Should we teach beginners to cheese?

Save perhaps for the most writhing of all BMs, nothing could be more insulting in Starcraft II than losing to cheese. Cheap and easy to pull off yet hard to defend against, cheese tactics have been the bane of many a mouse of Starcraft II players. The legitimacy of cheese and cheesy tactics as opposed to playing “standard” is a discussion for another day however, as I am here to suggest something that sounds so absurd, it’s funny: what if we teach beginners how to cheese?

For the uninitiated, cheese is the term used to describe hyper-aggressive tactics that usually has no follow up i.e. if it fails, the one performing the cheese is too far behind in the game that he might as well leave. While there are no clear definitions as to what a cheese is, timing attacks and all-ins are generally classified as cheeses. Cheese is a gamble that relies on catching the opponent unprepared for it and has become infamous for being a cheap and easy way to win. Despite its notoriety, cheese has been a healthy part of the competitive metagame.

So why should we teach beginners cheap win tactics? Why don’t we teach them the fundamentals of the game like macro, etc.? Why should we tell them to cheese? The simple answer would be: precisely because it is an easy way to win. Starcraft II is a very hard and unforgiving game. It is not for the casual crowd. Interested new players will hop in, try it, get crushed and probably stop. A few of them will try to get better, look for tips and tricks yet will probably fail again.

If they have friends who play Starcraft II, new players would probably ask them for help. We, the stalwart defenders of the macro game that we are, will probably offer them advice to improve their fundamentals. Picture the new player then, enthusiastic to get back into the game yet still get demolished due to the sheer amount of things he needs to improve before he gets decent. Realizing he’s probably out of his depth and that he is not enjoying the game at all, he quits without even scratching the surface of what Starcraft is all about.

I’m exaggerating for effect of course (the matchmaking is designed to keep every player, new or otherwise at around a 50% win ratio), but my point still remains. While ‘fewer things feel better than winning a ladder game’, losing a lot of games is still extremely frustrating. No amount of encouragement from us fans will keep a frustrated player playing unless he himself wants to improve. And honestly, unless a beginner follows the pro-scene at all, why would he bother.

That’s where cheese comes in. Cheese introduces a way for new players to grab an easy win, thereby increasing the chances that they’d stick around and give a damn. It is simple to teach and for most of the time, easy to execute (really, how hard can it be to build cannons behind a mineral line). Yes it’s cheap. Yes, their fundamental mechanics are not being developed. But then who cares about that when they are new and looking to have fun? For beginners, nothing is more important than winning.

It’s not like cheese is all bad anyway, mechanically speaking. At its core, cheese introduces the concept of a build order to the new player, one of the most important mechanics in Starcraft II. It also arguably teaches multitasking (Want your zergling all in to be more effective? Try and inject more while attacking!) and it teaches you how to micromanage. Cheese gives them a game plan and players with a plan often triumph over those who don’t. It gives them a sense of direction in the game even if that direction is simply moving forward.

If you’re worried about an influx of cheesy players, don’t be. The stigma behind cheese has been a silly premise from the start anyway. Cheese will only work up to a certain point, after which you need to be a better player altogether before it starts working again. If they start loving the game, our beginner friends will probably ask us for help again and maybe then we can teach them how to be a better player as well as the rest of the fundamental mechanics. The important thing is for them to care.

New players are the lifeblood of any sport, electronic or otherwise. Starcraft II is no different. If we scare our new players with an overload of information required to play the game, we won’t have new players for very long. If you’re placed in a situation where you’re teaching a beginner friend, maybe we can try teaching them to be cheesy for a bit. SC2 might have itself a young’un in the making.