Esports Terminology A-Z: Complete Guide To Gaming Terms And Phrases

Esports is a broad term that refers to competitive video gaming, as well as the growing industry built around it. With it’s growing popularity, diving into esports can be a bit too much for newcomers. The vast amount of information, numerous games and esports terminology, can make it difficult to know where to start.

In this article, we’re going to help you get ahead on the terminology used the most, so you can get a good kick-start into the gaming world. Here are the most commonly used phrases in the industry news and esports, in alphabetical order.

Esports terminology A-Z list

• 3PS/TPS – Third-person shooter.
• 4X – “eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate”, popular subgenre of strategy games.
• Auto Attack – Character’s default attack that does not require special input.
• Aimbot – This is usually in reference to cheating software. Specifically, a software that auto-targets for you faster and more precisely than you normally would.
• AFK – Away From Keyboard. This means you’ve stepped away from your PC and won’t be responsive.
• AoE – This stand for Area of Effect. AoE attack is when damage is inflicted to players over an area.
• Aggro – This term is short for aggression, usually an aggressive type of play.
• Bait – Deceive the enemy into making a mistake or taking an action that puts them at a disadvantage.
• Build – It is the loadout, or the set of attributes used by a player. It can also be the area that a player focuses on in a game.
• Buff – This is a boost to a character’s effectiveness in a patch. It can be dialing up their powers or just them going up in the meta.
• Blink/Flash – Instantly move from one location to another within a short distance. Used for quick escapes, sudden attacks, or repositioning during fights.
• BR – Battle Royale games. Some of the best battle royale games are: PUBG, Fortnite, Warzone, Apex Legends etc.
• Build – It is the loadout or set of items that a player uses.
• Burst – Dealing heavy damage in a short period of time.
• Carry – The main source of damage in the team.
• Casting – Using abilities
• CC (Crowd Control) – Refers to abilities or effects that temporarily hinder or control opponents’ actions, restricting their movement, attacks, spellcasting, etc.
• CCG – Collectible Card Game.
• Comp – Short for competitive. It’s also used as short for “Composition” – specific set of characters that work well together as a team.
• Cooldown – This is a timer that limits your use of specific abilities or weapons. You can use an ability, they may have a 30-second cooldown on using it again.
• CS (Creep Score) – the amount of non-player characters players have killed in the game. Esports terminology mostly used in MOBAs.
• DPS – Damage per Second.
• Denying – To stop your opponent from attacking/killing non-player characters, or to ‘deny’ your enemy killing your teammate.
• Dive – Diving is when a character moves aggressively into a risky position, such as where they are heavily outnumbered.
• DQ – Disqualified.
• DC – Disconnect.
• DLC – Downloadable content.
• F2P – F2P meaning is “free to play”. It’s a game that lets you play for free. Usually, there are optional transactions that support the game.
• Farming – Killing minions (or players) in high numbers, farming their drops or XP.
• Feeding – When a character dies repeatedly to the same enemy or team.
• FF – Finish fast/Forfeit.
• Flaming – Harassing other players, usually via in-game chat.
• FPS – First-Person Shooter. It could also mean frames-per-second though, so pay attention to context.
• FTW – An acronym in the esports terminology for “For The Win”.
• Frag – This can mean getting kills or an objective. Many games include frag grenades as an item, so players can use them in that context as well.
• FoV (Field of View) – The angle or range of vision you see on your screen.
• Fog of War – A certain area where your visibility is limited over enemies’.
• Gank – Ganking is the act of surprising an opponent, and aiming to take advantage of them while they are unprepared.
• GLHF – Stands for “Good Luck Have Fun”, most often used before a game begins.
• GG – Good Game!
• Glass Cannon – A character with heavy damage, but low health. They hit hard, but are easily taken down.
• Griefing – Deliberately trying to annoy or sabotage an enemy player. A form of trolling.
• Grind – To do something repetitively.
• Jebaited
• Harass/Poke – A strategy which involves staying at range and dealing small amounts of damage to your opponent over time.
• HP (Health Points) – Units that define your health in a game.
• HF – Short for “Have Fun”.
• HUD/UI – Head-up display/User Interface. It’s the interface and other icons over the top of your screen.
