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League of Legends dictionary: the key terms to help up your game
Do you know your LoL slang? It's time to brush up and check your knowledge of the key terms, acronyms, phrases and slang words that are a must-know for any League of Legends player.
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Drawing in over 115 million monthly players across the globe, the popularity of online game League of Legends shows no signs of stopping and its cultural impact continues to expand. For those just getting into LoL, a game of this size has a lot of nuances that can't possibly be explained in-game through a chat function, and requires more than just loading screen tips to fully understand.
Old and new players alike can benefit from a resource that lists and explains key terms, phrases and slang that's important to know as you tackle the Summoner's Rift.
That's why we've rounded up some of the most vital terms, phrases and words that all LoL players should know, from general gaming terms to those specific to League of Legends itself.
Ace
Referring to a situation where one team eliminates all the opposing team's champions in a single fight. All five enemy champions need to be killed for it to be considered an ace.
AD
Standing for Attack Damage, this is a core stat that affects the physical damage that champions deal with basic (auto) attacks and certain abilities.
ADC
An ADC (Attack Damage Carry) is usually in reference to the marksman class, a long-ranged carry who goes into the bottom lane with a support and plays in the back during fights. Some marksmen fall into this term even though they do the same, or sometimes more, magic damage as they do physical (think Kaisa, Kogmaw on-hit Varus, etc). The term is often used interchangeably with bottom laner, which can sometimes be mage classes that get flex-picked into an off-role. In these cases, people often refer to the bottom laner as an APC (Ability Power Carry), which means a magic damage-dealing carry.
AFK
An abbreviation for 'Away from keyboard', this describes a player who's not actively playing the game, either because they're physically away from their computer, intentionally not participating in gameplay, or is disconnected.
BD
Abbreviation for 'backdoor'. If the team is struggling, a player can split from the group and try to finish the game alone.
BG
An acronym for 'bad game'. It's usually used to indicate that the game is not enjoyable. Players often use it at the end of a frustrating or disappointing game.
Ability Haste
Instead of directly reducing cooldown time (as the old system of cooldown reduction did), it increases the rate at which cooldowns recover. See also: CDR.
Aggro
This refers to attracting the turret's or neutral monster's aggressive attention. This differs slightly to the meaning of aggro in games in general, focusing on PvE (player vs environment aspects). When you 'aggro' a tower or minion, they will attack you. This can be helpful for setting up ganks (surprise attacks) or last hitting minions for gold, but it can also be dangerous if you're not prepared.
ARAM
All Random, All Mid (or ARAM) is a game mode where there's only one lane, champions gain gold faster, level up quicker and everyone starts at level three, so fighting can begin immediately. It's a more chill game mode, where both teams take turns losing fights and taking towers until one team wins a big fight and pushes for victory shortly after. The games are much shorter than the ones in Summoner’s Rift and don't require nearly as much focus, as minions kills and cross-map players are unimportant. Sometimes, one team is just blessed with better champions and stomps the enemy team within 15 minutes.
Area of Effect (AoE)
A term used for the area in which an attack or ability reaches and covers. An AoE ability can hit multiple targets and is often considered a very powerful, and even game-changing ability, where chaining them together perfects creates the fabled wombo combo.
AP
'Ability power' – this is a core stat that affects the damage and effects of abilities used by champions.
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AS
'Attack speed' – this is a stat that affects how quickly a champion can perform basic (auto) attacks. Higher AS allows a champion to perform these basic attacks more frequently within a time frame to deal more overall damage through basic attacks.
Assassin
Used for champions such as Akali, Zed and Katarina, assassins are a class of champions known for their high burst damage and surprise attacks.
B (back)
This is the recall function all players have that allows them to instantly return to their base after standing still and channelling the spell for a total of eight seconds. You can access this by pressing the Recall button right by your champion's portrait or just by pressing the B key on your keyboard. Any damage or displacement will cancel the recall and require them to start the process again.
Backseat gaming
This term means to tell someone how to play a game and where to go while not actually being the one in charge. The person backseat gaming often wants to be the one playing instead of the person in control. While backseat gaming doesn’t affect everybody who plays video games, as an audience is needed, it affects a majority of streamers and content creators.
