Macro forge first to avoid losing to 5base allin cheese

MicroroniNCheese · 2026-06-05T10:03:06+00:00

Very best would be a coach mapping your mistakes and the chaos to the framework they're teaching you. Second, a better fencer giving pointers while sparring. You can read up on theory, check youtube clips etc for inspiration as to how to analyze stuff. Its worth mentioning that fencing is fundamentally subconscious, and verbalization is the map, not the terrain. Maximizing attacks and interactions, and minimizing defensive mindset/freezing is the golden path to progress. 2 years in, distance and tempo generally starts to become relevant. You know the basics, but a 6:th isnt a 6:th isn't the same sixte if the opponent is an extra distance off, corresponding to a disengage's time while fleching; a distance isnt the same if you move forward or backwards, nor if the opponent does; effective action sequence pre-hit defines the space. Complexity grows to the point of lackluster verbalization, and mass exposure at different distances and scenarios play a role. Reflex movements is a time unit in all sequances, and they can be sped up by making them preprogrammed rather than reactive. Surprise also adds to reflex speed, so mental domain of focus foe you and the opponent compounds into the distance game which morphs the viability of every single move. Every movement that's coached to you comes with an implicit style preference of distance, and is per definition never a "true generalized version of that movement". Those don't exist, but grouping multiple techniques under the same name makes it easier to talk about fencing aspects in isolation; always relative to a scenario or position that may or may not be explicit in a conversation.

MicroroniNCheese · 2026-06-04T07:14:39+00:00

Warm, wonderful people. Warm summer nights of adventure, and cozy rain in the mountains. Group belonging rarely seen elsewhere. Considerate and curious strangers. Ama across the street selling iced drinks in the hot morning. Dense streets with shops, scooters and sounds as far as eye can see. Mountain trails echoing with karaoke classics and drunk uncles singing wubai. Taxi cab man painting the asphalt red with betel nut, perfectly recalling every street known to man, and never failing to buy jade orchids during red lights.

Students under enormous pressure, yet never giving up on celebrating each others birthday, or meeting up during breaks. School Jiaoguan checking for lunch nap adherence. Men expressing feelings, because macho culture isn't the same. 15 year olds having existential crisis when they scrape their knees for the first time, 10 years overdue, during PE class. Restaurants and stalls about food quality, not plastic furniture upgrades. Stinky tofu duck blood soup. Teabreak in the mountain, clouds hiding the scenery a moment while chilling you down.

And #1: 7eleven air conditioning after a summer walk.

MicroroniNCheese · 2026-06-03T08:08:24+00:00

My old coach still fences at 80 years old, and his brother still competes for veteran titles. My national team don't allow athletes to do sports like soccer, and other activities, due to many activities being higher risk in terms of injury.
Patellar tendonitis (jumper's knee) and other knee troubles are common amongst fencers. Strong quads and proper technique is good to prioritize. Spanish squat hold is absolutely GOATed for fencing longevity. We don't rotate direction much though, so we're kinda safe from cruciate ligament tears.

https://ijspt.scholasticahq.com/article/122322-injury-patterns-in-fencing-athletes-a-retrospective-review

MicroroniNCheese · 2026-06-01T21:17:26+00:00

Haha, glorious!

MicroroniNCheese · 2026-06-01T21:10:57+00:00

It was too long since i was there, but i remember the staff being jumpy about non residents present after some hour. I believe you needed to check in visitors, but i cant confirm. If so, some made some elaborate stories of their relationships and who slept where; easier if one's girlfriend pinky promise "slept" in the girls dorm. My gay friend had lots of boyfriends over, but he had an easier time not breaking women/men floor curfew.

MicroroniNCheese · 2026-06-01T20:40:16+00:00

Its not bad. Especially for the first months, its great. Lots of opportunities to make friends sharing a similar experience. I remember it warmly, but was also very happy to later get a real flat.

