We're calling it... Eywa-'s guide to... FROM? Cheese.
Now, You may be asking yourself what is there to make a guide about? You just say From? in the lobby and From? at the start of the game and you're good to go. NO! NO! You don't do that, that is exactly the type of thinking that earned this fine Terran cheeser his loss. It is far more complex than that. Let me explain...
See, if you spoke in the lobby, you've already made a mistake. GLHF? GG? GOGO? No... You can't, you can't say a word when you join the lobby and I'll tell you why. You are cheesing, that makes you an asshole... However, it is still possible for you to just be an asshole rather than an asshole and a cheeser. In simple terms, all cheesers are assholes, but not all assholes are cheesers. Why does this matter? If you start with glhf and then go to from? in game, you basically announced to your opponent that you're only an asshole within the parameters of the game. In this case, he knows exactly what you're up to... Observe:
He was talking in the lobby, I already know what's coming. Now, the second rule and probably the most important rule... If your From? isn't successful, don't follow it up. This is most important, as soon as you start typing more, you become desperate and it's even more obvious that you're going to build a second factory before expanding (spoiler alert).
At this stage, you know your opponent is a dirty scumbag, so... What do you do with your life? You have the option, to play standard or to cheese. Note, that the from? cheese gains effectiveness if it is in reply to another person's from cheese. However, it is very important that if the from? gets a response that you follow the appropriate escalation route... More on that in a bit...
In this case, I use the From? as a nice transition from his, I do not advise opening with From?... If your opponent doesn't open with From? to give you the opportunity to say From?, then start with the escalation procedure and skip this step. If your opponent does say From?, it is very important that you do not skip this transition step as it will engage your opponent even more for when we get to the escalation procedure.
Now, he replied, IMMEDIATELY engage the escalation procedure. This is not optional, you're already committed to your build at this point and anything you don't do will cause your chances of victory to go down. At this point, you're pretty much a lock to win this game as he is well engaged into your trap.
Now, you've successfully confused your opponent while engaging some curiosity. This is exactly what you want, it makes the kicker all the more powerful. So, let's dive right into that shall we? What is the appropriate response?
Now, I know this is a difficult process and I will require all of your attention for this next part. You see, at this point it's very likely that you won't get another response because your opponent is too busy trying to figure out if they are angry, upset,
Keep it as simple as possible and you should get either no response or something like this:
Now, you know you've won the game... Just follow up with your build, remain confident and kill them dead.
Let's check out the builds for the game described above:
Opponent goes 2 fact... Standard.
Eywa- goes DTs... Standard
And here is the evidence that ASL? Cheese is superior to From? cheese, 2 Fact defended + simultaneous counter. It doesn't even matter that the goons died to mines, as long as they kill the vulture, that is the only threat to your DT.
After that, transitioning into the midgame... Don't even have to macro, look at this.. 60 supply lead.
Time to roll this Terran.
You've been an asshole this game, time that you own that title... This is a very important step, don't be like... Oh GG xoxoxoxoxoxo or gg go re or, I'm your biggest fan. Those are not appropriate responses. The only thing you should be doing here is "ez" or "gg no re".
If you followed this guide to the letter, you should end up with your opponent fighting till the bitter end and leaving without a gg!
I hope you guys found this guide to be useful and I hope it makes your cheesing a little more effective. Please comment, give me your feedback. Let me know if there is anything else I should blog about! I will try to bring you a battle report next week... Depends on my ability to get a good game.