Terms That Every LoL Player Should Know

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League of Legends Terms

This glossary was created to be a dedicated reference for current and future players who are looking to keep up with discussion both in-game and out of game.

This list will be updated over time so please let me know if we missed anything that you think should be included in the comments!

I recommend using Ctrl + F if you’re looking for a specific term or want to navigate quickly.

LoL Terminology

1-3-1

• A split push set up formation you have one team member at Top, three team members at Mid, and one team member at Bot.

1-4

• A split push formation where you have one team member at a side lane and four team members in another lane.

ADC

• An abbreviation for attack damage carry.
• In recent times, has also been called “Bot carry” due to non-ADC champions such as mages and melee champions being used in the role.

AFK

• Away from keyboard
• Doing something mindlessly
  • Example – “Stop afk farming”

All-in

• To commit all your resources (like abilities, cooldowns, summoner spells) to kill an enemy.

APC

• An abbreviation for ability power carry.

Area of Effect (AoE)

• An ability or effect that can hit multiple targets at once.

Autofill

• When you queue and are assigned a role you don’t play.
• Example:
  • You queue as a Top primary and Mid secondary but you’re given Support.

B (back)

• Can be used as a command meaning to “retreat”
  • Example: “We should b, this isn’t a good fight for us”
• Can be used to indicate a Recall
  • Example: “I’m out of wards, need to b”

Balance

• The act of Riot trying to make the game feel fairer through buffs, nerfs, and other changes.

Baron Nashor

• A neutral monster that spawns at either 19:45 or 19:55 depending on if Rift Herald was slain or idle (19:45) or being contested (19:55).
• Slaying Baron Nashor grants Hand of Baron, one of the most powerful buffs on Summoner’s Rift.
• Usually called either “Baron” or “Nashor”.

Blind pick

• An early pick in champ select. It’s “blind” because you leave your champion open to be counter-picked.

Blue buff

• Refers to Crest of Insight, the temporary buff you receive when killing the Blue Sentinel or an enemy who had the buff.
• Grants bonus mana regen or energy regen.
• Also known as just “blue”

BORK / BotRK

• Abbreviation for Blade of the Ruined King.

Bounty

• A gold reward for killing a player who has a gold lead due to getting kills or a farm lead.

BT

• Abbreviation for Bloodthirster.

Buff

1. An ability that empowers you or your ally, usually through increasing stats.
2. A balance change that makes a champion stronger during a patch.

Bot laner

1. As a plural, “bot laners” refers to the carry + Support combo for a team found in bot lane.
2. As a singular, “bot laner” usually refers to the carry laner of bot lane. See ADC.

Burst

• To deal a large amount of damage instantly with an attack or an ability.

Camp

1. A spawn location of a jungle monster or monsters.
2. To repeatedly gank the same lane.
   • Example: The Lee Sin camped top lane to keep the enemy Nasus behind.

Champion pool

• A rotation of champions that a player uses to climb and/or is known for playing.
• Typically consists of a main, a secondary in case the main is banned or taken, and a counterpick against champions that are good into the main and secondary.

Cheese

• To use an unconventional and/or unpredictable strategy to win.
• The strategy itself may not be that strong (aka can easily be countered if you expect it) but can have high pay-offs if it works.

Cooldown (CD)

• Represents the downtime after the activation of an ability during which an ability cannot be casted.
• For example, at skill level 1, casting Thresh’s W, Dark Passage, will put it on a 22-second cooldown until it can be used again.

Crowd control

• Also known as “CC”.
• Effects that hinder a champion’s ability to move or act, such as stuns, slows, and knockups.

Counter pick

• A champion pick that is chosen to create a favorable matchup against an already picked enemy champion.

Creeps

• Lane minions or jungle monsters (usually refers to smaller monsters).

Creep Score (CS)

• The number of minions, monsters, and other things (such as wards) that a player has killed.

Dive

• To look to kill an opponent while they are in range of their turret.

Damage over time (DoT)

• An ability, attack, or effect which deals damage over time.

Damage per second (DPS)

• Damage per second.

Double buff

• When a player simultaneously has blue buff and red buff.

Dragon (Drake)

• At 5 minutes, a random elemental drake will spawn (either earth, air, infernal, or ocean). Once slain, another drake will spawn after 5 minutes, this continues until after 35 minutes – which is when the Elder Drake spawns (see Elder Drake).

Early game

• Refers to the first 10-15 minutes of a match when the Top, Mid, and Bot laners focus on farming and laning against their lane opponent.
• It usually ends and becomes mid game when a turret falls.
• Also known as the laning phase.