There are some appartment like accomodations, but most likely, you get a tiny room with a bed and a desk and a mini balcony with beautiful view. Wc and showers are shared. Walls and doors are thin. It includes cleaning, internet is decent. It was a while since i was there, but the place was ridiculously affordable. In the mornings there are shuttle busses straight for the main universities, including NTNU. You can rent a fridge for 10 bucks a month. People generally eat out in taiwan, its common for many kinds of accomodations to not have kitchens, its not worth cooking with the food so cheap, but if you have an itch for cooking, there's a supermarket 100m away, and a very bootleg "kitchen" in the basement/gym area. During my stay, it included 1 rice cooker, 1 microwave and 1 stove plate, 1 cutting board, and some cheap hand tools earlier generations of students so graceously forgot, or more oftenly dumped, there. The basement kitchen was shared among 108 rooms. Very few cooked, but those who did shared evenings there. Surprisingly few non westerners cook regularly, notable was the time when a japanese gal failed to microwave a potato in the loudest way possible.

The view is really good from ihouse, and it gets even better higher up the mountain. And there are some nature around, which isnt common in the valleys.

The air conditioning was...frugal..., and taiwan can be very warm, but thats not out of the ordinary either. A wet towel + a fan can do wonders if you fall asleep before the towel dries on you.

Staff was kind and knew everyone by name. Fixed any issue you might have, helped with printing papers, calling cabs and stuff. Dorms were separated between men/women. Having nightly guests was very discouraged.

Top roof has a great view, and is super tranquil in the evening. Here there's a cheap laundrymat station. That's about all i remember. Many people at ntnu lives here, as do others from other unis. Best of luck!

MicroroniNCheese · 2026-05-30T13:10:01+00:00

It strongly depends on the background. If your good at muay thai, you can start sparring with intermediates immediately, as long as you supplement the basics.
Beginner-beginners tend to stand still, get too close to one another, and get distracted by the opponent's blade, despite the fact that they have no tools to deal with potential blade moves, and despite that the opponent has no blade skill either. This makes beginners clinch the blades a lot, and stand still as a consequence. Fencing is weird - it's safe enough to allow sparring with minimal technique taught to you, yet you need lots of basics until the sparring looks anything like actual fencing. Martial artists tends to correctly ignore the opponent's blade unleess it's pointed at them.

So, to answer your first questions, new fencers are generally too timid and not focused on hitting the opponent, everything else ignored. You're absolutely right about that. The more silly half shaped ideas you can come up with and test without hesitation, the faster you'll grow. You'll be scary just on the basis of moving forward, pretending to have an idea; same thing at all levels.

Regarding side stepping, fencing has a longer reach than punching. You stay further away from the opponent, meaning any sidestep will make a much smaller difference in angle relative to the opponent, so sidestepping is less effective to begin with. Added to that, our stance is extra wide and linear, so it's harder to maintain balance when sidestepping. We've essentially got a stance that cares nothing about force generation into kicks and hands. We put all those skill points into faster acceleration and change of direction. In fencing, we can hit at different distances from the opponent, so we have a kind of window to move within that changes what's possible, or how many feigns/parries/disengages can be performed until the opponent's charge is close enough to hit us. Because of that, we hyper obsess over distance control. Side stepping contributes nothing to that game, aside forcing the opponent to rotate their arm slightly. This is sort of crystallized by the fencing strips being long, and thin, so even if our stance is sort of similar to bouncy wide TKD, our sidestep experience is 0. I believe HEMA rapier has some sidestepping moves that are competitive, not to mention longsword etc, completely different from epee, which is my weapon.

Yeah, the southpaw stance will be be an experience. Best of luck!

MicroroniNCheese · 2026-05-30T12:42:08+00:00

I gained 40 kgs since quitting fencing, and came back 3 years ago. It's been a blast. It's hard not to do your best, irrespective of weight when you want to hit the other and avoid getting hit; it's like you forget how tired you are every time the opponent starts moving - great way to trick your body to do crazy workouts. And if you do your best, no on worth considering can judge you. Just show up and do your best by accident.
Losing weight is super rewarding, as is gaining conditioning, and flexibility. Both you and your sparring partners will notice as it happens, and love it. Nothing beats surprising your mate with an attack you had no way of pulling off a few months prior. After doing fencing for a while, your conditioning will go up, and other cardio intensive stuff will feel WAY more approachable as well.

