Your complete League of Legends dictionary with essential terms, slang, and gameplay phrases every LoL player should know.
A
An auto attack, also called a basic or normal attack, is the default way a champion or unit deals damage. A champion performs an auto attack when the player right clicks an enemy or uses the attack move command. If auto attack settings are enabled, an idle champion may automatically attack nearby targets as well.Turrets, minions, and most jungle monsters rely on auto attacks as their primary source of damage. Under normal conditions, a basic attack deals physical damage equal to one hundred percent of a unit’s attack damage.Each unit has an attack timer that controls how long it takes to fire an auto attack and begin the next one. Attack speed lowers this timer, while certain abilities can reset it to allow a new attack to occur immediately.
Attack damage, or AD, is one of the primary offensive stats in League of Legends. It determines the base physical damage of a champion’s basic attacks, and every champion has innate AD that grows with levels, except for unique cases like Senna.AD is important because basic attacks are a zero resource source of damage. Stats such as attack speed, critical strike chance, critical strike damage, and many on hit effects scale together with AD, which makes it especially valuable for champions who rely on consistent auto attacks.Total AD is made up of base AD and bonus AD. Base AD comes from leveling, while bonus AD is gained from items, runes, buffs, and other external sources. AD stacks additively at a one to one ratio, directly increasing the damage of basic attacks and any abilities that scale with attack damage.
Ability power, or AP, is one of the two primary offensive stats in League of Legends and serves as the counterpart to attack damage. Unlike AD, AP does not provide an automatic baseline effect. Instead, it increases the damage of AP-scaling abilities and often enhances utility effects such as slows, shields, or movement speed buffs.AP does not interact multiplicatively with stats like attack speed or critical strike chance, which means AP users generally rely on their abilities rather than basic attacks. Many AP champions function as pure spell casters whose auto attacks become insignificant later in the game. Others are designed with unique abilities or modified attacks that scale with AP to give them a hybrid playstyle.Ability power stacks additively, and each point directly increases the champion’s AP on a one to one basis. Every champion starts with zero AP, and unlike attack damage, it does not grow naturally with levels. All AP must be gained through items, runes, buffs, or other external sources.
An Attack Damage Carry, or ADC, refers to a champion who deals consistent and repeatable damage through basic attacks and scales heavily with stats such as attack damage, critical strike chance, attack speed, and various on hit effects. These champions are traditionally played in the bottom lane alongside a support and are known for their ability to carry games with high late game damage output.The term originated from an older classification system that has since been deprecated. In the modern system, most former ADCs are categorized as Marksmen, a class defined by being ranged attackers capable of carrying fights through sustained damage. Not all ranged champions rely specifically on attack damage however. Champions such as Azir fit the ranged role but do not follow the traditional ADC pattern. Former melee ADCs were reassigned into classes like Slayers or Fighters based on their updated gameplay style.Although no longer an official classification, the term ADC is still widely used by players, Riot staff, and commentators. In modern usage, it generally refers to the traditional ranged champions in the bottom lane who rely on sustained auto attack damage to contribute to their team.
AFK stands for “away from keyboard” and describes a player who is not actively participating in the game. This may happen when a player physically steps away, chooses not to engage in gameplay, or becomes disconnected. An AFK player puts their team at a significant disadvantage, as they are unable to contribute to fights, objectives, or map pressure.
Aggro refers to drawing the hostile attention of turrets, minions, or neutral monsters, causing them to attack you. In League of Legends, this term specifically relates to PvE interactions rather than enemy champions. Gaining aggro can be useful for setups such as assisting a gank or securing last hits, but it can also be dangerous if taken unexpectedly, as turret or monster damage can quickly become lethal.
ARAM, short for All Random All Mid, is a permanent 5v5 game mode in League of Legends played on the Howling Abyss map. All players receive a small pool of random champions during champion select, and both teams fight exclusively in a single mid lane. Each side has four turrets, one inhibitor, a Nexus, and access to health relics and a shop near the spawn area. The goal is to push down the lane and destroy the enemy Nexus.To help players returning after a long break, ARAM may place them in matches against bots before reintroducing them to regular games. A separate variant called ARAM: Mayhem was later introduced, offering an alternate version of the mode where players can enhance their champions through special augments for a more chaotic experience.
