League of Legends Key Terms
AA-Auto Attack: Basic attack, which is nicknamed Auto Attack since the champion can repeat without new orders.
ACE: When all champions on a team are defeated at the same time. To kill the last living champion on the opposing team.
Active: Abilities possessed by champions and certain items that require activating (via clicking and/or hitting a key) to function, as opposed to "passive."
ADC-Attack Damage Carry: A champion that deals high amounts of attack damage as the match progresses. Can also refer to the bottom role assumed by a marksman.
AFK-Away From Keyboard: A player who is not currently in control of their champion in a match.
ARAM: A matched game type where players randomly pick a champion to play on the Howling Abyss map.
AoE: Short for Area of Effect. Spells or attacks that deal damage over a wide-spread area.
AP: AP is short for ability power. AP is the damage that champions like mages use to gain power.
Assassin: Assassins are a type of Champion that dish out burst damage and have tools to get in and get out of fights quickly.
Backline: The furthest combat distance from enemy champions. The backline is composed of range and mage champions. These champions are typically low in health, but high in damage output, so they are to be as protected as possible.
Backdoor: When you attack an opponent’s Nexus while they are focused elsewhere. This is done by sneaking through the jungle, or by teleporting to an allied minion or ward near the enemy base and taking the enemy by surprise.
Baron: Officially known as the Baron Nashor. The Baron is the strongest neutral enemy in the game. Once a team has defeated the Baron, all living teammates earn the Hand of Baron buff. The buff rewards teammates with bonus attack damage, bonus ability power, an empowered recall buff and increases the power of nearby friendly minions.
Base: Each team has a base, which is located between the entrances to the middle and bottom lanes along with a base entrance at the top and middle lanes. Players can heal along with upgrading their champion.
Bot: Short for Bottom Lane. The bot lane is the bottom of the three lanes on Summoner’s Rift. Can also refer to an AI-controlled champion.
Buff: A beneficial spell or effect used on yourself, a teammate or a friendly minion. The opposite of debuff.
Burst: A large amount of damage dealt in a short amount of time – specifically to a specific champion.
Crowd Control: AKA CC. A group of status effects that limit an opponent’s movement or actions.CC comes in the form of stuns, slows, polymorphs, knock-ups, etc.
Cooldown: The amount of time it takes for a skill or ability to be used after a first usage.
Champion: Player-controlled characters. Each champion has unique skills, abilities, and attributes.
Commit: To stay in a fight until it is over. To not retreat.
Countergank: Setting up an ambush in response to an opponent ambush. See gank.
Counterjungle: To kill the neutral champions in the opponent’s side of the jungle. This takes away easier buffs, gold and experience for the opposing team.
Crit: Short for Critical Strike. An ability or attack that deals twice the damage. You can increase the likelihood of getting a crit by buying certain items.
CS: Short for Creep Score. A term borrowed from Dota 2 – CS is the number of enemy creeps that you performed the last hit on and obtained gold from.
Death Timer: The amount of time it takes for a champion to respawn after being slain.
DPS: Short for Damage per second. The amount of damage that dealt per second by a hero.
Dragon Soul: When a team takes their fourth drake, they will gain the Dragon Soul. There are four dragon souls that each offer different buffs and they become permanent buffs for the remainder of the game.
Drake: AKA Dragon. This powerful neutral monster is found in the Summoner’s Rift. Killing a Drake grants your team various effects and buffs.
Dive: To chase a specific enemy unit into a dangerous area – typically near a turret.
Elder Dragon: The Elder Dragon is the final dragon. The Elder Dragon only spawns after the dragon soul has been decided. This dragon is tougher than all the other dragons and gives a buff that allows the receiving team to execute enemy champions at a certain threshold.
Farming: The act of killing creeps for gold and experience.
Flank: A military term. Attacking an enemy – either solo or as a team – by splitting up and surrounding them. Specifically, when a champion sneaks past the frontline to attack the backline champions – typically the job of fighters, bruisers or assassins
Flash: A spell that allows a champion to teleport a short distance.
Frontline: The front of the combat group that can soak a lot of damage.
Fighter: A type of Champion that can typically take lots of damage and deal a moderate amount of damage in return. Also known as a bruiser.
Gank: To ambush an enemy.
Inhib: Short for Inhibitor. A structure that blocks the spawning of super minions from the opposing team. Each team has three Inhibitors in their base, each corresponding to a lane.
Jungler: A Jungler is a type of champion that stays primarily in the jungle. A Jungler is in charge of clearing neutral camps within the jungle and helping their team with objectives, ganks and towers whenever possible.
Lane: The Summoner’s Rift is separated into three main lanes: the top lane, the middle lane, and the bottom lane. These three lanes are where minions travel from one side of the map to the other.
Lane Swap: The act of one or more champions switching dedicated lanes.
Laning Phase: A phase within a match that can last from 10 to 20 minutes. This phase is based around champions gaining gold by farming minions, towers or enemy champions.
Last Hit: The final blow on an opposing minion, creep or champion.
Minion: Non-player characters (NPCs) that spawn from each team’s base.
Nexus: The large structure in each base. The objective of League of Legends is to destroy the opponents’ Nexus.
Picks/Bans: This happens during the drafting phase of the game. Each team gets five champions to select (picks) and five champions they can ban from being selected (bans).
Push: Advancing forward in a lane.
Recall: An ability that all champions have that allows them to teleport back to the team’s fountain. Requires eight seconds. The Baron buff or the Rift Herald buff can shorten this to four seconds as long as the buff persists.
Rift Herald: A monster that spawns in the Baron Pit on the eighth minute. Grants a buff that allows the user to spawn the Herald for your team to help siege towers.
Shotcaller: The player on a team that takes the lead in communication.
Solo Lane: Being the only champion in a specific lane.
Splitpush: When a champion or group of champions switch to another lane that is weak or susceptible to attack.
Stun: A stunned unit or champion will be unable to control abilities, movement, attacks, or active abilities.
Super Minion: Super Minions are upgraded minions that only spawn with the enemy’s inhibitor is destroyed.
Support: A type of champion that dedicates themselves to helping the team with heals, shields, or CC. Tends to spend the early game laning with the marksman.
Squishy: A champion with low health. Can only take little damage before dying.
Tank: A champion that can take massive amounts of damage.
Teamfight: When multiple champions from each team engage in a fight.
Top Laner: A champion dedicated to the top lane.
Turret: AKA a tower. A structure that blocks the enemy’s path to the Nexus. They take high damage and fire at opponents within a certain radius.
Ult: Each champion’s most powerful ability. These don’t become available until level six.
Zoning: The act of pushing an enemy champion(s) away from certain objectives to prevent gold and experience gain.