• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 08:01
CEST 14:01
KST 21:01
  • 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] Ro24 Preview: Siren's Call8[ASL22] Ro24 Preview: Summer's End9Serral wins HomeStory Cup 2915Serral wins Maestros of the Game 244ByuL, and the Limitations of Standard Play3
Community News
Stellar Fest TWO the Moon (Dec 16-20)5Weekly Cups (August 24-30): Patches' balance mod takes over2New 3v3 BGH Ladder (and more) on ShieldBattery!38Weekly Cups (August 17-23): Zerg dominate the week6Weekly Cups (August 10-16): SHIN doubles3
StarCraft 2
General
Weekly Cups (August 10-16): SHIN doubles Weekly Cups (August 24-30): Patches' balance mod takes over SC4ALL II: SC2 Player Announcement 6/8 - Maru How would you feel about frequent/monthly balance patches for SC2? Weekly Cups (August 17-23): Zerg dominate the week
Tourneys
Stellar Fest TWO the Moon (Dec 16-20) 2026 GSTL Announcement PIG STY FESTIVAL 8.0! (13 - 23 August) Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament 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 # 541 Binary Choice The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 540 Dodge This Mutation # 539 Thunder Dome
Brood War
General
ASL22 General Discussion Which box art did your first copy of StarCraft 1 have? BW General Discussion New 3v3 BGH Ladder (and more) on ShieldBattery! XUN appreciation thread
Tourneys
[ASL22] Ro24 Group F BSL LAN Party - Kraków 29-30 August - OPEN SIGNUPS Escore Tournament - Season 3 [Megathread] Daily Proleagues
Strategy
Replay Review Process - What do you do? Game Theory for Starcraft Odyssey Mineral Stack Saturation Fighting Spirit mining rates
Other Games
General Games
General RTS Discussion Thread Nintendo Switch Thread Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Anyone here play Quakeworld back in the day? EVE Corporation
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
Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Russo-Ukrainian War Thread US Politics Mega-thread Canadian Politics Mega-thread European Politico-economics QA Mega-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 NBA General Discussion
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
The Automated Ban List Northern Ireland Global Starcraft
Blogs
Regacy Esports: The Bh…
regacyesports
Violent Games and Crime Rate…
TrAiDoS
LOCKPICKING NOOB
LUCKY_NOOB
Cathedral Of CS And NY pizza a…
FuDDx
Please support my new stand…
Peanutsc
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 6474 users

Why You Shouldn't Cheese in Ladder

Forum Index > SC2 General
Post a Reply
1 2 3 4 5 9 10 11 Next All
JTPROG
Profile Blog Joined March 2010
United States254 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-03-16 19:30:14
March 16 2010 14:16 GMT
#1
**EDIT: Warning - If you don't care about getting better or only play for fun, do not read. What this thread is trying to say is that to get better as a player, you shouldn't cheese much in ladder. Nothing else. Please stay on topic.**

I define cheese as: A mostly unpreventable, unscoutable (in time), luck-based strategy, usually a rush, that relies on your opponent being unprepared or not knowing what to do, but would probably not work twice against the same player.

I've played my fair share of ladder games, and I'd say that in about 10% of games my opponents try to cheese me. I'm sure alot of people here on teamliquid.net cheese as well. Now, I'm not complaining about this, as it always makes for good practice. However, this practice is much better for me, not the cheeser.

In my opinion, which is probably correct, cheesing should not be the strategy you use on a game-to-game basis. Simply put - cheesing is not difficult. Any competent RTSer can execute a cheese to near perfection. Cheeses often occur early in the game, where macro is not a factor, and the need for micro is usually minimal. I mean, how much micro do you need to proxy 4 gate or lift dual rax into the back of someones base and create reactors? Or the marine/scv rush vs protoss. Does that really take much skill? 8 pool? Make you a better player?

The point is, cheesing IS in fact a great way to win, but IS NOT a great way to get better at the game. If someone cheeses in 50% of their games, and someone else cheese in 0% of their games, effectively, the first person is recieving 50% relevant game practice, while the other player is recieving almost 100% relevant game practice. To become a better player, one must learn to play in the standard way, macro/micro/management/tactics, because while cheesing will work sometimes, it won't work all the time, and when it doesn't, and you realize you have to start playing normal games, you're screwed.

**edit:added for clarity - I recommend reading the entire thread**

Consider this example:
Player 1 plays for 1 year playing 10% of his games as Cheese builds 90% Standard builds.
Player 2 plays for 1 year playing 50% of his games as Cheese builds 50% Standard builds.