Attack speed, or AS, is a stat that determines how quickly a unit performs basic attacks, measured in attacks per second. Every champion begins the game with a specific base attack speed and gains additional attack speed through leveling, although this level-up value is treated as bonus attack speed rather than an increase to base stats. Champions also have an attack speed ratio, which affects how efficiently bonus attack speed converts into real attack rate, as well as a windup percentage that defines how long it takes to launch each attack.Bonus attack speed can be gained from items, abilities, runes, buffs, and other effects. It stacks additively on a one to one basis, meaning each percent of bonus attack speed directly increases the stat. Champions with higher ratios or shorter windup times benefit more from attack speed, allowing them to attack significantly faster as they acquire additional bonuses.
B
The backline refers to a team's ranged, high-damage champions who stay behind their frontline for safety. These champions have low defenses but provide most of the team’s damage, so protecting them while threatening the enemy backline is essential. Supports help keep the backline alive with heals, shields, and crowd control, while engage champions look for ways to reach and eliminate the enemy backline. Strong positioning and timing determine whether the backline survives or gets burst down.
Bait refers to luring an enemy into a bad situation by making them think they have an advantage. A player might act weak or alone to draw the opponent in, then teammates appear to secure a kill or turn the fight. It is a deceptive tactic often coordinated with the jungler to trap and punish overconfident enemies.
Baron Nashor is the strongest neutral monster on Summoner's Rift, spawning at 20 minutes in the Baron Pit. Defeating it grants all living teammates the Hand of Baron buff for 3 minutes, giving bonus attack damage, ability power, an empowered recall, and a powerful aura that enhances nearby minions. Securing Baron is one of the most impactful objectives in the game, often helping a team push lanes and close out matches.
Backdooring is a strategy where a champion sneaks into the enemy base to attack exposed structures like inhibitors or the nexus without a friendly minion wave. It usually happens when the enemy team is distracted by a major objective or team fight. Once the base towers are down, a player can use fog of war and mobility to slip in and quickly end the game. Backdooring is risky but can be a decisive, game-winning play when timed correctly.
Bot refers to the bottom lane on Summoner's Rift. This lane is typically played by an AD carry and a support. The AD carry focuses on ranged damage through basic attacks, while the support protects and assists them during the early game. Bot is one of the three primary lanes and plays a key role in late-game team damage and objective control.
A buff is a temporary effect that makes a champion, minion, or monster stronger. Buffs can boost stats like damage, health, mana, or grant special benefits such as shields or enhanced abilities. Most buffs come from champion abilities, items, or neutral objectives and usually expire after a short duration. The term can also refer to a champion being strengthened in a game patch. The opposite of a buff is a debuff.
Burst refers to dealing a large amount of damage almost instantly, usually by chaining abilities to quickly eliminate low-health or low-defense targets. Burst champions rely on precise timing and combos to delete enemies before they can react. Unlike sustained damage, which is applied over time, burst damage is all about high upfront impact.
C
In League of Legends, camp means repeatedly ganking the same enemy laner to pressure them or push them behind. The word also refers to a jungle monster’s spawn location. Players often use it to describe focusing attention and resources on one lane or area of the map.
A warning to play cautiously because danger may be nearby. It often means the enemy jungler could be approaching your lane or a gank might be coming.
A carry is a champion or player that becomes a primary damage source by taking resources and scaling strongly into the late game. Carries often decide fights and can win games through standout performance. The term can also describe a player who dominated a match and led their team to victory.
Short for crowd control, CC refers to abilities that limit or stop an enemy’s actions. These effects can interrupt movement, attacks, or spell casting, such as stuns, roots, silences, and knockups. CC is a key part of combat because it disables opponents and can decide the outcome of fights.
Short for cooldown, CD is the amount of time you must wait before using an ability, item, or summoner spell again. When something is unavailable, it is considered to be on cooldown.Cooldowns are influenced by stats like ability haste, item haste, and summoner spell haste, which reduce the waiting time and let you use your tools more often during fights.
CDR stands for cooldown reduction, the former stat that directly lowered ability cooldowns by a percentage. Players gained it through items, runes, and buffs, and it typically capped at 40 or 45 percent depending on bonuses. It did not apply to certain fixed or on-target cooldowns unless specifically stated.Since Season 11, CDR has been replaced by Ability Haste, which scales differently, but many players still use the old term when talking about reducing ability cooldowns.