Elder Drake

• A more powerful dragon that spawns after 35 minutes (5 minutes after last dragon is slain).
• After being slain, another Elder Dragon will spawn after 6 minutes.
• The Elder Drake grants the Aspect of the Dragon buff which grants a true damage burn and empowers any elemental buffs that a team has.
• See Dragon (Drake).

ELO

• Refers to a skill rating system originally created for chess by Arpad Elo.
• In the early days of League (before Season 3), the Elo system was used for the ranked ladder.
• Since the current LP system was introduced, “ELO” now usually refers to a general segment of ranked skill level, usually referring as low ELO = Iron to Plat and high ELO = Diamond to Challenger.

Farm

• The act of last-hitting a minion or jungle monster to collect gold and experience.

Facecheck

• To enter a bush or fog of war without vision.

Fed

• When a champion is ahead in gold, levels, and/or kills so that they are much stronger than the enemy team.

Focus

• To prioritize damage onto a specific target.
• “Their Master Yi is fed, we should focus him”

Freeze

• A wave management (see term) technique which tries to slow a wave’s push.
• This is usually done to zone (see term) an enemy opponent and prevent them from farming.

Gank

• To ambush a lane (usually with greater numbers) with the intention of landing a kill or burning summoner spells.
• Examples:
  • A jungler ganking top for a 2v1 situation.
  • A Mid laner ganking bot for a 3v2 situation.

Glass cannon

• A champion or build that yields high damage output in exchange for being easy to kill.
• See squishy.

GG

1. Traditionally an abbreviation for “good game”
2. Can sometimes be used ironically to mean “it’s over” when things are going poorly.
3. You’ll also see GGWP for “good game well played”.

GPI

• Refers to the Gamer Performance Index, the core measurement of performance for a League of Legends player.

IBG

• Abbreviation for Iceborn Gauntlet.

IE

• Abbreviation for Infinity Edge.

Jungler

• The League of Legends role that isn’t tied to a particular lane and instead has the freedom to help other lanes and contest jungle camps.

Last-hit

• To get the killing blow on a minion or monster.
• See “farm”

Late game

• Refers to the phase of the game which typically begins after 30 minutes, where champions begin to have most of their items built and begin to reach their power potential.

Leash

• To help a Jungler make their first jungle clear faster by softening up their camp with damage.

Locket

• Refers to Locket of the Iron Solari.

Kite

• To attack while gradually retreating, keeping an opponent out of harm’s reach by using either mobility or CC.

KS

• Kill steal
  • Ideally, you want the gold to go to your carries in League. A Kill Steal occurs when a non-carry takes a kill when they could have likely given it to their carry.
  • Can be intentional but often happens on accident.
• Kill secure
  • When conditions aren’t guaranteed to give a kill to a carry and you ensure that the enemy just dies.

Main

• Refers to a player’s primary role or primary champion that they play or climb with.

Marksman

• A ranged AD carry (ADC) champion that deals attack damage.

Meta

• The perceived “best” in relation to how the game is played and the state of game balance.
• Often refers to champion choices, item and build choices, and team compositions.

MIA

• Acronym for “missing in action”, used when an enemy is not in lane and their location is unknown.
• Also known as “SS”, in EU.

Mid game

• Refers to the state of the game that typically takes place between 15 and 30 minutes where turrets begin to fall, players begin to leave lane and roam, and look to skirmish around the map.

Mid laner

• The League of Legends role that is responsible for the middle lane. This role is expected to do a lot because it influences the center of the map.

One-shot

• To kill a champion in literally one-shot of an ability or attack.

OOM

• Acronym for out of mana.

OP

• Overpowered.
• “Broken” is often used as a synonym.

Pathing

• The route a player takes across the map. It usually refers to a Jungler’s movement while clearing camps but can sometimes refer to other roamers.

PD

• Refers to Phantom Dancer.

Peel

• To position and use abilities in order to protect an ally from enemies.

Permastun

• To use crowd control to the point that it feels like a champion cannot move or act for a long time.

Pick

• When multiple members for one team kill a lone member of the enemy team.

Ping

• To signal using the ping system.

Pink Ward

• Synonym for Control Ward.
• Can be used as a verb in reference to placing a Control Ward.
  • Example: “I pinked Baron and it’s clear, we can start it.”

Phase

• Refers to a specific segment of a League of Legends match. (See Early Game, Mid Game, Late Game, Laning Phase).

Poke

• To deal damage from afar. Can be with an auto-attack or targeted ability, but typically with a skillshot (such as a Nidalee spear, an Ezreal Q, or a Heimerdinger W).

Point-and-click

• An ability that only requires you to click on a target to activate, such as Malzahar’s ultimate and Alistar’s Headbutt.

