Starcraft – a Speedling

The term "Cheese" comes from the adjective "Cheesy". The not-so-subtle innuendo there is that a victory via so-called "cheese" did not come from the players own skill, but was merely because the loser was unprepared for the "cheesy" tactics that lead to their loss.

What qualifies as "cheese" will undoubtedly vary from player to player, but generally the term refers to exploiting system mechanics in a way unanticipated by your opponent, or otherwise not balanced around.

Many people dislike cheese because it is hard to predict and counter if you are not prepared for it.

Several Examples:

• Thor Rush -- build a factory near your opponent, attack with Thor + repair SCV's around 7 minute mark.
• Photon-Cannon Push -- rushing a forge and placing photon cannons around your opponents base.
• Banshee / Void Ray rush vs. Zerg -- takes adavantage of the fact that Zerg has little viable anti-air at T1 other than mass queens.
• Proxy Rush -- Building a unit production facility much closer to your opponents base than your own so that you can reinforce your troops faster.
• Worker Rush -- in 2v2 (or more), making no units, and instead attacking another player with your workers alone.

Traditional unit Tiers were based on the Warcraft 2 model where you upgraded your main worker producing structure to get new units. Since both races had 2 possible upgrades, this lead to 3 tiers.

Starcraft 1 mimic'd this with the Zerg race but not all races. However, the terminology had stuck for how to describe various phases of the game. Tiers referred to how deep into the tech tree a player had gone and how much resources/time they had spent on tech. As a result a general terminology emerged, placing most units in a tier.

With the advent of Starcraft 2 and the addition of a number of earlier units, there has been a rise in referring to certain units as tier 1.5. These are units after tier 1, but still before tier 2.

Regular terminology is detailed as follows:

Tier 1

• Zergling
• Marine
• Zealot

Tier 1.5

• Roach, Baneling
• Marauder, Reaper
• Stalker, Sentry

Tier 2

• Hydralisk, Infestor, Mutalisk, Corruptor, Overseer
• Ghost, Hellion, Siege Tanks
• Immortal, Phoenix, Void Ray, Observer, Warp Prism

Tier 2.5 (sometimes referred to as tier 2 or 3)

• Banshee, Raven, Viking, Medivac

Tier 3

• Ultralisk, Broodlord
• Battlecruiser, Thor
• Colossus, Mothership, Carrier, High Templar, Dark Templar

You'll note that tier 2.5 has only terran units, and is often just referred to as tier 2. This is true for all of 2.5 except for the Raven. Because the Raven requires so many upgrades to be effective, its sometimes referred to as Tier 3 and others as Tier 2. Its also worth noting there is some discrepancy around which tier ghosts should belong to.

These naming conventions are not absolute, but are common amongst professional casters (people who comment on professional games).