• Hacks/Hax – In-game cheating using third-party programs.
• Initiate – Starting a fight/gank.
• Inting – Short for intentional, for example when somebody is intentionally feeding and trying to lose the game.
• IGN – In-game name.
• IGL – In-game leader.
• Imba – Imbalanced. Referring to items or characters much stronger than others.
• KDA – Kills, deaths, and assists. In esports, it’s useful for watching a player’s performance.
• KD – Kills-to-death ratio.
• Kiting – Staying at a relatively safe distance from a character chasing. Read our guide on how to kite in LoL for clearer understanding of its meaning.
• Lag – This is where a game stutters due to a poor internet connection.
• Laning – In MOBAs, it is when players head down one lane of the map. Lanes exist in shooter maps, but the terminology is different there.
• Last hit – Dealing the killing blow on an enemy or creep/minion.
• Loot – Items and drops.
• Meta – This is short for the metagame. It’s a shorthand to talk about the balance of the game. This is an esports terminology used for what’s currently at the top of the metagame. If a character is overpowered, they are ‘meta’. Whereas ‘The Meta’ is the metagame.
• Minions/Creeps – Non-player characters in the game.
• MMO – Massively multiplayer online game. Some of the best MMO games include World of Warcraft, Runescape, Genshin Impact, etc.
• MOBA – Multiplayer Online Battle Arena.
• MP – Mana/Magic Points.
• Nerf – A spell, weapon, or character made weaker, or less effective.
• Noob – A beginner player, lacking knowledge of the game.
• NPC – Non-playable character.
• OP – Overpowered.
• Objective – Referring to certain goals or targets in a game that provides an advantage to your team.
• OOM – Out Of Mana.
• P2W – Pay to Win. This term is mostly used in free-to-play games that give a competitive advantage for a purchase.
• Peel – Creating space between an enemy and your ally, distracting them or using abilities on the enemy so your teammate can escape. Skim through our guide on LoL peel meaning, to get a clearer image of what it means.
• Push – This is where players apply pressure to enemies.
• Proc – A proc occurs when an ability or item with a random activation chance triggers.
• PvP – Player vs Player, against other actual people.
• PvE – Player vs Environment or enemies, against AI or the game itself.
• QQ – An insult which means ‘go quit’, term used in many esports due to the perceived appearance of a pair of crying eyes.
• Rank – A player’s rating based on points accumulated through performance.
• Recall – To teleport back to base.
• RNG – Stands for Random Number Generation.
• Rotation – Getting into a different position, or attack from another angle.
• Rush – When you or your team attack the opponents quickly before they can defend.
• RTS – Real-time strategy, a genre of video games such as StarCraft II, Warcraft etc.
• RPG – Role-playing game. Some of the best RPG games are: The Witcher, Baldur’s Gate, Fallout etc.
• Salty – This is a term used to describe when someone is angry over something that’s happened or bitter. They’re salty.
• Squishy – This means that a character easily takes damage, or has low health. It’s similar to a glass cannon, but with different strengths.
• Skillshot – A spell that needs to be manually directed by the player.
• Snowball – Gaining an advantage early on, that puts you ahead far enough to keep you scaling more than the enemies.
• Smurf – Higher-ranked player, who makes a new character or account, to play against lower-leveled players.
• Tank – A character that has a lot of health and can soak up lots of damage.
• Tilt – A player becomes so frustrated that it negatively impacts his performance.
• Throw – Throwing the game away; Intentionally lose the game.
• Toxic – Describing players’ bad attitude/behavior. Toxic gaming is when a player starts complaining and cursing at others.
• Ult/Ultimate – Normally the strongest ability of a champions/hero.
• Vision – How much of the map your character or team can see.
• Wards – Items that you can place on the map that gives you vision.
• XP – Experience Points, used to level up.
• Zoning – It has a slightly different meaning for different genres, but mainly it means to control space and keep opponents at a distance, or control certain areas of the map.

This is the basic esports terminology, used the most by gamers throughout majority of the esports games. However, considering there’s many different games and game genres out there, there are also many more game-specific terms not listed in this article. It’s important for gamers to learn the specific terminology of the games they play for better communication with their teammates. The esports world continues to evolve, with new games emerging, each with their own esports terminology.