I'm curious about everyone's thought on the subject, so I'm going to copy-paste something I wrote for somewhere else. I know most of you play RTSes, but bear with me in case some don't.
I hate rushing. It's true.
For those of you who don't play Real Time Strategy (RTS) games, a "rush" is when you dump every resource into making a group of your most basic offensive unit and "rush" it into the opponent's base. The idea is to get the units in before he has a chance to build something to repel them. This applies in most RTSes, but Starcraft made it famous with the Zerg rush, since the Zerg have quick-building units called zerglings that are basically paper with claws. The lings could be run into the enemy base and cause havoc if they weren't repelled. Nowadays I think that Protoss is more infamous for it with the Zealot rush.
Before someone starts calling "noob" on me, yes, I know that I suck at Starcraft. I am simply horrible. Yes, I know that it's relatively easy to repel a rush if you work quickly and skillfully. That's not what I'm talking about.
I've always viewed RTSes as complex thought games in disguise, or as I like to call it, "Exploding Chess". A proper player needs to have an extraordinary sense of awareness and must be able to use everything at his disposal to defeat his enemy. It's really an elegant game, if you look past the gore.
This elegance is what drives me mad about rushing. It's such a barbaric tactic, one that leaves no room for alteration if the plan goes wrong. A proper player would never put every chip into a single hand unless he was positive that he would win, something that a rusher never knows. In short, it's a stupid tactic.
However, that's not the biggest problem. I view it as if a chess player were to simply attack with every single non-pawn he had, regardless of the consequences, in the hope that he might win. Yes, it might occasionally work, but it usually won't and you're a complete dick for even trying. The name of the game is strategy, you're supposed to make a clever, longer-term plan to trick your opponent into letting you win, not simply taking everything you have and throwing it at them. In fact, that is the reason why I like Starcraft: unlike every other RTS, where most of the battles are simply building up the most offensive units and throwing them at each other, SC requires a lot of thought and manipulation. It's the smart man's RTS.
And yet, these rushers defile it, and it drives me mad. I don't care if it's a "legitimate tactic", or if it's "avoidable", it's still utter crap. For all you "normal gamers" who stick to the MW2-alikes, think of rushers as the guy who sprints around knifing everyone. Yes, it works and you could stop him, but he's still a dick for trying.
It's funny. I actually enjoy losing, if I fall victim to a clever plan. For example, I was playing in the beta oh so long ago against a Protoss player. Of course, I was worse at SC then than I am now, an amazing feat of failure, and didn"t keep a unit to watch my base entrance. The player was able to sneak a Gateway (Protoss unit-producing building) into the front of my base and started popping out Zealots, completely unknown to me. By the time I had blocked off my ramp, it was already too late. I got cocky and got screwed. I applauded the man on this cleverness, said "gg", then surrendered. (Note: This wasn't a rush tactic, he had a base building back home).
This is, of course, different than the guy who simply built three gateways and popped out a ton of zealots, destroyed one of my supply depots blocking the ramp (I play Terran, obviously) and overwhelmed my Marines that I had made since I had sunk money into building a factory instead of a thousand marines. I just told that guy to learn how to play a real game and quit.
In short, rushers, screw you.