Bait
The act of setting a trap for an opponent champion by baiting them with the help of the jungler.
Ban
This is used to remove a champion you don't want in ranked games, as well as remove players who insult, cheat, or otherwise violate the Summoner's law in-game.
Baron/Nashor/Nash
Full name 'Baron Nashor', this is the most powerful purple-coloured creature of the Rift. Defeating him grants a significant buff (temporary boost) to the entire victorious team.
Blind pick
This means choosing a champion before your enemy laner does. This can be very bad if the enemy picks a counter to your champion, so blind picking is often something considered risky unless the champion you choose is insanely OP. Blind picking can also be useful when choosing a strong flex pick, forcing the enemy into picking a counter that may or may not be useful or letting a powerful blind pick go unpunished. See also: OP.
Blue
Used in the phrase 'blue power up', this refers to the Blue Buff, a beneficial buff granted by killing the Blue Sentinel monster on the bottom side of the jungle.
Bot
The name given to the bot lane in Summoner's Rift. Used as a shorthand way to refer to the champions typically played in the bottom lane.
Brb
An acronym for 'be right back' – simple.
Buff
A temporary enhancement granted to a champion, minion, or neutral monster. Buffs typically improve a character's performance in some way, making them stronger or granting them beneficial effects.
Build
The combination of items purchased throughout the game. This build significantly impacts a champion's stats, abilities and overall play style.
Burst
A large amount of damage inflicted in a very short period. This damage typically comes from a champion's abilities and is often used to quickly eliminate squishy targets (champions with low health and defenses) like Marksmen (ADCs) or Mages. See also: ADC.
Bush/ brush
Both refer to the tall, grassy terrain found on the map that blocks the line of sight of champions and wards.
Care
A call to be careful – a threat is approaching. When someone calls, it may mean that an opposing jungler is close to your lane.
Carry
Usually players who play well and had a dominant performance e.g. "I carried this game." It can also refer to a champion who scales well into the late game, becoming more powerful as the game progresses. Carries are usually champions that deal the most damage or have a significant impact on team fights later on.
CC
'Crowd control' is used to describe abilities that knock opposing champions out of the game, such as fixing and stunning. For example, Blitzcrank's Rocket Grab is a CC tool, because it stuns the opponent.
CD
'Cooldown' refers to the number of seconds of the waiting period after using an ability before you can use it again.
CDR
Now known as Ability Haste since season 11 of Lol, the old system stands for 'cooldown reduction' – meaning that the cooldown time is directly reduced by a percentage.
Counter jungle
The act of stealing the opponent's jungle camps, so the opponent jungler falls behind in level and gold.
Crit
Abbreviation for 'critical status'. It's a random chance for a basic attack to deal significantly more damage than usual.
Creeps (and CS)
This term counts the number of lane minions and jungle monsters a player has killed. This is important to keep track of, because it is a direct way to compare how the laners and the junglers are stacking up against each other. A higher CS/min score usually means you won lane unless you lose a bunch of early 1v1s. About 15 minions are generally worth the same amount of gold as a solo kill.
DC
Disconnected, or dropping out of the game, is when a player leaves the game because of connection problems.
Debuff
Power-ups that restrict or reduce a champion's stats. For example, Malphite's Ground Slam slows enemies caught in its area of effect.
Deny
Used by players to describe specific actions that prevent the enemy team from gaining resources or advantages. For example, when a player successfully lands the last hit on a minion, denying the enemy laner that gold and experience. It can be referred to as a 'deny'.
Dive
An aggressive manoeuvre where a champion pursues an enemy champion under the protection of their turret.
DPS
Damage per second. Champions with high DPS are known as carry champions, because they become very powerful later in the game and can significantly impact team fights.
Drag/ Drake
Both refer to 'dragon'. The dragon is a crucial objective throughout the mid and late-game stages of LoL. Defeating it grants a permanent buff to all team members, stacking with each subsequent dragon kill. These buffs become increasingly powerful as the game progresses.
Duo
Two people teaming up and entering the game together. Less commonly, this can mean playing together in a lane.
