1st or 8th: A playstyle that usually involves high risk and high reward. Leading games to either a first-place or eighth-place.
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20/20: “20/20” is a term in which players decide to force a single composition for 20 games in a row, usually to show their determination and unwillingness to pivot.
AD: Attack Damage.
Adapt: This is the act of flexing multiple lines. Often hard to pull off but highest skill expression.
All In: To use all your resources.
Angle: This is the act of looking towards a certain line.
AP: Ability Power.
BB: Blue Buff.
Bench: Area where champions are placed before going on the battlefield.
BIS: Best in slot. For example, the 3 best items on a champion. Could refer to Augments too. “My Ezreal is BIS” = My Ezreal has his best items.
Board: This is the space in which the player can put their units.
Bow: Recurve bow.
Bug: An exploit of the game that is not intended.
Build: The items that you put on a unit.
Buff: To empower, usually by the TFT balanced team or in-game by applying more items.
BT: Bloodthirster.
Capped: The act of making one’s board as strong as possible. Also, used as a “Max cap”.
Carousel: A round in which players can get champions and items off of, usually 2-6, 3-6 and so on.
Carry: Is the strongest unit on your board.
Chosen: A term made in set 4, a two-star champion with added bonuses, in set 10 it is called headliners.
Climb: This is the act of gaining LP to “climb” the rank ladder.
Cloak: Negatron Cloak.
Comp: The units in which field your battlefield.
Contested: Holding the same units between two players makes it harder to hit the other units (because of the smaller bag size)
Cook: Preparing a spicy combination (either team comp, item combo, or positioning) to make a difference in the gameplay. Comes from a meme: let him cook.
Donkey Rolling: Rolling to 0 gold every turn. Sometimes we can’t help rolling to 0 because we think we can hit our units.
Econ: Short for Economy.
EoN: Edge of Night.
Fast 8: Reaching level 8 at a relatively fast tempo. Usually involves boarding a weaker board throughout the early game.
Flex: A style of gameplay that does not involve forcing one comp, instead looking at many different lines of play.
FoN: Force of Nature – was the old name of a Tactician’s Crown.
Force: This is the act of choosing a line of play that focuses on a singular comp, often not looking at other lines.
GB: Guardbreaker.
Ghost: Fighting a player’s board which does not affect the enemy’s HP. Usually in odd persons’ lobby
Giga: A preposition used in similar forms of super- or hyper-. Example: “I’m about to giga-spike” = I’m about to spike a lot. “My Aphelios is giga-BIS” = Maybe you have all the radiant items of normal BIS Aphelios/
Greed: This is the act of saving either health points or gold for a future better board.
Going eighth / goin eif: Streamer terminology of going last place or can also be used when low rolling or when something bad has occurred.
Grief: Purposely stealing units, holding units, and positioning for a player. Target griefing is common in high elo.
GS: Giant Slayer.
Headliners: Are purchased from your shop at 2 stars, offer an additional +1 towards a given trait, and have unique Headliner bonuses.
High Roll: Getting blessed with the best odds, units, or item combinations. Example: Getting a legendary on level 7.
HoJ: Hand of Justice.
Holding Bench: The act of buying units on the bench and not including them on the battlefield.
Holding Hands: Playing the same comp as someone else in the lobby. Usually implies splitting units with them.
Horizontal Comp: wtf is a horizontal comp xdd
Hyper Roll: The act of rolling on 3-1 to around 32 gold to maximize the amount of 1 cost units to get.
IE: Infinity Edge.
Inting: League term of intentionally losing – used in TFT as losing purposely.
It’s a first / issa forst: Streamer terminology of going first. Can also be used when high rolling or when something good has occurred.
It Clicked: A term that is used when a player thinks they have the tech or when a player climbs a lot of LP.
Item Holder: This is a unit in the early game that is sufficient in holding carry items for an easy transition later.
JG: Jeweled Gauntlet.
Lives: The number of rounds you can lose before dying.
Low Roll: The opposite of high roll. Getting insanely unlucky odds, units, or item combinations. Example: Getting 3 cloaks at Krugs.
LW: Last Whisper.
Matchmaking: How the game matches up players of similar skill levels.
Meta: Games current effective way of playing.
Mortdogged: Getting unlucky.
Natural: To be given something without rolling for it. Example: naturalling Annie 3 by 2-1
Neeko: Usually talking about a lesser unit duplicator or greater unit duplicator. Or just the unit Neeko.
Next in: When leveling, “next in” is the next unit that fixes into the comp.
Numbers such as 4-1: These are usually just the stage number
Open Fort: This action usually involves selling your entire board during stage 2 to maximize one’s economy or grief someone.
PBE: Public Beta Environment.
Pivot: To change compositions, also see transitions.
Plus 1 / +1: When leveling, the unit that is added to the existing comp.
Pocket: Refers to the hex all the way on the left side of your board on the 3rd row.
Portal: Refers to the 3 options you get to choose from at the beginning of each game.
Prelevel: Buying XP so that you will level up on the next round, such as going from 4/10 XP to 8/10 XP and getting 2 passive experience next turn to level up. This is used to give better shop odds.
PvE: Player versus Environment. (minions)
PvP: Player versus Player.
QSS: Quicksilver
Rats: Someone who purposely takes items or units from carousels to grief you. Also can include holding units, preventing you from hitting 3 stars.
RB: Red Buff
Reroll: Going for 3-star units by refreshing or rerolling your shop constantly
Sack: To purposely lose, usually to improve the economy or maintain a 5-loss streak.
Scout: To look at other players’ boards, often to gauge player strengths
Send it: This is the act of using all of your gold to either level or roll down
Stable / Stabilized: Having a strong enough board to not lose, or not lose too hard during the stage.
Slam: Usually talking about slamming components on units or full items to gain an advantage.
Slow Roll: Rolling until you have 50g every turn. This is done so that you can maintain the maximum amount of interest gold per round while still rolling for units. Popular with Reroll strategies
Spike: To obtain upgrades. Example: I hit an Ezreal 2, and I spiked!
Splash: Adding a random unit to your comp, usually a unit that applies teamwide buffs, not a particularly strong unit by itself.
Standard: Reaching level 8 at a standard tempo. Usually involves maintaining a strong board throughout the game.
Stimmy: When reaching a certain hp: a pack of goods would be given. Only in certain portals or game modes.
Strongest Board: Creating the strongest board that one can make with their gold and items.
Swap: This is the act of changing positioning last second to attain a positional advantage.
Tech: This is a certain composition or playstyle that one believes is more advantageous than the meta but quite hidden.
Tempo: A playstyle in which the player plays with the lobbies tempo, see standard tempo.
TG: Thief’s Gloves.
Trait: Common name for all synergies.
Vertical Comp: Playing all the units of the same trait which usually unlocks their “prismatic” bonuses.
Vest: Chain Vest.
Transition: This is the act of changing boards/comps over one turn.
WIS: Worst in slot. For example, the worst items for a champion. “My Samira is WIS” = Your Samira has horrible items.
XP: Experience Points.
Zephyr cheese: Waiting until the last possible moment in order to use Zephyr a unit.
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Good luck to you! – Cheng