Popular League of Legends terminology explained

Nicholas James Published 11/12/2021

League of Legends has a long list of jargon, colloquial terms, and fan terminology that can be hard to decipher for players first joining. Understanding these slang terms, shorthand, and important points on the map can help you better communicate with your team.

Here’s a list of some of League of Legends’ most common terms and their explanations.

Gank

A gank is a term for a team’s jungler or laners roaming to a lane and attempting to kill the enemy or enemies in that lane. Gank specifically implies that members of a team have moved to a lane they’re not usually playing in order to surprise the enemy.

Most of the time gank refers to the jungler taking time out or clearing jungle monsters in order to assist an allied laner or kill an enemy.

Aggro

Aggro generally refers to the current target for automated systems like towers, minions, jungle camps, dragons, or Baron Nashor. Having aggro implies that one of these automated elements has decided to damage the player character above other targets.

The conditions for getting tower aggro and angering Baron Nashor are very different, but the term remains the same between use cases.

Camp

Camp has two meanings in League of Legends. One refers to any given neutral monster camp like Krugs, Raptors, Wolves, or either buff. The second meaning is for a player, generally the jungler, to repeatedly gank a lane in order to set that laner as far behind as possible.

If somebody is referring to taking a camp, they’re talking about the jungle. If they mention being camped, it’s repeat visits from the enemy.

Pixel Brush

The term pixel brush refers to two small brushes on either side of mid lane in the river. The moniker pixel is in reference to their small size, which fans jokingly claim is”one pixel wide.” These are often also called river brushes, and are often used by teams to find cheesy plays in the early game or when behind.

FF15

Ff is a common video game shorthand for forfeit or surrender. This is usually a toxic way of saying that the game is already over and suggesting that a team surrender at the soonest possible time, 15 minutes into a Summoner’s Rift game.

Fog of War

Fog of war is the vision-blocking mist that fills areas of Summoner’s Rift that players don’t have vision of.

Funnel

A funnel strategy in League of Legends involves focusing on giving a single team member as much gold and experience as possible in order to supercharge their power level. There were once strategies that involved an AD carry farming mid lane and the jungle at the same time in order to make them as rich as possible.

Inting

Inting is a short form for “intentionally feeding,” implying a player is purposefully dying repeatedly in order to set their team back. Sometimes this is a nonsense accusation leveled by angry players looking for somebody to blame, but other times it can be a lighthearted way of laughing off your own mistakes. As with all slang, context is important.

OOM

OOM is another initialism of an in-game term, “out of mana.” This just means that a player doesn’t have enough mana to cast any spells, or enough spells to be effective in a fight.

Run it down

Running it down refers to the practice of toxic players once running down the mid lane and dying on repeat. Much like inting, it can be a negative or light-hearted term depending on context.

Nicholas James

About Nicholas James

Nicholas James is a gaming writer with a passion for all things geekdom, as well as live theater. Nicholas is best known for covering League of Legends and other top MOBA titles, but his expertise covers numerous games across multiple genres. When not watching the LCS or playing the latest new release, Nicholas can be found doing some tabletop gaming and painting his favorite miniatures. Nicholas has also published with Hotspawn, TheGamer, Dexerto, Esports.gg and other industry outlets.

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