#7
Since you play protoss, I would suggest you to read in the "zerg help me thread," and whatever the terran help me thread is. You can see what gives the most people problems easily by it, and then you can see what the people in the thread are questioning. Generally if you have a build, in which they can not come up with a good answer on how to beat it, then it's probably something you should continue doing. I know the pros are a different story, and that you can't win every time, but in a BO3, this may make it tough enough on the pro to get you more than just 1 game against them.

One thing you can go for would be like macro cheese on a large map, where they may scout you really late. You should find a friend, in which you can practice something like this though. It's horrible if you play the map one in 5 games, and that you play against that match up 1 in 3 games (you won't really get good practice). On 2 starting position maps, you may be allowed to play more aggressively to put your opponent into the blind early game, then come out with a mid game cheese if you harassed well enough (again practice this with a partner, not ladder. I would recommend you telling your practice partner what you're doing, and tell him/her to do a select build too.).

Just imagine playing against some one in which the first game they come out with an aggressive opening. A lot of people would come to believe that this player is very aggressive, and perhaps even reckless. They may believe that they think they're the better player, and just need to play safe till late game, because you're only going for this high harass game, because it's the only way you can win.

Next game, if it's a 4 starting position map, go for the macro cheese. Your opponent may be thinking that they need extra defense because of your stupid aggressive play that beat him the first game, so then the 2nd game they end up realizing that they're like 20 workers behind, and unable to harass.
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Next event in 7h 6m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
RuFF_SC2 171
SpeCial 68
CosmosSc2 18
StarCraft: Brood War
Rain 2066
GuemChi 1496
Noble 18
Dota 2
NeuroSwarm180
Counter-Strike
taco 472
m0e_tv326
minikerr38
Other Games
summit1g10846
Fnx 718
C9.Mang0310
PiGStarcraft288
ViBE125
Maynarde112
kaitlyn1
[ Show 10 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• Berry_CruncH300
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• Migwel
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Other Games
• Scarra1165
Upcoming Events
Escore
7h 6m
IntoTheTV X SOOP
8h 6m
CranKy Ducklings
1d 7h
WardiTV Invitational
1d 8h
Cure vs Zoun
SHIN vs Classic
ByuN vs MaxPax
Percival vs YoungYakov
OSC
1d 17h
Sparkling Tuna Cup
2 days
WardiTV Invitational
2 days
Shopify Rebellion Sundays
2 days
Spirit vs Mixu
Clem vs TBD
RSL Revival
2 days
Serral vs Rogue
BlizzCon
2 days
IdrA vs MC
[ Show More ]
Replay Cast
2 days
Afreeca Starleague
3 days
WardiTV Weekly
3 days
Monday Night Weeklies
3 days
Afreeca Starleague
4 days
GSL
4 days
PiGosaur Cup
4 days
The PondCast
5 days
Kung Fu Cup
5 days
Replay Cast
5 days
IntoTheTV X SOOP
6 days
Replay Cast
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2026-09-10
PiG Sty Festival 8.0
Big Dog Cup 2026 Div 1

Ongoing

KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 3
K-JUNGMAN
ASL Season 22
Super Anchor Qualifying S3
CSL 2026 AUTUMN (S22)
Acropolis #5
Acropolis #5 - TRS
Escore Tournament S3: King of Kings
RSL Revival: Season 6
Calamity Invitational
FISSURE Playground #3
BLAST Open Fall 2026
Esports World Cup 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer Qual
Stake Ranked Episode 3
XSE Pro League 2026

Upcoming

Acropolis #5 - GSA
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
Acropolis #5 - GSB
Acropolis #5 - GSC
SC4ALL II: Brood War
HSC XXX
Stellar Fest 2: Lunar Cup
SC4ALL II: StarCraft II
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
RSL Offline Finals
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 6
BLAST Rivals Fall 2026
IEM Beijing 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 5
PGL Masters Bucharest 2026
1win Private Club #2
Thunderpick World Champ. '26
ESL Pro League Season 24
Stake Ranked Episode 4
1win Private Club #1
Logitech G Play Connect 2026
SL StarSeries Fall 2026
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.