Cheese refers to high risk, unexpected strategies aimed at catching an opponent off guard, usually in the early levels. These plays often involve surprise aggression, unusual pathing, or hidden setups that secure an early kill or force the enemy far behind.Cheese can feel cheap when it works, but it is a legitimate tactic that can snowball a lead quickly. However, if the enemy anticipates it, the strategy can fail hard and put the user behind instead.
A counter gank is when a team responds to an enemy gank by quickly moving in to protect the targeted ally and turn the fight in their favor. It relies on good map awareness, fast reactions, and timely coordination to negate the enemy’s attempted ambush and potentially secure kills instead.
Counter jungling is the act of invading the enemy jungle to steal their camps and deny them experience and gold. By taking these resources, you slow the opposing jungler’s progress and create a lead for yourself or your team.This strategy works best when you know the enemy jungler’s location and have vision control, allowing you to invade safely and avoid getting caught.
The term creep can refer to creep score, the number of lane minions and jungle monsters a player has killed. CS is a key measure of gold and experience gain, and higher CS per minute usually indicates stronger laning. Roughly fifteen minions are worth about the same gold as a solo kill, making efficient farming crucial.Creep can also describe the gradual increase of something in the game over time, such as power creep or cooldown reduction creep. This refers to mechanics or stats becoming more abundant or stronger compared to the past due to balance changes, buffs, or item updates.
CS stands for creep score, the total number of minions, neutral monsters, and sometimes wards a player has last hit. It is one of the main ways players gain gold and experience, and keeping a high CS helps you stay ahead in items and levels.While CS alone does not win games, consistently farming well provides the resources needed to take objectives and fight effectively. Players who fall behind in CS usually struggle to keep up with opponents in power.
D
Denial refers to killing your own minions or units to prevent the enemy from gaining gold or experience. While this mechanic exists in some other MOBA games, League of Legends does not allow players to last hit their own minions.Instead, LoL replaces denial with zoning, where you pressure or threaten an opponent so they cannot safely farm and are effectively denied resources.
A dive, or tower dive, is an aggressive play where a champion chases or attacks an enemy who is under their turret. Because turrets deal high and escalating damage, dives are risky and usually require coordination, such as one player tanking turret shots or teammates rotating aggro.The term can also more generally describe pursuing a target into a dangerous area. In teamfights, it is sometimes used as a synonym for engaging back to front by diving onto priority targets.
Dodging is the act of leaving champion select before a match starts, usually by closing the client or letting the timer expire. Players may dodge to avoid bad team compositions, unfavorable matchups, or toxic teammates, but doing so results in time penalties and LP loss.In older versions of the game, dodge also referred to a removed champion stat that allowed players to avoid basic attacks, but this mechanic no longer exists in League of Legends.
DoT stands for Damage Over Time, referring to effects that deal damage gradually instead of in a single burst. These abilities or item effects apply ongoing harm for a set duration, forcing opponents to consider healing, defensive spells, or repositioning.
DPS stands for damage per second, a measure of how much sustained damage a champion or team can output each second. It highlights consistent damage rather than short burst combos.Champions with high DPS are often considered carries because they scale well and can heavily influence teamfights by continuously dealing reliable damage throughout longer engagements.
A duelist is a champion who excels in one on one combat, relying on strong scaling, mobility, or outplay potential. Champions like Fiora and Jax are classic duelists, able to win isolated fights and apply pressure through side lanes.
E
The early game is the opening phase of League of Legends where players focus primarily on laning, farming, and early skirmishes. It typically lasts until the first turret falls, which shifts pressure across the map.This stage sets the momentum for the rest of the match, as early leads influence objective control, rotations, and the pace of mid game teamfights.
Elo is a term used to describe a player’s skill level or rank, originating from the Elo rating system created for chess by Arpad Elo. Although League of Legends now uses its own ranking and matchmaking system, the community still uses “Elo” to refer broadly to how skilled a player is.Higher Elo generally means stronger players and a better chance of climbing toward competitive levels. Elo is often mentioned alongside MMR, or matchmaking rating, but the two are not identical even though both relate to a player’s skill and matchmaking strength.