Powerspike

• When a champion hits a point in the game where they are at their most powerful, whether its due to scaling with items or experience.
• See “scaling”.

Priority (prio)

• Having a minion wave being pushed toward the enemy base rather than being even or towards your own base.

Proc

• To trigger or activate a condition or effect. For example, basic attacks will proc Braum’s passive stacks.

Pull

• To bring the Dragon (or another objective like blue/red buff) to a more favorable position.
• For example, if you’re red team, pulling Dragon out of the pit will make it harder for blue team to get vision over the wall.

Push

• When you auto-attack and use abilities to clear minions as fast as possible. This will help “push” a minion wave away from your base and toward the enemy’s.
• Also known as “shove”.
• See “wave management”.

Quickcast

• A keybind setting that causes abilities to immediately and fire to your cursor upon pressing rather than having to press an ability and then click to shoot.

QSS

• Abbreviation for Quicksilver Sash

Red Buff

• Refers to Crest of Cinders, the temporary buff you receive when killing the Red Brambleback or an enemy who had the buff.
• Grants health regen, causes your basic attacks to slow, and your basic attacks true damage over time.
• Also known as just “red”.

Scaling

• Scaling refers to a champion becoming gradually stronger throughout a match.
• Some champions scale with items and some scale with experience due to their kits.
• Scaling is different for every champion and naturally, some champions scale better than others (some champions are designed to hit their power spike in the early game).

Shove

• See “push” and “wave management”.

SS

• Another version of MIA, used more often in EU.

Single-target

• An ability or effect that only affects one target (as opposed to multiple like AoE).

Skill-shot

An ability that requires you to aim and is not guaranteed like a point-and-click ability.

Skill matchup

• Some champion vs champion matchups have inherent advantages and disadvantages for each champion.
• A skill matchup refers to a champion vs champion matchup where neither champion has a clear advantage and it relies on the individual skill levels of the players to be the deciding factor.

Skirmish

• A fight that consists of any mix of 2v2, 2v3, 2v4 between the two teams.
• Compare to Duel, Pick, and Teamfights

Smartcast

• A keybind setting that will show an ability’s range when its button is held down and fires it upon releasing the button.

Smurf

• A secondary summoner account for a player to play at a lower rank than their main account.
• Often used as a compliment when someone is playing well, “Damn you are smurfing!”

Split-push

• Simultaneously pushing multiple lanes. See 1-3-1 and 1-4.

Squishy

• A champion that is easy to kill due to a lack of total HP or defenses.
• Compare to a “tank”

Summs

• Abbreviation for summoner spells.
• Example: “The Diana burned their summs”, meaning that the Diana used her Flash and Ignite.

Support

• The bot lane role that is paired with the ADC (Bot carry).
• Supports are often champions that scale with experience instead of gold, allowing them to give all minion gold to their partner.

Sustain

• The tendency to stay healthy through regen, healing, or shielding, whether it be through items or abilities.
• Example: Champions like Nami provide sustain through the laning phase because she can heal herself or an ally while trading with her W ability, Ebb and Flow.

Sweep

• To clear an area of vision using a Control Ward or a Sweeper (red trinket).

Synergy

• When two or multiple things compliment each other, often used in reference to champions, item combinations, and team compositions.

Tank (tanky)

• A tank is a champion that is hard to kill due to their stats, ability kit, and/or items.
• Example: Braum is incredibly tanky due to his ability to mitigate damage through increased resistances from his W and blocking projectiles with his E.

Teamfight

• A large scale fight that consists of 3 or more members from each team, such as 3v3, 4v4, 5v5.

Top laner

• The League of Legends role located in the Top lane. This role often involves isolation, one vs one combat, and split-pushing.

TP

• Abbreviation for Teleport.

Trade

• During laning phase, a trade refers to when opposing champions exchange damage between CS’ing.
• A trade can also refer to objectives. For example, if the enemy team is taking Baron and you are unable to contest, you can “trade” by taking Elder Dragon while they take Baron.

True damage

• A type of damage that ignores magic resist, armor, and damage reduction effects such as Braums E.
• True damage can be mitigated through stacking health or using shields.

VODs

• Abbreviation for Video on Demand.
• Usually refers to a replay.

Wave management

• A technique which involves strategically last-hitting or pushing minion waves in order to control the flow of waves.
• This is often done to either allow you to buy time or to prevent an enemy from farming.

Wombo combo

• When multiple team members layer powerful abilities (often ultimates) for devastating impact.

Zone

• To use a champion’s abilities or presence to control an area and prevent or discourage an opponent from entering.

Thanks for reading, let me know if i missed any terms and i will add them! This list of terms will continue to grow and improve over time.