Player 1 faces player 2 in a best of 5 match.
Who will win?
Now who do you consider the better player?
*************************************************************************

I personally think cheesing should only be used for tournaments or extremely important games, where you can surprise your opponent in 1 game, not the ladder, which should predominantly be used for practice. The way to get better is to cheese sparingly, and play standard much. If you can never beat a person straight-up you're the worse player, no matter what. It is much easier to make changes to stop a cheeser than to suddenly become good at the game. So if you have a new idea for a cheese or want to try new things out, go ahead. A loss is MUCH more valuable than a win. Don't just go into every game with the mindset "I only play to win" and try to cheese the majority of your games. Because while you may win for now, in the end, it is you who will lose.

2 great posts illustrating my point:
IdrA - page 3
Floophead_III - page 5

inflowgaming.net
Antimage
Profile Blog Joined March 2010
Canada1293 Posts
March 16 2010 14:18 GMT
#2
Haha I don't know what you want us to say here... agreed?

I'd only practice cheese with teammates and friends, and would only do it in a BO3/BO5/etc. series.

That said, I'd also only do it if I know my opponent or if I know they are significantly better than me.
Gigaudas
Profile Blog Joined December 2008
Sweden1213 Posts
March 16 2010 14:20 GMT
#3
"Any competent RTSer can execute a cheese to near perfection."

No. Practicing cheese is very useful. It's a great way to throw the opponent of his game. If you practice transitioning from cheese then you will be at an advantage if the cheese doesn't end the game.
I
TS-Rupbar
Profile Blog Joined June 2004
Sweden1089 Posts
March 16 2010 14:20 GMT
#4
What if you wanna practice cheese? Practicing cheese with friends is stupid, as you can only play one game with them. Then they'll know it's coming. It's also super boring to practice vs cheese.

Cheese doesn't take micro? -.-

Everyone knows cheesing every time isn't the best way to get better at this game, but where else other than in ladder play would you practice cheese?
bludragen88
Profile Joined August 2008
United States527 Posts
March 16 2010 14:21 GMT
#5
If no one tries it right now, we may not find out which cheeses are overpowered. In SC1 we haven't really found any cheese to be so overwhelmingly unstoppable, but lets say we find out that say... 3 warpgate zealot is overpowered, but we find out right as the OSL prelims start. What happens when 2/3 of the league is protoss? The beta should be about trying everything so blizzard can balance properly, so I think this is the perfect time to mix in some cheese.
spinesheath
Profile Blog Joined June 2009
Germany8679 Posts
March 16 2010 14:21 GMT
#6
Cheesing is very much appreciated during a beta test. The more abusive the cheeses get the more imbalances can be fixed.
If you have a good reason to disagree with the above, please tell me. Thank you.
Perseverance
Profile Joined February 2010
Japan2800 Posts
March 16 2010 14:21 GMT
#7
I cheese as punishment when people don't scout me. That's really the only time I do it though.
<3 Moonbattles
s_86
Profile Blog Joined January 2009
United States191 Posts
March 16 2010 14:22 GMT
#8
I disagree, I learn many new things each time I cheese. Plus, it is just as complex as playing standard, expecially when things go awry and you have to adapt.
JTPROG
Profile Blog Joined March 2010
United States254 Posts
March 16 2010 14:23 GMT
#9
On March 16 2010 23:20 TS-Rupbar wrote:
What if you wanna practice cheese? Practicing cheese with friends is stupid, as you can only play one game with them. Then they'll know it's coming. It's also super boring to practice vs cheese.

Cheese doesn't take micro? -.-

Everyone knows cheesing every time isn't the best way to get better at this game, but where else other than in ladder play would you practice cheese?


I said in my post if you have a new cheese/want to practice it go ahead, i'm just saying it shouldn't be a majority of your games.
inflowgaming.net
TS-Rupbar
Profile Blog Joined June 2004
Sweden1089 Posts
March 16 2010 14:28 GMT
#10
On March 16 2010 23:23 JTPROG wrote:
Show nested quote +
On March 16 2010 23:20 TS-Rupbar wrote:
What if you wanna practice cheese? Practicing cheese with friends is stupid, as you can only play one game with them. Then they'll know it's coming. It's also super boring to practice vs cheese.

Cheese doesn't take micro? -.-

Everyone knows cheesing every time isn't the best way to get better at this game, but where else other than in ladder play would you practice cheese?


I said in my post if you have a new cheese/want to practice it go ahead, i'm just saying it shouldn't be a majority of your games.


If you want to practice something, you do it every game. Saying that people shouldn't cheese in ladder with the argument that cheese is better in tournament play is quite absurd imo,

On lower levels on ICC, I cheese a lot because I can't be bothered to play 20 standard games before I get to C- and can have some decent games.

As a previous poster said, I'm not sure what you want this thread to talk about. Yes, it's boring to be cheesed. End thread.
rackdude
Profile Blog Joined January 2010
United States882 Posts
March 16 2010 14:40 GMT
#11
Disagreed:

Why you should cheese in the Beta ladder.