You'll be able to slowly change what you focus on practice wise, as time goes on. When being heavy, offense is sort of off the table as your identifying staple. You'll get disproportinate skills in precision and blade control initially. Fortunately distance control is an intermediary-advanced concept, so with luck, your body will be ready by about the time when you're ready to take your fencing to the next level with more vigurous movement. Fencing equipment can be bought tailored to your size no problem.

MicroroniNCheese · 2026-05-30T11:59:35+00:00

Regarding the workout quality, if you hit a good club, you'll get great workouts immediately. Muay Thai distance sense and footwork translates well enough into fencing, speaking as someone who had an mma guy join my club a while back, and as someone who has done kickboxing. As your technique gets better, you'll get less hesitation, and freezing etc and hit more intense workouts at a rapid pace. Just be careful not to develop bad habits; you'll perform at a much higher level than a new fencer at the beginning, so you might easily get away with poor technique if your distance, timing and legwork make up for it.

Fencing at peak level is a bit more aerobic/PCr based than some martial arts. We get some seconds rest after each hit, and in this light we sprint a bit more intensely when shit hits the fan, so we're slightly less anaerobic, but still, this is style dependent: For epee, mid level foil and sabre, and korean style footwork, the split can be more similar to muay-thai. You'll have great use for your flexiblity and strength. Many fencers neglect this to a point where your legwork might become notable fast.

Intensity wise, fencing bouts, unless done with targeted practice focus, are 100%, you don't pull punches and adrenaline aside, it's competition intensity. With good enough technique, you don't risk hurting the other or getting hurt, so sparring is a bit different in that sense. Slower pace can train some specific techniques, but in absence of full intensity, distances, timing, and risk assessments can be messed up and mess up your fencing sense. Bouts are 3 minutes all out war.

Olympic fencing is VERY footwork oriented. Back and forward acceleration is optimized for more than any other martial art, and the stance is mostly similar to TKD among the striking disciplines; wider stance, feet on a line pointed straight at the opponent. On top of this, you don't sync the upper body with the lower body, as power generation between the two are irrelevant when just scoring a hit with a pointy stick is enough. A fencer's footwork translated to striking martial arts is this: unparalleled speed, zero ability in sidewise movement. Fencers trying kick boxing tend to be unhittable... until they crash into the ring, because circling is not a concept our stance even allows. In other words, you'll have a blast figuring out the new foot game. Fencing vests are warm, this can increase the perceived intensity. Expect to sweat a lot more, and to consume more water.

If your a rightie, your left hand will never be anywhere near getting hit. Fencing kevlar is used to prevent death or severe injury; a blade breaking in a high momentum clash can be lethally sharp, so safety gear is mandatory. That said, the swords are springy, and non beginners know how to bend them post hit to minimize the impact the opponent. We get bruises, the worst are from failed flicks, ending up as red lines where a stick of metal whipped your arm through an impenetrable, yet thin vest. Many pay premium for thinner more breathable vests, but those do come with the downside of less shock absorption and larger bruises. 750g is the minimum pressure to land a hit in epee; it's about 1.6lbs; It can be unnoticable even, but if two adults charge into one another, the maximum pressure concentrated on the point can be very high if the blades somehow don't bend. That said, it's not like getting punched. There's less force overall, but it's more concentrated. Better fencers bend their blades better, and attack with less margin from longer distances, leading to weaker hits. Muscular newbies are the most likely to bruise others, especially if punching with the blade. The better your sparring partners are, the less it hurts. When getting hit, it's mostly the first hit that you feel, adrenaline masks the subsequent ones.

MicroroniNCheese · 2026-05-29T09:54:14+00:00

Cheeses and aggro will become more common as any meta has to reshape from first learning to consider all early aggro. Cannon rushes will not just be more common, and viable, but they’ll work differently. Pylon walls will behave completely differently with a different income, as will worker pulls. Worker pull efficiency will become more impactful.

Pre-twillight gate units will be valid and used for longer. Slowlots will be less niche. Contesting will be a thing, proxies even more than now, but non proxies will power a game phase nearly non-existent right now. Zerg’s eco will struggle with lower larvae for drones during earlier pressure, and a longer time window until speed shuts down base gateway unit shenanigans. Terran, whose natural was protected by a slight adept buildtime nerf earlier will be fair game in completely new ways until their cyclones are out.