ELO
This rating system is used in many games (including chess) to determine a player's skill relative to the general player base. Those with higher ELO have a better chance of making it pro. A term used often with ELO is MMR, or Matchmaking Rank, though it's important to note that these two can be different things entirely.
EU > NA
This is a phrase that has been synonymous with Western LoL since Europe's world championship win in season one. For the majority of this game, Europe has been a league or two ahead of North America and recent events will back that up, with Europe making world finals two years in a row in 2018 and 2019, as well as semis in 2020. North America, on the other hand, struggles to make it out of the group stages most years.
Facechecking
This means to enter a bush, the enemy jungle, or the Fog of War without vision of the enemy team. The risk this poses is great, but can also provide a lot of great, relevant information to your team if you ward the area and set up vision. But facechecking often comes with its disasters, as most LoL players can attest. Weigh the risk before you decide to check that bush and decide whether or not you can even take that fight if things go sour.
Farm
The action of killing enemy minions (creeps) for gold and experience.
FB
Referring to the first champion kill of the game. This can provide a significant early game advantage for the team that secures it.
Feed
Feeding is where a champion dies excessively throughout the game, therefore strengthening an opponent. That can be unintentional or intentional (trolling).
Flash on D
This is in reference to the debate of whether or not to play your summoner ability 'Flash' on the D or F keys. While this has mostly devolved into a meme, some debates pop up occasionally about whether you should play with Flash on D or F. An interesting thing of note is that the top Korean pros play with Flash on F, while the top LCS (NA) pros play with Flash on D. Additionally, arguably the greatest LoL player of all time and four-time world champion, T1's Lee 'Faker' Sang-hyeok, plays with Flash on F. When asked about his opinion on Flash on D or F, Faker compares those who play with Flash on D to those who enjoy mint chocolate.
Guaranteed no lag
© Colin Young-Wolff / Riot Games
Focus
To focus on a single target during a battle to quickly getting them out of the way.
Freeze/ Frozen
A specific lane manipulation strategy where you intentionally stall the minion wave in front of your tower. This creates a scenario where the minion wave neither pushes towards the enemy tower nor bounces back to your side.
GA
A 'guardian angel' is a legendary item that provides a powerful resurrection effect.
Gank
A surprise attack by one or more players on an enemy champion, typically in a lane other than their own. The goal of a gank is to kill the enemy champion or force them to back out of lane.
GG/ GJ/ GL/ WP
A variety of ways to express satisfaction or positivity before, during or at the end of the game, respectively meaning, 'good luck', 'good game', 'good job' and 'well played'.
Golem
The neutral monsters – Ancient Golems – located in the jungle on both sides of the map.
Harass
The act of intentionally dealing small amounts of damage to an enemy champion throughout the lane.
Huehuehuehue
A transliteration originating from Brazilian Portuguese of a laugh form that occurs when Mordekaiser is discovered.
Imba
Imbalanced or unbalanced. Used to describe something that's unfairly strong or overpowered. See also: OP.
Initiate
Be the first to attack in a team battle.
Invade
Usually taking the opposing team by surprise by going to the opponent's jungle at the beginning of the game.
IP
Prior to season 11 of LoL, this was the in-game currency used to buy champions, standing for 'Influence Points'.
Juke
An attempt by a champion to deceive their opponent and avoid being hit by a skillshot or an attack. The goal of a juke is to misdirect your enemy and make them waste their abilities or lose track of you, allowing you to escape a potentially dangerous situation.
Jungler
A jungler is a champion role specifically focused on controlling the jungle area of the map. The jungle is a large, forested area between the top, mid and bottom lanes that contains various neutral monsters and objectives.
Jungler never ganks
A frustrated expression used when you haven't seen your team's jungle for a period of time, while the enemy laner and jungler are pressuring to tower dive you. The term is also used when the jungler camps bot-side all game and ignores top lane entirely. While it isn't uncommon for this to happen, this is a term you'll often only hear from salty players (usually top laners) when they lose lane 1v1 or 2v2 on their own. See also: Jungler.
KS
'Kill steal' is the act of a player securing a kill on an enemy champion that another player had significantly damaged.
Kite
Kite means to hit and run. Usually, attack force carriers use this method to kill tanks, so they can cut them down without taking damage.
