League of Legends is one of the world’s most popular esports titles and has been since its release way back in 2009.
- Here we’ll outline the key League of Legends terms that will help you to start understanding the game and esports space.
- We’ll cover both the official League of Legends terminology as well as the community’s LoL slang.
The ever-changing game has evolved significantly over the years, constantly seeing patches to keep players entertained while new champions are continuously added. This means that dipping your toes into the game and its esports scene now can be daunting as there is much to learn to even begin comprehending what’s happening during a match.
A
Abilities – In basic LoL terminology, the skills that a champion has. Each champion typically has one passive, three basic, and one ultimate ability.
Ability Haste – A stat that grants a player cooldown reduction, reducing the cooldown time of abilities and allowing players to use their abilities more frequently.
AD Carry/ADC/Bot laner – A player whose role revolves around the bottom lane and is expected to be a team’s main damage dealer, typically playing marksman champions.
Armor – A defense stat that mitigates attack damage received.
Assassin – A champion that can output high damage in a short space of time in order to instantly kill opponents.
B
Baron Nashor – Spawning initially at 20 minutes and then every six minutes after being killed, teams that take down Baron earn strong buffs and will buff their surrounding ally minions. Also referred to as “Nash”.
Bot lane – The bottom lane on Summoner’s Rift, usually featuring two players from each team; one ADC and one support.
Bruiser – A champion with reasonable ability-based damage who also has reasonable defense stats.
Bush/Brush – Areas on the map covered by long grass. Players are invisible when in bushes unless a ward has been placed in the bush.
C
Camps – Areas in the jungle that include killable neutral monsters that generate gold and XP.
Cancer – Used to describe something in the game that is particularly overpowered and generally unfun. For example, the champion Yuumi is often described as a cancerous champion due to its power and lack of counterplay.
CC/Crowd Control –Abilities that incapacitate opponents, including slows, stuns, and knockups.
Champions/Champs – A playable character. Each player uses a unique champion and each champion has a unique set of skills, strengths, and weaknesses.
Creeps –Weak neutral monsters that periodically spawn in jungle camps.
Crit chance – The % chance that a basic attack will produce a critical strike. Critical strikes deal 175% of a normal basic attack.
CS – Creep score. A count of minions and neutral monsters that a player has killed. Elite players can often have a CS count of approximately 10 CS/min.
D
Difference – Often used to express a large difference in strength between opposing players in the same position, e.g. “mid dif” when one mid laner dominates the other.
Dragon/Drake – A neutral monster that spawns after five minutes, then again every five minutes after being killed. Depending on the dragon type — which is random upon spawn — the team to kill it will be granted a buff. An increased ‘soul’ buff is granted after a team kills four dragons.
E
Early game – The beginning period of the game, typically lasting until 14 minutes. Players focus on their respective lanes during this period.
Elder Dragon/Elder Drake – Once a team has killed four normal dragons, the next to spawn will be an Elder Dragon. Killing this grants a strong buff that includes an execute to enemy champions that reach 20% of their HP.
Enchanter – A champion whose utility comes from abilities, generally generating CC and/or healing/shielding allies.
F
Fed – When a player has gained a lot of gold and/or XP, becoming significantly stronger than other players. This usually comes from earning a large number of kills.
Feeding – When a player is performing inadequately and dies numerous times, thereby “feeding” an enemy player who becomes “fed”.
Fog of war – Areas of the map where a team has no vision. Vision is granted around a team’s player, minions, structures, and wards as well as by certain champion abilities.
G
Gank – An action whereby a jungler enters a lane to help their teammates kill enemies.
Gold – Earned through enemy takedowns, killing minions and monsters and by destroying enemy structures. Gold can be used in the shop to purchase items and consumables.
Griefing/Trolling – When a player is playing badly on purpose and aims to lose the game. This is also colloquially used to describe a player who is having a bad performance and is not always used as an accusation of actually attempting to lose on purpose.
H
HP – Acronym for Health Points. The amount of health a player has. When a player’s HP reaches 0, they will die and must wait to respawn in their base.
I
Inhibitors – Structures found in each team’s base. Once destroyed, the opposing team’s minions will become stronger in the respective lane.
Inventory – The collection of items and consumables bought by a player. Each player has six inventory slots.
Items – Items are bought in the shop and grant stats to players. Some items also give additional abilities which can be triggered by pressing their respective inventory slot number. For example, an item with an active ability that’s in the first inventory slot can be used by pressing 1 on the keyboard.
J
Jungle – The area between lanes, usually featuring one jungler from each team who kills jungle camps.
Jungler – A player whose role revolves around the jungle, moving between lanes to set up strategies with their teammates. Junglers play a variety of champion types depending on meta and playstyle.