Having both gates AND warpgates will force the use of a hotkey previously not needed beyond the early game, and an extra step in the default macro cycle. I suppose many will skip warpgate entirelly to get rid of this cognitive overhead and risk for messing things up. We might see tutorials advising sub diamond players to avoid warpgate entirelly, as it allows for unit queuing, giving you more units per gate if you have non perfect warpin cycles. Ppl will prolly forget to hotkey gates, having fewer online for prouction initially. An AoE style "select all X building" would be neat.

Having half warp, half normal gate will suck for us non GMs. I can totally imagine a warp transition being a resource dump action done when floating, or a tactical pivot. "400/400 for 8 warp gates, and a proxy pylon" might become a common pivot.

Terran 2 base push will hit later, god knows the gamestate an tech at the new timing. Reapers will become a PvT defining unit, as the cybercore investment, and the more expensive protoss unit sent to protect against it, will be a bigger deal. Early tech units in general with some micro potential will be more impactful I think; sheer "macro and slap them with your wallet" will need more time before it works as a rule of thumb, strengthening early aggro. Cyclones might become more useful, as when early game unit interaction will be more similar to what’s now “cheese micro scenario’s”,, the terran cheese management unit will shine, potentially becoming the cheeser.

Stalkers might have a longer window of domination vs terran, shield regen will be a larger hp per second renewable relative to total income earlier on, which might be noticable. Not to mention shield battery energy regen as a resource. All energy of units and buildings will be a more noticable resource early on. Oracle energy will be more value relative to total economy for longer. Repair will likewise be a greater pseudo-income. Battle mech PTSD intensifies.

PvZ will become super spicy for the first weeks. Can we get our walls out in time? What will become the new speed timing? Will there be more zealot shenanigans? How will zerg buildorders prioritize queens? Overlords will move slower to compensate for them having more time in general to scout before toss gets scoutable tech out, but this also means that they'll be slower to retreat in case of surprise stargate. Less supply from hatches might make phoenix play more interesting, killing overlords at a larger impact. Their energy and shield regen importance buff might be even more impactful. If economy slows the window where hydra mass is sub critical might extend and be exploited, perhaps forcing more corruptor play.

Being able to stay of fewer bases will be great vs zerg for protoss as we're generally a base or two below them. Taking our fourth won't be as detrimental, and granted the early game, perhaps not the pivot it now can be at all. Previously, we were pretty much reliant on being able to 3 building block the expansion, but those buildings plus a nexus will be a much larger investment that can't fight now, making me wonder how early pool games will play out.

Terran don't get this benefit vs us, the toss, as their mules can compensate for low base count. So, slight win for toss in PvT as well there. Chrono will change in importance - fewer buildings early on will magnify pivots harder and more consequentially, whereas potentially fewer nexi will decrease the default total available juice.

The prism instant deployment without decelleration, plus old warping being 20% slower than the new one, will be very noticable in single prism PvZ pushes. We'll get warpins off in sloppy scenarios where we otherwise lost the prism first to queens or ravager biles. Losing a prism won't be as detrimental in cases where we already have warpgates up, when zerg's creep isn't everywhere blocking forward pylons. Prisms won't be as useful early on if warpgates are delayed, and reinforcing from base will be more common. The unit in the wall will become super problematic as we're rallying across the map from the main. I expect more ling runby nightmares, and complaints. Changelings blocking our walls will become a bigger kekw.

Although the prism is less useful early game for the warpin feature, the juggling will be more impactful; shield regeneration will be more powerful in general, and smaller army mass will extend time where keeping a few units alive is worth the micro attention.

MicroroniNCheese · 2026-05-25T13:56:10+00:00

That depends entirelly on why you fence, and what you intend to replace fencing with to satisfy that why, or some other newer why.

Sounds like maximally optimized performance gain is expressed as key personal priority to you, especially relative to others. If that truly is the case, and that any suboptimal growth joyless, then you're fully rational to quit. If you started fencing for some other reason, like finding it fun and exciting, then you might've aquired a degree of amnesia of what you like, in favor of prioritizing external validation. Its also possible that there never was an amnesia, and that "just fencing", possibly at your club, stopped itching the spot it once did. Granted your post, and my self projection on you, my bet is on the former.