Lag
Lag is a noticeable delay between an input (pressing a button, clicking on something, etc.) and your champion's action. It can make your champion feel like they’re always a step or two behind everyone else. Lag can ruin games from a consumer's point-of-view, where a game slowing down to a halt drains the fun out of the moment entirely. It's usually owed to dodgy internet connections, which is why big tournaments are played locally with PCs networked together.
Lane freeze
This is when a laner slows down a minion wave's push by influencing which minions attack which minions. This requires strategically last-hitting minions (only attacking them at the last second for the gold) so that you can keep the enemy laner stuck in one position. This is to both place the enemy laner in position for a potential allied gank or to keep them out of range for XP and gold from killion minions.
Lifesteal
Lifesteal is an offensive statistic that grants you healing based on a percentage of the physical damage you deal with your basic attacks.
Meta
The current most effective strategies and tactics used by players at a high level.
Metasheep
Used to describe a player who blindly follows the meta without any critical thinking or personal preference.
MIA/ Miss/ SS
'Missing in action' or 'missing' – these terms are used to communicate to your team-mates that an enemy champion is not visible in their lane.
Mid
'Mid lane' – the specific lane located in the middle of the map. It's a crucial lane in LoL as it provides a direct path to the enemy base and offers access to important neutral objectives like Dragon. See Drag/Drake.
Minion
Minions are the computer-controlled units that spawn periodically from each team's Nexus and travel down the three lanes (top, mid, and bottom) on the map. They are essentially the foot soldiers in the constant battle between the two opposing teams.
MS
'Movement speed' – a stat that affects how fast your champion can move around the map.
Nerf
Nerfing is used to describe when a champion, item or ability is weakened by Riot Games, the game's developer. This is done to maintain balance within the game and prevent any single element from becoming over-powered (OP). See also: OP.
Noob/ Newb/ Newbie/ Nub/ Nab
All can be used for players who are new to the game and don't know how to play yet.
Amateur League of Legends players can battle it out 1v1 at Red Bull Solo Q
© KREW Collective / Red Bull Content Pool
OOM
'Out of Mana' signifies that a champion has depleted their mana pool and can no longer cast any abilities that require mana.
OP
'Overpowered' – to describe a champion, item, ability or strategy that's considered too strong compared to others in the game.
Overextending
The act of overstepping the bounds by going too far in the corridor. It usually results in the opponent coming and killing you.
Offtank
An offtank is a champion who possesses characteristics of both a tank and a damage dealer. They primarily serve the role of absorbing some enemy damage during team fights, but also contribute decent damage output themselves.
Passive
Every champion in LoL has a unique passive ability. This ability is always active and doesn't require any specific action to trigger. These passive abilities provide various benefits and enhance a champion's strengths or offer unique mechanics.
Penta – getting it stolen
One of the worst feelings in the game is popping off in a team fight and hearing the announcer call out a triple kill followed by a quadra kill just to have a team-mate land the final blow and steal all your glory. A penta kill is when you kill the entire enemy team before any of them respawn, which doesn't happen often. No such in-game achievements exist outside of your rank, so penta kills are always a beautiful thing. Getting a penta kill is the ultimate ego boost and gives you many bragging rights, so getting it stolen by your team-mate is one of the biggest forms of betrayal in LoL.
Pink
'Pink Ward', also known as a Control Ward or Vision Ward, are the essential vision control tools used to deny enemy vision and secure your own.
Poke
A tactic used by ranged champions to harass and weaken enemy champions from a distance with minimal risk to themselves. See also: harrass.
Push
You can use it to give yourself the advantage of raiding other lanes by pushing the lane.
QSS
'Quicksilver sash' is an item that removes all crowd control effects on you.
Ragequitter
An adjective used for players who get angry and quit the game
Red
A 'red buff' refers to the buff granted by the Red Brambleback, a neutral monster located in the jungle area on the Summoner's Rift map.
RGB everything
This is a popular meme in PC gaming because of the trend to give hardware the ability to change colours: be it mice, keyboards, headsets, GPUs or even mousepads. The trend got so ridiculous that gaming gear companies started releasing things with an RGB function just for the sake of it. The term means Red Green Blue and is used in many areas, but it functions as a meme specifically for PC gaming.