L
Late game – The end period of the game where players begin completing item sets and reach maximum strength. During this period, winning a teamfight has a high chance of allowing the team to win the game.
LCS – The League of Legends Championship Series. The tier-one franchised league for teams from North America. One of four of the game’s major regions.
LCK – The League of Legends Champions Korea. The tier-one franchised league for teams from South Korea. One of four of the game’s major regions and the region with the most World Championship-winning teams.
LEC – The League of Legends EMEA Championship. The tier-one franchised league for teams from Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. One of four of the game’s major regions.
LPL – The League of Legends Pro League. The tier-one franchised league for teams from China. One of four of the game’s major regions, the one with the most teams and the highest number of elite players.
M
Mage – A champion with high ability-based damage. Abilities deal magic damage.
Magic Damage – An attack stat. The damage of many abilities scale with magic damage, particularly those of mages.
Magic Resist – A defense stat that mitigates magic damage received.
Mana – A resource used by most champions that allows them to use abilities. For champions that consume mana, reaching zero mana will stop the player from being able to cast abilities until it has regenerated.
Marksman – A champion whose primary damage comes from their basic attacks and not abilities, allowing them to output a large amount of damage over time.
Mid game – The middle period of the game where teams begin to move around the map and aim for objectives, typically between 14 and 30 minutes.
Mid lane – The middle lane on Summoner’s Rift, usually featuring one mid laner from each team.
Mid laner – A player whose role revolves around the mid lane, typically playing assassins and mages.
Minions – Spawning periodically in each lane, enemy minions can be killed to grant XP and gold while ally minions will help to push down the lane.
MSI – The game’s second-biggest tournament, held once per year in the middle of the season and competed in by a limited number of the best teams from each region. Akin to a smaller version of the World Championship. MSI is the first of two international tournaments each year.
N
Nexus — A structure which is present within each team’s base. The game is won by destroying the enemy’s Nexus.
O
Objectives — The targets and goals that players aim for to win the game, including killing monsters, destroying structures, and winning team fights.
P
Passive — An ability that is always active and doesn’t need to be triggered by the player.
Pick & ban/draft — A process whereby champions are banned and picked by players to decide which are to be used in each match.
R
Red/Blue Buff — Camps that give a player benefits when killed. Each side of the map has one red buff and one blue buff.
Rift Herald/Shelley — A neutral monster that spawns after 14 minutes and despawns at 19:45. If killed, a player from the killing team can use the Herald to do significant damage to enemy structures.
Rift Scuttle — A weak neutral monster found on each end of the map, granting gold and XP to the player that kills it as well as spawning a temporary ward.
Roles — The specific responsibilities and positions that players take on during a match, such as top laner, mid laner, jungler, AD Carry, and support.
Runes — Chosen before each match begins, runes give permanent enhancements to players.
S
Scaling — Getting stronger as the game goes on by purchasing items and/or the evolution of champion abilities.
Shop — When in their own base, players can use gold to purchase items and consumables in the shop which increases their stats and makes them stronger.
Summoner spells/Summoners — Two changeable abilities that are not champion-specific. Flash is the most popular summoner, allowing players to blink a short distance.
Summoner’s Rift — The main League of Legends map, featuring three lanes.
Support — A player whose role revolves around the bottom lane and is expected to protect the ADC.
T
Tank — A champion with high health and defense stats, often with CC abilities.
The map — The battlefield on which the game is played, primarily referring to Summoner’s Rift.
Top lane — The top lane on Summoner’s Rift, usually featuring one top laner from each team.
Top laner — A player whose role revolves around the top lane, typically playing tanks and bruisers.
Turrets/Towers — Structures found in each lane that teams must destroy to get closer to the enemy base. Turrets can deal large amounts of damage to opposing players when they are in their range.
U
Ultimate — A champion’s strongest ability, usually with a long cooldown duration.
V
Vision wards — Wards that can be purchased in the shop that will show enemy wards when placed and have no timeout. Vision wards are visible to enemy players and can be destroyed once discovered.
Voidgrubs — Neutral monsters that — once killed — grant pushing buffs.
W
Wards— A ward is a consumable that can be placed on an area of the map to grant vision around the ward.
Worlds — The game’s biggest tournament, held once per year and competed in by the best teams from all regions around the world. Worlds is the second of two international tournaments each year.
What next?
When you’re up to speed with the League of Legends lingo, read more about the League of Legends tournaments and the best League of Legends players to learn more about the thriving esports scene.
Once you’ve got to grips with how the game works and which captivating tournaments you can watch, check out more on League of Legends betting to discover what markets are covered in the game and where you can bet safely.