F
To face check means to walk into a bush or fog of war area without vision to see if enemies are hiding there. Because opponents may be waiting to ambush, face checking is highly risky, especially for fragile champions.Good players avoid face checks by using abilities, wards, or teammates to scout safely before moving into dangerous areas.
Farming refers to killing minions or jungle monsters to gain gold and experience. It is one of the most fundamental skills in League because gold is needed to buy items and experience is required to level up abilities.Consistent farming leads to stronger stats, better items, and more control over the game. Players who fall behind in farm often struggle to keep up in fights and objective pressure.
Feeding means repeatedly dying to the enemy team, giving them gold and experience and making them stronger. It can happen accidentally through misplays or poor positioning, but doing it on purpose is considered trolling.A player who dies too often is called a feeder, and excessive feeding can quickly snowball the game in the enemy’s favor.
FF stands for forfeit and refers to using the /ff command to surrender a match. Players use it when they believe the game is unwinnable and want to end it early.
A flank is an attack made by approaching the enemy from the side or behind, bypassing their frontline to reach high priority backline targets.This tactic is especially effective for assassins and divers, who rely on surprise and positioning rather than durability. A well executed flank can break a teamfight by forcing carries into panic or eliminating them before they can respond.
A freeze is a lane management technique where you keep the minion wave held in place, usually just outside your turret. By preventing the wave from pushing in either direction, you create a safe zone for yourself while forcing the enemy to walk forward and overextend if they want to farm.Freezing is a common high elo strategy because it denies opponents gold and experience, sets up gank opportunities, and gives you greater control over the lane’s pace.
The frontline consists of the champions positioned closest to the enemy team during fights. These are usually tanks or bruisers who can absorb damage, disrupt enemy engages, and create space for their carries.Because they take the brunt of incoming threats, frontline champions often protect their backline by peeling, blocking engages, and holding ground long enough for their team to deal damage safely.
G, H
A gank is a surprise attack on an enemy champion, usually carried out by the jungler or a roaming teammate entering a lane they do not normally play in. The purpose is to secure a kill, burn key summoner spells, or force the enemy out of lane.Successful ganks create pressure and open opportunities across the map, helping your team gain early leads and control objectives.
To hold a lane means keeping the minion wave from crashing into your turret while the laner is gone, usually after they recall or die. Junglers or roaming teammates briefly step in to last hit or manage the wave so it stays in a stable position and prevents the enemy from taking free plates or denying farm.
HP stands for Health Points and represents how much damage a champion can take before dying. When a champion’s HP reaches zero, they are defeated and must wait through a respawn timer before returning to the game.
Hybrid refers to champions, builds, or damage sources that use both attack damage and ability power. Hybrid champions can effectively scale with items from both stats, making their damage harder to itemize against.A hybrid build includes AD and AP items, and a hybrid damage dealer outputs meaningful amounts of both physical and magic damage, giving them versatility in fights and itemization paths.
A hypercarry is a champion that becomes extremely powerful in the late game due to exceptional scaling. These champions often have weaker early and mid games, but with enough items and levels they can deal overwhelming damage and single handedly win teamfights.Hypercarries often rely on stats like attack damage, attack speed, crit, or strong AP ratios that multiply their effectiveness as the game goes on. While marksmen like Jinx and Kog'Maw are classic hypercarries, some AP champions such as Syndra or Karthus can also reach hypercarry status thanks to their late game damage potential.
I, J
To initiate is to start a fight by engaging the enemy team, often using a gap closer, crowd control, or a strong engage ability. The champion who initiates signals their team to follow up and commit to the battle.Initiators frequently act as the frontliners or bait, absorbing the first wave of damage so their allies can enter the fight safely and capitalize on the opening.
To invade is to enter the enemy’s territory, most commonly their jungle, to disrupt their plans or secure an advantage. Invades can happen at level one or later in the game and often rely on catching the opposing team by surprise.Invading can steal camps, force fights, burn summoner spells, or set up vision control, but it carries risk since you are deep in enemy territory.
Jg is shorthand for jungle, the area of the map between the lanes filled with neutral monster camps. Fog of war makes the jungle harder to navigate safely, so junglers rely on vision and pathing knowledge to move efficiently.The jungler role focuses on clearing these camps, controlling objectives, and assisting lanes through ganks, while monsters remain neutral until attacked.
