5 years ago

A guide to basic esports terminology

Competitive gaming functions with a vast array of abbreviations and jargons too

By Nicole Ganglani | Photo by Alex Haney/Unsplash

Like any other traditional sport, esports also has its own vocabulary. And with hundreds of varying sub-terms used in different games, it’s easy to get confused with what the basic terms actually mean. Here’s a list of some of the words you must know before getting into the action.

Auto attack

This is when the player presses a particular button in the keyboard that will control their character to attack its target repeatedly.

Aggro

Aggro means to attack your opponent more aggressively. This is also an option used in some games to let non-player controlled characters attack their target (example: “take aggro”)

Buff

This means added power given to a player while the game is going on.

Comp

This is used to describe a competitive game.

Creep

These are the enemies that spawn randomly across the arena where players can kill to level up.

DLC

This stands for “downloadable content,” which you’ll usually have to spend extra cash for.

Farming

Similar to the real life profession, farming in the virtual world refers to cultivating a certain item, say, for example, if you want to upgrade your weapons you’ll have to explore the playing field for specific items needed for the weapon’s specifications.

Feed

When a player intentionally dies so that the opposing team gets stronger or wins more points, they’re feeding the opposing team. A player usually does this when their teammates don’t cooperate with them, thus giving the opposing team an advantage to spite them.

Gank

When a player takes action or initiates an ambush knowing their opponent is unprepared

GG

This stands for “good game,” which used to be a compliment that players give to each other after a game, but has now become a sarcastic remark that gamers throw around for banter.

Jungle

This refers to the area in a MOBA arena surrounding the lanes where players can kill creeps in the forests to gain buffs and level up. When a player wants to go jungling, they usually mean that they will head to this area and strengthen their characters, which isn’t easy for low level players since most creeps are difficult to kill.

KDA

KDA stands for Kills, Deaths and Assists, which is often seen in the scoreboard.

Lag

Quite popular as an excuse for players who suffered a bad loss, lag refers to the slow relay of real life actions to the movements of your avatar usually due to poor internet connection.

Lanes, left, right, mid, top, bottom

These refer to the paths of the arena where players will fight in the game. If you play a lot of MOBA games, you may notice that some players might say “missing left” if they want to warn the others that an enemy isn’t in that lane anymore or “mid” if they want to go on the middle path.

Minions

These are small computer-generated units that aid your team so your characters can continue with the game’s objective.

MOBA

MOBA stands for Multiplayer Online Battle Arena, a genre of esports where each player controls a single character. Examples of this genre are League of Legends, Dota 2 and Defense of the Ancients.

Noob or n00b

Noob is usually what players call newcomers or newbies in a game.

NPC

NPC stands for Non Player Character and is used when a character is not controlled by a user.

OP

Standing for “overpowered,” this could describe a weapon, a class or strategy. This usually means that there is an imbalance in the game that makes the gameplay feel unfair.

QQ

QQ is normally used to insult your opponent by telling them to “go quit” or “go cry.”

Rage-quit

This happens when a person gets upset about the gameplay and they throw their PC or equipment down in frustration.

Shotcaller

This is the player who leads the offense of the game or advises people what to do.

XP

Referring to experience points, this is usually used to measure the strength and functionalities of different in-game items and accessories.

Tank

A character archetype known to have a load of health or lives in general

Ultimate

This is used to describe a character’s most powerful weapon or ability.