The goal is to exploit the game and find whatever strategies are unstoppable/imbalanced. You've basically been chosen to this, that's what a beta is for. If you think you can win every game with a cheese, exploit your heart out and make people cry on the forums.
Sweet.
WaveMotion
Profile Blog Joined January 2010
United States147 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-03-16 14:42:04
March 16 2010 14:41 GMT
#12
lol. i cheese every game. it makes starcraft actually fun. and i usually never do the same thing twice. each game i will try something different. whether its against zerg and rushing quick to scouts or proxy in his base its very fun. "cheesing should not be used on a game to game basis" <--- lame. using build orders is lame. (Oh crap this is SC2 isnt it. sorry.)
In heaven, everything is fine.
_EmIL_
Profile Joined March 2010
Sweden138 Posts
March 16 2010 14:54 GMT
#13
How can you say anyone can cheese near perfect? Also I dno what your point is.

Like the guy some posts above said about practicing cheese with mates only etc, but if someone wanna cheese in ladder why not?
Losing is winning
NarutO
Profile Blog Joined December 2006
Germany18839 Posts
March 16 2010 14:57 GMT
#14
Disagree with the opening post, no clue whatsoever. Especially as Terran if you proxy rax it needs immense amounts of micro / multitasking to keep your marines alive and don't die to as example drones with autosurround...
CommentatorPolt | MMA | Jjakji | BoxeR | NaDa | MVP | MKP ... truly inspiring.
Liquid`Nazgul
Profile Blog Joined September 2002
22427 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-03-16 15:07:25
March 16 2010 15:06 GMT
#15
I'm glad you took time to argue your points. The topic title could have been from some frustrated player posting 3 lines in anger after being 'cheesed'. So thanks for that.

That said I really could not disagree more. You argue any competent player is capable of cheesing to perfection which is very far from the truth. There definitely is a lot of skill in the minor differences. The same small differences you might forget to perform in a long game that do not matter when you have large armies. You might be overseeing them because of this, because when performing an early game strategy designed to take the game they are important and difficult. As it's possible to win games with 'cheese' at the highest level amongst progamers in Korea you are basically arguing anybody could take a game from those guys performing the same kind of cheese. It's plain wrong. There is a lot of skill in cheesing as there is in a long game. It requires planning, practice and lots of thought. What you might argue is that you don't need the same kind of micro/macro as you do in a long game which is true, yet it doesn't mean everyone becomes equal.

The other argument against your post is that this is the Beta and we are testing. You are pretty much required to use whatever it takes to win so that it brings awareness to Blizzard's numbers about balancing the races, balancing the early and the late game. If everyone would refuse to cheese in the Beta ladder and Blizzard therefor keeps everything the same, then the effective cheeses will become 100% of the tournament games after SC2 is released, as tournament games are all about winning.
Administrator
Tristan
Profile Blog Joined December 2009
Canada566 Posts
March 16 2010 15:12 GMT
#16
the 8pool isnt so much cheese as it is an aggressive opener. The goal of it is to do a lot of economic harassment early enough and then transition into roaches for continued pressure.

My style has always been one of near relentless harassment and aggressive denial of expansions while my creep slowly eats the map. 8pool is a great opener for that on certain maps.
http://Zangano431.tumblr.com/
CharlieMurphy
Profile Blog Joined March 2006
United States22895 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-03-16 15:16:54
March 16 2010 15:12 GMT
#17
I dunno what this op is smokin, I got to like 50 on platinum with 80-90% cheese. Then I started to play legit with the higher skilled players. And I'm pretty sure my cheese tactics would still be working in at least 50% of my games I play at rank 11 now. Besides, cheese is relative. I don't consider anything cheap or cheese, it's just an (often) inferior strategy which usually relies on catching an opponent off guard or taking advantage of their weak early game. So in other words, it's all part of the game.
..and then I would, ya know, check em'. (Aka SpoR)
Ghazwan
Profile Blog Joined March 2010
Netherlands444 Posts
March 16 2010 15:13 GMT
#18
I am new to TL and also to SC scene so I am not familiar with the history of the term "cheese". However, it seems from the OP that any unorthodox strategy that beats orthodox play is labelled as cheese by the people that got beaten by it. I find this whole cheese-calling arbitrary and subjective. As far as I am concerned, any strategy within the game rules is fair and valid.
Tristan
Profile Blog Joined December 2009
Canada566 Posts
March 16 2010 15:14 GMT
#19
If I see Idra in a game though, you can bet there will be cheese. I'll lose, but I have to cheese
http://Zangano431.tumblr.com/
JTPROG
Profile Blog Joined March 2010
United States254 Posts
March 16 2010 15:16 GMT
#20
On March 17 2010 00:06 Liquid`Nazgul wrote:
I'm glad you took time to argue your points. The topic title could have been from some frustrated player posting 3 lines in anger after being 'cheesed'. So thanks for that.

