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It wasn't too long ago that I was a follower of the "probes and pylons, drones and overlords, scvs and supply depots" idealogy. Macro was my religion, and Day9 was my priest. Strategy didn't matter - perfect execution of it was the key.
A few months ago, I vowed to get into masters. Well, I failed big time. They said you don't need any other build other than 1 rax FE to get to masters, or so it seems. Or rather, that was what I thought. But I wasn't making any progress doing what I had always done. I was hitting the 100 food benchmark at the 10 minute mark everytime. I had 50 scvs by 10 minutes, but I still wasn't winning enough. I lost to roach baneling all-ins. I lost to 7 gate all-ins. I was losing to late game deathballs. I was losing to 1-1-1 all-ins.
I decided I had enough after losing to a 6 pool. That was the tipping point. As they say, you won't get bananas if you sow apple seeds. I had to do something. I had to change up my playstyle. I had probably hit the proverbial "macro harder" ceiling - the point at which "macro harder" fails yield any significant increase in results, and strategy becomes relevant.
I decided on 2 things:
1. I need to start cheesing. Not all the time, but under certain circumstances.
2. I had to vastly improve my micro (which I had already accomplished).
3. I need to stop playing into my opponent's hands. I HAD to stop playing in a passive and reactive manner. I need to put my opponent on the backfoot.
The problem with playing reactively is that you need to have good knowledge and execution in how to hold off what you opponent is doing without taking too much damage, and you need to know how to play after the storm is over. Problem is, there is simply TOO MUCH stuff that they can throw at you, and unless you practice 10 hours a day, there is simply no way to know how to play perfectly against all specific playstyles.
So as they say,if you can't beat em', join em'!
Unpredictability is now my new mantra. The key is to do what your opponent LEAST expects you to do. Examples?
Cheesing on large maps
Proxy 11-11 on Condemmed Ridge? ARE YOU CRAZY?!!!!
NO I'M NOT.
Lets face it, what will people think about when they play on a large map? Yes, you got that right, Einstein. MACRO GAMES. Which dumb mothafucker will cheese on such a large map?
But, lets face it. How long do you think you will take to scout on a four player map? Let alone a map as big as condemmed ridge. You might already be dead before you find my base. In fact, so many people do not even bother to scout on large maps, cos they ASSUME that people will play macro games, and building on that assumption, they try to play greedy. CC first. Nexus first.
As we all know, assuming makes an ASS out of U and ME.
Cheesing against random players
Now, uhm, what is the most significant advantage random players hold against you right at the start of the game? It certainly doesn't require a rocket scientist to figure out that its the fact that you don't know his race.
And so he probably THINKS that if he withholds that information from you as long as possible, he can possibly throw you off your game. So he does not scout. Bad mistake.
I don't care if you're terran, protoss or zerg. If you don't scout for a proxy 11-11 you are frickin dead no matter what.
Thats why i ironically hate random players who tell me their race. Dayum.
Making units that force a reaction
Let us think about it. What kind of units force a reaction out of you? What kind of units will ABSOLUTELY MOTHAFUCKING KILL YOU if you don't respond appropriately to it, or choose not to respond at all?
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/sMb21.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/QcIWI.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/uIQ2Y.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/064ON.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/zoYZE.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/4ZfGV.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/wLhaE.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/cTef3.png)
Okay.....the last one isn't a unit.....but you get the idea 
You don't see marines and zerglings and shiver in your boots and think: OMG THATS FRICKIN GONNA KILL ME. Thats the idea, which brings me to my next point.
Making units that opponents DON'T expect you to make
Let me ask you this question. You just killed of your opponent's natural hatchery with your proxy 11-11 and can't push any further. What do you do?
Get 2 more command centres? Yep. Get another rax and gases, go for stim and subsequently medivacs, or hellions? Kinda guessed that. Go for an eventual marine tank combination? Been there done that. Boring.
What if I told you I now follow it up with 2 starport banshee? Now, do you think a zerg trying to rebuild his economy will expect that? Really? 2 starport banshee? Could you have guessed that?