A juggernaut is a durable fighter with high damage but low mobility. They excel in close combat and are hard to duel, yet they are vulnerable to being kited or controlled by crowd control.Champions like Darius and Garen are classic juggernauts, relying on tankiness and raw power to dominate enemies once they get into range.
Jungling is the role focused on clearing monster camps in the jungle instead of laning. The jungler farms neutral camps for gold and experience, uses Smite to secure major objectives like dragons, Rift Herald, or Baron, and provides map pressure through ganks and rotations.Because the jungle covers large areas of the map, junglers also play a key part in assisting lanes, controlling vision, and influencing early game momentum.
L
Lag is the delay between a player’s input and the game’s response, making actions feel slow or unresponsive. It is usually caused by high network latency or an unstable internet connection, but a weak computer can also create lag by struggling to process game data.Lag can appear as delayed commands, stuttering movement, or sudden jumps in champion positions or health. Because it heavily disrupts gameplay, competitive matches are played on local networks to avoid these issues.
A lane bully is a champion built to dominate the early laning phase by pressuring, poking, and denying farm. They excel at trading and forcing their opponent behind in gold and experience.Most lane bullies fall off later in the game, balancing their strong early presence with weaker scaling compared to other champions.
Lane harass is the act of repeatedly pressuring or damaging the enemy laner while they attempt to farm. This is usually done with long range basic attacks or low cooldown abilities to chip away at their health safely.Effective harass creates advantages in health, positioning, or tempo, allowing you to threaten all ins, zone the opponent from minions, or gain map control through safer roams.
The lane phase is the early stage of the match when players focus on farming, trading, and controlling their lanes to build their first items.It typically ends once one or more turrets are destroyed, prompting players to rotate, group, and shift attention toward objectives and broader map control.
A lane swap is a strategy where two laners switch lanes to avoid a bad matchup or gain an early advantage. It was once common in competitive play but has largely disappeared due to systems designed to discourage it, such as the Lane Swap Detector and changes to early objectives.Modern game design makes lane swapping risky by punishing teams that move multiple non junglers across lanes early and by placing valuable early objectives like dragons on the bottom side, where more players naturally gather. As a result, lane swaps rarely happen outside of specific niche situations.
The late game is the final stage of a match when death timers are long, most champions have completed their item builds, and controlling large areas of the map becomes crucial. Teamfights center around major objectives like late game dragons and Baron, where a single mistake can decide the outcome.Hypercarries reach their peak power in the late game, making team coordination and positioning more important than ever. This phase is preceded by the mid game.
In common usage, a leash is when one or more allies help the jungler clear their first camp by attacking it or drawing aggro. This speeds up the jungler’s early clear and helps them stay healthier, making their early pathing more efficient.Leashing can also describe the automatic movement that happens when a unit tries to attack a target outside of its range, causing it to follow the target until it can strike. This mechanic influences micro movement and positioning, especially in champion versus champion interactions.
M, N, O
Map awareness is a player’s ability to stay informed about what is happening across the map by regularly checking the minimap. Good map awareness includes tracking enemy movements, watching teammate positions, monitoring objectives, and recognizing potential threats or opportunities.Strong map awareness allows players to make smarter decisions, avoid ganks, set up plays, and react quickly to changing situations, giving their team a significant strategic advantage.
MOBA stands for Multiplayer Online Battle Arena, a genre that blends elements of role playing games and real time strategy. In MOBAs, players control individual characters and work with their team to fight, control objectives, and ultimately destroy the enemy base.
A nerf is an official change that weakens a champion, item, or ability. Riot applies nerfs to maintain game balance and prevent anything from becoming overly strong or dominant.The term originated from comparisons to soft nerf toy weapons, implying reduced power. It is the opposite of a buff.
A nuke is a single ability that deals a very large amount of damage on its own, such as Nidalee’s Javelin Toss or Karthus’s Requiem.Unlike burst combos, which use multiple abilities in quick succession, a nuke is defined by delivering massive impact through one powerful cast.
An off tank is a champion that blends traits of both tanks and damage dealers. They can absorb part of the enemy’s damage and often bring some crowd control or initiation, but they are not as durable or reliable as true tanks.Off tanks also contribute meaningful damage, making them flexible picks that can frontline moderately while still threatening opponents.