That said I really could not disagree more. You argue any competent player is capable of cheesing to perfection which is very far from the truth. There definitely is a lot of skill in the minor differences. The same small differences you might forget to perform in a long game that do not matter when you have large armies. You might be overseeing them because of this, because when performing an early game strategy designed to take the game they are important and difficult. As it's possible to win games with 'cheese' at the highest level amongst progamers in Korea you are basically arguing anybody could take a game from those guys performing the same kind of cheese. It's plain wrong. There is a lot of skill in cheesing as there is in a long game. It requires planning, practice and lots of thought. What you might argue is that you don't need the same kind of micro/macro as you do in a long game which is true, yet it doesn't mean everyone becomes equal.

The other argument against your post is that this is the Beta and we are testing. You are pretty much required to use whatever it takes to win so that it brings awareness to Blizzard's numbers about balancing the races, balancing the early and the late game. If everyone would refuse to cheese in the Beta ladder and Blizzard therefor keeps everything the same, then the effective cheeses will become 100% of the tournament games after SC2 is released, as tournament games are all about winning.


You have a good point, but let me pose to you a question, and this goes to everyone trying to argue against my post.

If one player cheesed 50% of their games, and another player cheesed only 10% of their games, after one year of intensive playing, who do you think would be the better player?
inflowgaming.net
1 2 3 4 5 9 10 11 Next All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
GSL
11:00
2026 GSTL: Main Stage Day 4
IntoTheiNu 1050
CranKy Ducklings SOOP108
Rex37
Rogue 33
Classic 29
Cure 25
Solar (SOOP)19
LiquipediaDiscussion
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
Lowko341
ProTech129
Rex 32
Rogue 30
Classic 24
Cure 23
Solar (SOOP) 14
StarCraft: Brood War
Britney 33449
Calm 8768
Bisu 1271
Shuttle 1113
Horang2 700
Jaedong 626
Light 371
BeSt 345
EffOrt 305
Mini 224
[ Show more ]
Mong 217
Stork 206
Hyuk 167
Larva 124
Soulkey 109
Rush 99
Dewaltoss 97
Snow 93
Leta 73
Pusan 68
ZerO 63
Killer 58
Mind 57
ToSsGirL 42
JYJ 35
Barracks 35
soO 30
sorry 22
Sacsri 20
Hm[arnc] 20
Yoon 18
ajuk12(nOOB) 15
Sexy 13
Free 12
SilentControl 10
Shine 9
Icarus 5
Terrorterran 1
Dota 2
Dendi684
Counter-Strike
olofmeister1533
markeloff94
Other Games
singsing1520
B2W.Neo350
Sick146
OGKoka 108
Mew2King86
RotterdaM38
ZerO(Twitch)5
Organizations
StarCraft: Brood War
Kim Chul Min (afreeca) 815
[ Show 11 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• StrangeGG 69
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• Migwel
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
League of Legends
• Jankos1613
• TFBlade497
Upcoming Events
OSC
59m
PiGosaur Cup
11h 59m
Kung Fu Cup
22h 59m
Replay Cast
1d 11h
The PondCast
1d 21h
IntoTheTV X SOOP
2 days
CranKy Ducklings
3 days
Sparkling Tuna Cup
4 days
OSC
4 days
Afreeca Starleague
5 days
Soma vs Shuttle
BeSt vs Rush
[ Show More ]
WardiTV Weekly
5 days
Afreeca Starleague
6 days
Leta vs ggaemo
Jaedong vs Queen
GSL
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

BSL 2026 LAN: Kraków
PiG Sty Festival 8.0
Light Tournament 2026

Ongoing

KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 3
K-JUNGMAN
ASL Season 22
Super Anchor Qualifying S3
CSL 2026 AUTUMN (S22)
RSL Revival: Season 6
Big Dog Cup 2026 Div 1
BLAST Open Fall 2026
Esports World Cup 2026
Esports World Cup 2026: LCQ
BLAST Bounty Summer 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer Qual
Stake Ranked Episode 3
XSE Pro League 2026
IEM Cologne Major 2026

Upcoming

Escore Tournament S3: King of Kings
Acropolis #5
Acropolis #5 - TRS
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
Acropolis #5 - GSA
Acropolis #5 - GSB
Acropolis #5 - GSC
HSC XXX
SC4ALL II: StarCraft II
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
RSL Offline Finals
Calamity Invitational
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
FISSURE Playground #3
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.