Why are 4v4s so different from any other quick match mode?

If you've played a 4v4 before, you probably know what I'm talking about. Protoss players are almost guaranteed to cannon rush or turtle up and mass Void Rays. There is a 99.9% chance of Reapers if playing against Terran players. And Zerg players will flood your base with early Speedlings. It's a cheese-fest!

My real-life friends and I often play team games, and we've managed to get into at least Gold league for 2v2s and 3v3s multiple times with different combinations of players. However, when we first tried a 4v4 we got placed into Bronze league, partially because one friend needed to update his graphics card so he had a really bad frame rate, and partially because there was so much cheese we just weren't expecting.

After my one friend got his computer fixed up we tried 4v4s again, but replaced one player with another friend (the one who was replaced just wasn't online, and the one who had replaced him had been on vacation, I have five real-life friends that play Starcraft 2). This time we got into Silver league.

I just don't understand why 4v4s are so much different than other team games. Are there any tips to win them? We can't really come up with specific strategies since half of us play random. What have you found to be successful in 4v4s? Do we just have to cheese as well and see who wins?

 

4v4s are hilarious. I just went mass ravens for auto turret drop. 8 ravens=64 auto turrets=base and two expos plus army dead. People cheese in 4v4 because they assume they can get away with it. Punish them. Most of those cheesy strats leave their base devoid of defense, capitalize on that and roflstomp the cheesers

 

4v4s are more often than not annoying as hell, especially when playing on Extinction. I find it even more annoying because my real-life friends have taken to telling me I suck with Zerg when I'm the one that gets rushed half the time (and it literally IS half the time too - I've been saving the replays).

 

Somewhat OT but can I get a copy of one of the replays (the one you think is most taxing on the system)? I've been looking for a 4v4 I can use for benchmarking. Thanks!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3ygZrJczM8 hahhaha QUAD PROXY D