OP stands for overpowered and refers to champions, items, abilities, or strategies that are considered too strong or unbalanced. When something is OP, it can dominate games, feel difficult to counter, and often becomes a focus for future nerfs to restore balance.
Open mid is when a team informally gives up before a surrender vote by abandoning the middle lane and allowing the opposing team to push and end the game quickly.This is more common in regions that prioritize fast games or place high value on early leads, signaling that the losing team no longer intends to contest the match.
P, R
Pathing is the route a player or champion takes to reach a destination after issuing a movement command. In general gameplay, it describes how a player chooses to move around the map and prioritize certain areas or objectives.In the jungle specifically, pathing refers to the order in which camps are cleared and how the jungler positions themselves for ganks, objectives, and efficient clears. Good pathing balances farm, pressure, and map awareness to create advantages for the team.
PBE stands for Public Beta Environment, a separate test server where upcoming patches, balance changes, champions, skins, and game modes are made available before they go live. Its purpose is to gather large scale feedback and catch bugs that internal testing might miss.Anyone can create a PBE account, and players receive free RP through daily missions to test new content. The PBE covers both League of Legends and Teamfight Tactics updates and helps Riot polish features before release.
Ping refers to quick in game communication signals players use to alert teammates about dangers, objectives, movements, or intentions without typing. These pings help coordinate plays and share information efficiently.Ping also describes server latency, measured in milliseconds, indicating how long it takes for your actions to register on the server. Lower ping means smoother, more responsive gameplay.
Pink refers to the old Vision Ward, which was colored pink and used to provide vision while revealing and disabling enemy wards. Although Vision Wards were removed, their successor, the Control Ward, serves the same purpose.Players still commonly call Control Wards “pink wards,” since they fulfill the same role of securing vision control and denying enemy vision.
Poke is the tactic of using long range attacks or abilities to chip away at an enemy’s health from a safe distance. Ranged champions often use poke to harass opponents in lane or pressure them before a fight.The term can also describe team compositions built around strong long range damage, aiming to soften enemies and create a health advantage before committing to full engagements.
Positioning is the strategic placement of your champion during fights to maximize effectiveness while minimizing risk. Good positioning helps you deal damage safely, avoid threats, and take impactful actions at the right time.Mastering positioning requires awareness of enemy abilities, map state, and your champion’s strengths and weaknesses. Strong positioning often decides teamfights and overall game outcomes.
A powerspike is a moment when a champion becomes significantly stronger, usually by reaching a key level or completing an important item. Many champions spike at level six when they unlock their ultimate, but some have later or unique spikes, such as Kayle at level sixteen.Hitting a powerspike lets a champion pressure their opponent, force fights, and influence the game’s tempo. Recognizing your own and your enemy’s spikes is crucial for making smart decisions.
Purple can refer to the old purple team, which started on the upper right side of the map in earlier versions of League of Legends before map updates standardized team colors.The term is also used to describe the Hand of Baron buff, often called Baron Buff or Purple Buff, due to its purple visual effects on champions.
To push is to quickly clear enemy minions so your wave advances down the lane. This creates pressure, opens opportunities to roam, and can set up tower sieges by forcing the enemy to respond.Pushing is a core macro action that helps secure map control, take objectives, and dictate the pace of the lane.
Roaming is when a laner leaves their lane to move to another part of the map, usually to set up a gank, help a teammate, or apply pressure to objectives. Supports and mid laners commonly roam due to their central positioning and ability to impact multiple areas quickly.Effective roaming involves timing your departure so you do not lose too much farm, lane pressure, or turret health. A good roam can secure kills, swing lane matchups, and shift overall map control.
S
Scaling refers to how much a champion’s power increases as the game progresses through levels, items, and accumulated stats. Champions with good scaling become significantly stronger in mid and late game fights, while those with weaker scaling may peak earlier and fall off over time.In a broader sense, scaling describes the mathematical growth of abilities or stats as they interact with added levels, items, and game time. Team compositions can also be judged by their scaling, with some comps becoming much more powerful than others as the game goes on.