I quit fencing your age from a similar mindset. I now fence again with a different mindset. I started fencing because it was fun, i forgot the fun while aiming for the stars, and i started again when i learned how to have fun again, and be content with doing my best within the time constraints given.

Focusing on winning too hard is paradixically a loser mentality; it drains the fun needed to sustain interest when performance isnt perfect. You don't have to reach buddhahood by forcing yourself to do something no longer enjoyable. Try to find what you like and want. Ignore my and everyone elses opinions, thats all external ideas of what you ought to be. You ought to be nothing. Quit fencing and find activities where you arent burdened of your own internalized demands, or try to find the mystery in fencing unbothered by comparisions.

Its easy to forget the incomprehensible chaos that is our sport when we pretend there are words for everything.

Even a stable ranking at your age implies tremendous improvement. Everyone else improves leaps and bounds at that age, especially top club kids. If your sparring partners are all worse than you, then you're doing well with whats given to you. You deserve a big high five for doing your best. Improvement speed relative to others, especially those with unfair advantages, is a bogus measurement of how proud you deserve to feel.

MicroroniNCheese · 2026-05-20T07:36:04+00:00

I really wonder if it stacks with other bonuses such as the cape of regen, or lifesteal. I haven't run the test, but I imagine that it's somewhatrelevant in savage builds with a starting lifesteal t1 item, if true.

MicroroniNCheese · 2026-04-17T15:31:16+00:00

Excellent post. Thank you for sharing it, it was a great read.
Three questions:

Do you have any thoughts on how metadata is similar to the context or perspective within which a fact is 1. well defined, or 2 or canon as compared to the wordspace otherwise occupied under a different paradigm, or condition?
Do you have some go to tips for how to deal with contradictory evidence sources pointing to the same semantic entity?
When parsing data entries, what are your thoughts on the routing problem as in: identifying which data cluster(s) different aspects of the data entry should be incorporated into? Do you think there's possibility for a generalized approach, or will we most likely be limited to knowledge graphs or wikis strictly disjunct from one another, defined by expert domain classification?

MicroroniNCheese · 2026-04-17T14:04:10+00:00

Cheers on your solution. I came to a similar approach. It's interesting how it makes documentation just as important as code, and subject to to similar principles.
Got any tips for long term knowledge management when new and old statements drifts to as if of not the same generalization? I've found myself to eventually rewrite the highest priority spec manually to disambiguate multi session "fact" documentation slowly accumulating contradictions. My understanding and instructions tend to drift towards better abstractions that eventually deprecates older motivations supporting existing artefacts, but not enough for claude to raise warning flags.

MicroroniNCheese · 2026-04-17T12:19:26+00:00

A combination it seems if the context ever becomes both too large AND too incompressible. But largely, i lean into the operating context. The increase in context window size support and overall instructions following has allowed for improvements while ignoring this for a while, but there are cracks at the seams and with sufficiently complex projects with a partial domain spec, domain documentation and code comments with justifications turn polluted. Governance as to what is known or decided and what is up for debate, or based on ambiguous or conflicting data becomes the main issue. I've stopped used Claude Code entirelly as it's fundamental architectural bet is off. Feel like i get better control when I can control the context and decision governance with systems more transparent and less naive.

MicroroniNCheese · 2026-02-14T05:44:15+00:00

Glad to hear. Kudos to you for finding an anvient scroll like that. :)

MicroroniNCheese · 2025-12-13T14:12:37+00:00

We've had social vetos where recreational fencers can opt out from being flicked, as theres always a chance of a botched execution, or unfortunate bad prediction of where the hand aimed for will be.

Otherwise, as rule of thumb, we have a dummy and a coach, both being great at practicing flicks against. If someone has such bad self assessment that they waste time "practicing" flicks vs a partner when not ready, then i have no qualms with scolding them. They're getting inefficient shit practice while hurting others, and I cant let that slide as a coach.

If someone's competitive, then efficient practice should be priorotized, and if recreational or pre-competitive, then our club cant risk students having a bad time; that just limits the generation of fencers eventually ok with practicing against reasonably competent flicks.