Roam
A champion that arranges visits to lanes other than their own lane to temporarily assist.
Silence
The situation where the opponent cannot use his abilities. Kassadin and Malzahar have silencing abilities.
Skillshot
An ability that requires aiming to hit its target. These abilities are different from targeted abilities, which automatically hit an enemy champion you click on.
Snowballing
A snowball effect, meaning that a champion is constantly getting stronger and unstoppable after getting in kills, picking up momentum as they go.
Split push
A strategy where a champion applies pressure in a side lane (top or bottom) by pushing the minion wave towards the enemy tower while the rest of the team focuses on other objectives or map control.
Stack
Gradually accumulating an effect or bonus on a champion or item by repeatedly performing a specific action. These stacks typically have a cap (maximum number) and provide increasing benefits as the number of stacks grows. For example, Nasus' Q ability accumulates charge and deals more damage as he takes the final hit.
Sustain
Referring to high health and mana regeneration, therefore the champion's capacity to stay in the lane without returning to base. While Akali doesn't have much, Vladimir is a champion with high sustain due to his Q ability.
Tank
A champion role primarily focused on absorbing damage and front-lining for their team. They are the sturdy guardians who stand at the forefront of battle, soaking up enemy attacks and abilities to protect their more fragile teammates like mages and marksmen. Malphite or Sion are examples of these.
Tower dives
A tower dive is when multiple players go after an enemy player while under their tower’s protection, ignoring the damage it deals, while trying to juggle the turret's aggro and kill the opponent all at once. This is something that shouldn’t be attempted unless the enemy is very low on HP and you and your team are well coordinated, or you’re just so strong that you can ignore the turret’s damage anyway.
TP
Short for 'teleport'. This is a summoner spell. Teleport allows you to channel for a short duration and then teleport to a targeted location.
Trade
To barter. It's usually used for one-on-one trades with the champion in front of you in lane. Profiting from small trades allows you to take the lane pressure into your hands.
Trash talking in all-chat
All-chat is the function you use to speak to all players, enemies and allies alike. It's not uncommon to see people trash-talking or flaming in all-chat when things don’t go their way, they get disrespected by their opposing laner, or someone on their team feeds a lot of kills and tower gold away. Riot Games regularly dishes out chat bans to trash talkers and flamers who use this feature liberally.
Troll
People who troll the game. They take irrelevant champions in ridiculous roles, causing you to lose the game.
Twitch chat knows best
Twitch chat can be very polarising, with some liking it and others disliking it enough to turn it off every stream. Streamers, in particular, can view Twitch chat differently depending on their community or the game's community. This term is in reference to how easy it is to be Captain Hindsight when you're a viewer and not the person playing, criticising them for their choices or mistakes.
T1 endorse Flash on F
© Colin Young-Wolff / Riot Games
Ultimate
A champion's most powerful ability, also known as their R ability. Unlocked at level 16, it's often the most game-changing ability in your champion's arsenal.
Unique passive
A special type of passive ability that has two key characteristics. Champion Specific means exclusive to a particular champion and provides them with an ongoing benefit or effect. It's not an item effect or something that can be shared with other champions. Non-Stacking means you can't gain multiple instances of the same unique passive effect. Even if you acquire items with similar-sounding passives, only the strongest effect applies.
Wave
A group of minions that travel down each lane on the map. See also: Minions.
Zone
Zoning refers to the act of using your positioning and abilities to force an enemy champion out of a specific area or prevent them from doing something they want to do.
1-3-1 and 1-4
Some terms go hand-in-hand with split-pushing (pushing multiple lanes as a team). 1-3-1 is a setup where three team-mates push mid, while the other two push the top and bottom lanes. This tactic works well if both solo-lane players have their Teleport summoner ability ready. 1-4 is similar, but it has four members pushing mid (usually to set up vision around map objectives) and one pushing a solo lane, to draw attention to the person who is alone so that the other four team-mates can trade the kill for an important objective, tower or inhibitor.
What a very high ELO looks like
© Colin Young-Wolff / Riot Games
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