A sidelane refers to the top or bottom lane on Summoner’s Rift. After the early game, to sidelane means rotating to one of these lanes to farm, pressure towers, or create map pressure.More broadly, sidelane can also describe any lane adjacent to the one currently being discussed on maps with multiple lanes.
Sieging is the act of pressuring and attacking enemy turrets or inhibitors after pushing minion waves into them. Teams often group for a siege, with long range ADCs or APCs taking the lead in clearing waves and safely hitting structures.Sieging is most effective with strong wave control or buffs like Baron, which empower minions and make tower pressure harder to stop. Advancing a siege means continuing to push waves and chip down structures until they eventually fall.
A smurf is a secondary account used by an experienced player to compete at a lower level or rank than their main account. This leads to skilled players facing less experienced opponents, often creating a noticeable skill gap in matches.Smurfing is common but controversial, as it can disrupt game balance and negatively impact the experience of lower ranked players.
To snowball is to gain an advantage that continually grows over time. When a champion or team secures early leads through kills, objectives, or farm, they can use that momentum to become progressively stronger and harder to stop, often closing out the game before opponents can recover.
A spell is any gameplay impacting action a unit can perform, whether from a champion’s kit, items, runes, or other sources. Basic attacks, abilities, summoner spells, and item actives are all considered spells, and using one is referred to as “casting.”The term is also commonly used as shorthand for summoner spells specifically, such as Flash or Ignite.
Split pushing is a strategy where a player leaves their team to pressure a side lane, aiming to take towers, threaten inhibitors, and force enemies to respond. This creates map pressure by pulling opponents away from objectives or teamfights.It is most effective on champions with strong dueling, fast wave clear, or high mobility. A well executed split push can create multiple simultaneous threats, allowing the rest of the team to secure advantages elsewhere on the map.
Sustainability refers to a champion’s ability to repeatedly heal or regenerate health, allowing them to stay in lane longer, farm more safely, and avoid frequent recalls. Champions with strong sustain can outlast opponents through constant small heals or regeneration effects.In combat, high sustainability can counter burst damage and keep a champion alive through extended fights, making them difficult to force out or kill.
T
Tanking is the act of absorbing large amounts of damage, typically done by tanks or durable fighters built to withstand enemy attacks. These champions position themselves on the frontline to protect their teammates and soak up the brunt of incoming damage during fights and objective contests.
Tower hugging means staying close to your turret for safety, making it risky for enemy champions to engage or dive you. Players often tower hug when they are low on health, behind in lane, or expecting a gank.
TP refers to Teleport, a summoner spell that allows your champion to channel for a few seconds before warping to an allied structure, ward, or minion. It provides strong map mobility for split pushing, defending towers, or joining fights.
A trade occurs when opposing champions exchange damage, usually during short skirmishes in lane. Winning these small trades can secure lane pressure, create health advantages, and set up future all ins.
A troll is a player who intentionally disrupts the game or community, such as by griefing, flaming, or intentionally feeding. Trolls create negative experiences for teammates and are considered harmful to fair play.
V, W, Z
Vertical jungling is a strategy where the jungle is split vertically instead of along the river. Each jungler takes camps on one side of the map, resulting in one team controlling the top side quadrants while the other controls the bottom side.This style emerges when early invades or pathing force both junglers to trade sides. It often shapes lane pressure, objective control, and how each team plays around Baron or Dragon.
Waveclear refers to killing incoming minion waves, either to defend a turret or to push the lane. Champions with strong wave clear can quickly remove waves using abilities or high damage attacks.More specifically, waveclear also describes how fast a champion can shove the wave compared to their opponent. Faster wave clear creates tempo, giving opportunities to roam, reset, or pressure objectives first.
A wombo combo is when teammates chain their abilities together in quick succession to create a devastating, often team wiping combo. Coordinated crowd control and high damage abilities stack to overwhelm enemies before they can react.The term originated from a famous Super Smash Bros. Melee moment and is now widely used in League to describe perfectly synchronized teamfight combos.
Zoning is the tactic of controlling an area to prevent enemy champions from safely gaining gold, experience, or favorable positioning. By threatening damage or crowd control, you force opponents to stay back or risk being punished.Certain abilities can also be used as zoning tools, creating areas enemies must avoid and making it easier to land key follow up abilities. The term is sometimes used sarcastically when a missed spell unintentionally keeps enemies away.