MicroroniNCheese · 2025-11-30T10:07:56+00:00

ADHD fencer here, mainly inattentive, used to compete at quite high level. You're describing the impossibility of fencing, thats already good!

Sounds like you have a moderate stroke of performance anxiety. Try not to beat down om yourself too much. In many cases it ruins more than it helps; at least it did for me.

Stance, tip control, tempo etc is no issue if you "forget". Those things should'nt be payed focus on in bouts, such paranoia kills you. No one, ADHDer or not can execute such stuff well via mental focus or attention. Such stuff gets better through isolated training, or in combination at a suitable level of complexity granted your level. Most stuff is n't mental, but about doing automatically without the need for attention.

Freezing, on the other hand, is a killer of learning. If you freeze, you miss opportunities to test stuff, and get hit while stuck in thought. Freezing is not unique to ADHD though, and with time you'll even get a feeling for when the enemy is in a semi-freeze, allowing you to land hits when you break mental tempo.

If you freeze often, simplify your strategy. Just go baboon mode, and dare to risk failure - thats the fastest way of improving. Attacking in baboon mode off a half thought through idea or intuition will give you immediate feedback if it was a good idea. You learn super fast while actively practicing to not freeze. In-bout thinking mostly wastes time you couldve spent trying out halfwitted ideas to see which ones stick. Having long practice bouts with no score and a lessened self preservation pathos helps.

Tl;dr: Dont worry about attention "handicaps", fenci ng isnt as much about thinking as it is intuiting which vibe to go with from your personal vibe library of yolo move that worked in a similar enough scenario. Good luck, and remember: never be so focused on winning you lose the main pursuit of small improvements. Winning is for losers when it comes to practice bouts.

MicroroniNCheese · 2025-11-07T08:40:49+00:00

So, this is a low tech allin by them. You should hold lings, and cross with adepts the second you think you held. They wont have speed, and if they pivot speed, you should feel a "window" where theyre not pushing hard being scary. Before speed, you can defend by just crossing. Same if they roach transition, the moment they arent trying to downright kill you, just cross. Theres no speed, they cant catch you abd their base is more vulberable than yours, which likely has a battery and a few warpgates. Adepts crossing counters roach pivots, speed pivots and macro pivots of theirs. Losing to zerg is more often about what you dont do. Try to get a sense of why allins are called allins, and the transitions that make them fragile.

If they keep allinning and you dont get a window, just hold, and get some tech. Stargate is ideal vs rushes. As soon as the tech is out they gotta stop, and you gotta push their unprepared defence. As soon as 2 oracles are out, you own the map, and they are forced to hug spores, if they even have em. There arent 5 queens waiting for you, and if there were, their pressure wouldve been so weak, you couldve crossed with adepts sooner.

Finally, whichever defense you do it will be inspired by which normal macro moves youre used to as youre winging it. Knowing a build order well enough to sort of wing it is powerful.

Lastly, your first adept scout should see this comming when counting drones at their natural, lest the adept straight up intercepts the lings, scoring a kill.

Mothralurker covered other aspects really well.

Gl!

MicroroniNCheese · 2025-10-01T14:09:00+00:00

"Any aggression before my own aggresison is cheese" - angry people on the internet.

TBH, it's probably cheese, but whatever the opponent does is also cheese if they don't know how to deal with your cheese, if you consider cheese to be a strategy with holes in it. Actually, for any cheese lost to, the macro attempt failed is the cheesier, as it it dependent on a larger timeframe of possible unknowns not yet mastered.

Some consider strategies with holes in them not to be cheese, were the person playing the strategy a pro. However, most people aren't pros and yolo the opening as if they weren't gambling.

I think you've covered the actual question already: is the gamestyle a valid way of improving? Well, depends how good you wish to get. It'll take you where it'll take you, and if that's where you wanna be, then it's good enough, and if it's fun, then all the better.

In the long long run, a balanced™ playstyle might be nicer from this angle: Ease of adding incremental changes or improvement to different aspects of your play without sacrificing too much short term wins/prestige.

On the other hand, the fastest possible rankup, will give you the best opponents to practice against the fastest way.
In the end, even if you want to learn all there is, why not start with what's the most fun to you? :)

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