You're trying to rebuild your economy and you think I can't do anything about it because you now have spine crawlers, speedlings and banelings? Think again.
*********
And now, armed with my newfound mentality, I'm proud to say I'm gotten back on track on the road to masters again.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/fXGJJ.png)
I know you guys would looove to find out my nick, but.......
  
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If getting to Masters is all you care about, cheese on.
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You really only just figured out that playing solid is harder work than trying to get cheaper wins?
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Here's the thing.
You're taking you mindset - which was "macro, macro, macro" and changing it completely instead of just tweaking it. In doing so, you may be winning games you wouldn't before, but you'll also find yourself losing games that you also used to win. Rather, you should take your mindset of "macro, macro, macro" and just look for situations where you have to violate that mindset and do something else.
Feel free to play how you like - I'm sure this will give you results for a bit. You might find, though, that changing your mindset from "macro hard all game" to "cheese the crap out of him all game" just ends with you losing at a different time of the game than you used to. Rather, if your mindset is "macro hard all game as much as I can, except... 1. around the time X finishes, watch for a 6 pool and prepare this reaction, 2. around this time scout for a gas in case of baneling allins, etc.", you'll find you can still win the games you always could, and now you have a plan for the games you used to lose, too.
Your problem is that you are emphasizing one thing the entire game, it's not *what* you are emphasizing the entire game. Timing should determine what you are emphasizing, not some sort of absolute ranking of emphases.
Perhaps I'm wrong, but it is my opinion that anyone who reached master's by macroing really, really well and a-moving on the minimap did it a long time ago - and couldn't replicate that feat even if they wanted to.
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the key to perfecting all-ins is knowing how hard to macro. For expample if you do a one base all-in if your not gonna pull scvs only build like 25 or so scvs. If your gonna go for a 2 base timing only build enough for saturation if your not gonna pull.
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It seems like your problem is decision making, honestly, how can you lose to a 6 pool if you're doing a 1 rax FE? thats pretty hard to do, especially if you're scouting at all. Even if you do CC before second depot your scouting scv will probably see a pool or run into some zerglings in time for you to drop your second depot instantly. Either way, cheesing probably won't help you get to masters if you can't even make broad strategy decisions.
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you're obviously not learning you're just text booking all your plays...... studying more and imo cheesing may get you masters but its a waste of time for improving goodluck though....
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Just like chess, learning the opening and endgame gives you the best practice.
It´s about learning the idea about openings and (What day9 so geniously propogates for, but many miss) favoring endgames. Giving you a natural goal to go for during the midgame.
Cheesing is one of the openings a gm must master and is definitively good to do so.
So keep doing what suits you, til you start losing and then do the slightest adjustments to make it work.
Koreans learn by cheesing, so that you won´t improve with it, is just out the window from the start 
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Cheesing is just macro on a small scale, so small its mostly about micro. The ultimate goal is winning, so do what it takes to win, and you will learn how to be very precise on a small scale, and then be able to better branch out to a complete macro game (since you will hit a ceiling just cheesing).
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On September 27 2012 01:30 EnE wrote:
You really only just figured out that playing solid is harder work than trying to get cheaper wins?
Yup this. You can get to masters by just cheesing anyway and be fine, but then learning how to play a macro game is a different story, especially if you can only beat masters players by cheesing your mechanics aren't going to be master level which means you will probably only be cheesing or getting crushed in a macro game.
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On September 27 2012 06:13 blade55555 wrote:Show nested quote +On September 27 2012 01:30 EnE wrote:
You really only just figured out that playing solid is harder work than trying to get cheaper wins? Yup this. You can get to masters by just cheesing anyway and be fine, but then learning how to play a macro game is a different story, especially if you can only beat masters players by cheesing your mechanics aren't going to be master level which means you will probably only be cheesing or getting crushed in a macro game.
I think that the OP is trolling. The reason you dont go 2port banshee after kiling a hatchery with 2 rax is because if you triple cc you have a guaranteed win if you just play it out half decent, and if you 2 port banshee you will lose your advantage if they scout and react correctly.
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EPT
