Glossary of Abbreviations in League of Legends

Throughout the years League of Legends summoners have found themselves in the need of finding an effective and quick way to communicate with each other during matches, especially when this is a game that doesn’t let you write on the keyboard that easily due to how much you should be focused on the actual game. 

Therefore, here we’ll show you a compilation of internet slang, abbreviations, terms, and definitions that the community of League of Legends players has come up with as time passes.

Terms and abbreviations in League of Legends

The following list will help clear the doubts of those summoners who just can’t seem to keep up with the discussions held around the community of the game, or just in general during a match, when a player is saying something you don’t understand, especially when abbreviations and slang are used almost always.

ADC

ADC stands for “Attack Damage Carry”, commonly known in-game as “Marksman” and is the character/player that’s meant to do the most damage in the game.

AFK

Stands for “Away from keyboard”. This is an abbreviation used not only in League of Legends, but in the gaming community in general. In LoL it’s quite useful to let your teammates know when you just won’t be able to be present in the match.

APC

Ability Power Carry, which refers mostly to mages.

B (Back)

“Back” or just “B”, is used to let your team know when you’re going to recall to base, whether it is to buy items, you’re low on HP, etc.. It’s also most used to actually tell and encourage your teammates to recall, most commonly if you’re playing in the bot lane.

Balance

This refers to fixing a champion's weakness or strengths during a patch, so it doesn’t remain overpowered for much longer. A good example of this would be Irelia, who back then, when Riot Games released her, she was an overpowered champion, so they balanced her out.

Baron

This single word refers to the one and only Baron Nashor. Writing this in the chat is a sign for your team that your next move should be defeating Baron, a neutral monster. It is mostly used in the late game when your team wins a teamfight against the enemy team, that way, you have enough time to defeat Baron while your enemy respawn.

Blue

This references the Blue Golem in the jungle. It can be used in a wide array of phrases such as, “can I take the blue?”, resulting in a more efficient communication with your jungler.

Buff

This refers to any improvement Riot Games could do to a champion’s abilities, they could be things like, higher HP, damage, etc. It also refers to in-game bonuses such as having the blue.

Bot

Refers to the bot lane and the champions that are usually played in that lane, either supports or ADC. It could also mean a champion that’s controlled by the Artificial Intelligence of the game (AI)

Camp

A set of monsters in the jungle. E.g., “Blue Camp”, “Red Camp”.

Champion pool

A series of champions a player is known for playing quite well. E.g., “Her pool of champions is Ahri, Ryze, Twisted Fate, and Akali”.

CD

CD stands for cooldown.

CC (Crowd Control)

CC Stands for Crowd Control, this references the abilities that are able to deal with several champions at the same time, such as the “Q” of Lux, or Amumu’s ultimate.

Counter

This term is used for champions whose abilities and play style are simply no match for another one. E.g. Some of Akali’s counter picks are Jayce and Pantheon.

CS

Creep Score, this refers to the amount of minions, jungle monsters, etc, that a summoner has killed.

Dive

To dive is to fully attack an enemy champion under their turret. Ideally, this is best done with one or two allies so help you avoid as much damage as possible.

DPS

This stands for Damage Per Second, marksman champions and ADC have a high DPS rate.

Drake

Just as “Baron” means that you should attack the Baron Nashor, to see or write “Drake” in the chat, is a sign for your team to attack the current dragon.

Early Game

The early game of a match is a time frame that’s defined by the first 10 - 15 minutes of it.

ELO

Elo is the rating system used in League of Legends to calculate the level of skill of a player.

Farm

Farm or “Farming” means killing enemy minions to get gold as fast as possible.

Fed

Fed means a champion, whether enemy or ally, has way too many kills. Having too many kills translates to: A higher level, more gold, damage, items, etc.

Focus

This means for you and your teammates to focus all of your abilities and spells in a single champion. Most of the time it would be against a fed champion, but focusing on a tank is viable as well.

Freeze

Freeze or Freezing is a mechanic of wave management that consists of keeping your minions and the enemies in one place. This way the minions neither advance to the enemy tower nor are shoved into yours.

Gank

A “Gank” consists of killing an enemy with the help of your jungler. You can also be “Ganked” by the enemy jungler.

GG

GG means “Good Game”. It’s used when a game it’s already won. Also as a way to say your the match is lost because your team goes 0 - 15 before minute 10.

High ELO

High ELO refers to players who are in the ranks from Diamond to Challenger.

JG

This stands for “jungler”. E.g., “JG is AFK.”

Late Game

The late game is the stage of the game where usually all characters are on the max level, with all their items. The time frame for this is from minute 40 and on.

Low ELO

Refers to players from Ranks Silver to Gold.

Kite

To kite means to attack an enemy as you retreat, this is mostly done with marksmen.

Main

A “Main” is a champion a player plays with the most. To main a champion means to learn everything there is to know about them, from skill damage at different levels, counters, play style, runes. Everything.

Meta

The meta is a list of the strongest champions in a current patch.

Mid

Refers to the mid lane and the champions that are played in that lane.

Nerf

A nerf is when a champion’s abilities or any other general statistic about them is reduced. Something as simple as reducing the HP of a champion by 20 points can be considered a nerf.

One-shot

To one-shot an enemy champion is to kill them with a single skill. Champions like Veigar have an easy time achieving this, being able to drain an enemy’s HP fully with a single ultimate.

OP

OP means overpowered. This term is used when a champion is overly strong.

Supp

This term means support and the champions that fulfill this role, such as Braum, Seraphine, or Lulu.

Top

Refers to the top lane and the champions that are played in that specific lane, such as Riven.

True Damage

True damage is a type of damage that can be dealt in-game. There are no types of armor or resistances that block true damage. This means that, regardless of you having a shield or barrier, the true damage will ignore those and still hit.

Wave Management

Wave management is a set of mechanics that consists of controlling how both the enemy’s and your minions behave.

The League of Legends player community has made sure to develop throughout the years a set of words, expressions and definitions to better understand the slang terms of the game. Some of these can be found in places like urban dictionary, but don’t expect them to appear in the official Oxford English Dictionary. We hope this list makes your understanding of the game better as you play.