League of Legends Esports Glossary
Aether United has posted a lot of blog posts related to cryptocurrency and blockchain for the past few weeks. I wrote about Kayn a few days ago and I realized that a lot of the terms I used were terms that the average person would never understand. Therefore, I have decided to make a glossary list of some esports/gaming terms to help clear things up. This article will include everything relating to League of Legends esports:
General Information:
LoL — League of Legends ~ Currently the most popular MOBA in the world
MOBA — Multiplayer online battle arena ~ a genre of strategy games. Players control a character in 1 of 2 teams with the objective of destroying the enemy main structure with the help of computer-controlled units that walk down set paths.
Riot — The creator of the League of Legends
Servers: The following are abbreviations of regions where servers are situated. People create accounts in the region that they are living in or closest to in order to have the lowest ping and connection issues:
BR — Brazil
EUNE — Europe Nordic & East ~ Czech, Poland, Greece, Hungary, etc
EUW — Europe West ~ Netherlands, Germany, Spain, England, France, etc
LAN — Latin America North ~ Mexico, Honduras, Nicaragua, etc
LAS — Latin America South ~ Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, etc
NA — North America ~ America & Canada
OCE — Oceania ~ Australia & New Zealand
RU — Russia
TR — Turkey
JP — Japan
SEA — South East Asia ~ Thailand, Philippines, etc
KR — Republic of Korea
PBE — Public Beta Environment ~ A special region for lucky individuals to try new champions, items, or other features that will be introduced into the game in the future.
Competitive Scene:
Leagues: Each region hosts a league where the professional esports teams join together for their shot at the Grand Trophy. Each league has a unique name:
Tier 1 Leagues
NALCS ~ NA’s League of Legends Championship Series ~ North America
EULCS ~ EU’s League of Legends Championship Series ~ Europe
LCK ~ League of Legends Champions Korea ~South Korea
LPL ~ League of Legends Pro League ~ China
LMS ~ League of Legends Masters Series ~ Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau
GPL ~ Garena Premier League ~ Sourtheast Asia
CBLoL ~ Campeonato Brasileiro de League of Legends ~ Brazil
LACN ~ Latin America Cup North ~ Latin America North
LACS ~ Latin America Cup South ~ Latin America South
LJL ~ League of Legends Japan League ~ Japan
TCL ~ Turkey Champions League ~ Turkey
LCL ~ League of Legends Continental League ~ CIS (Russian Commonwealth)
OPL ~ Oceanic Pro League ~ Oceania
There are many other Leagues, but for sake of space, I won’t include those. You can check them out by yourself by searching up “League of Legends Regions”.
Competition Terms: During competitions, there are lots of Riot employees that perform tasks specific to League of Legends tournaments.
Shoutcaster: A shoutcaster is very similar to a sports commentator. Their job is to describe what is happening for each game of League of Legends that is played.
Analyst Desk: A group of four analysts who discuss possible strategies, team compositions, and predictions before a game starts. They also compare previous games and activities that each team has gone through to provide a thorough prediction for how each game could play out. After each game, they also provide thorough analysis and rewatch specific sections of the game to explain possible thought processes going through each players mind. Analyst Desk is sometimes composed of players from the tournament itself.
Other phrases used to reference stuff related to competitions.
Swag: Any merchandise that is sold at tournaments. It could be sold by Riot itself or by the participating teams. Examples include sweatshirts, plushies, hats, etc.
Championship Points: Used to determine position in future competitions for the season. Your seed is determined by the amount of points you accrued, the higher the better.
Relegation: Teams who play terribly get dropped to a lower tier. They are no longer allowed to play at the T1 professional scene.
Summoner’s Cup: The trophy that is won for the number 1 team of the season.
Competitions and Match Types: Each tournament is separated into different match types depending on the severity and position of each team playing.
MSI ~ Mid-Season Invitationals: A competition hosted by Riot that is held halfway through each League of Legend’s season. The top team from every region based on Spring Split will be invited to join. Format follows very closely to Worlds but differs in some small aspects.
RR ~ Rift Rivals: A competition between rival regions. These include NA vs EU, LCK vs. LMS vs. LPL, LLN vs. CBLoL, LCL vs. TCL, and GPL vs. OPL vs. LJL. Learn more here
Worlds: The biggest competition for each season. In 2017, Riot has decided to shake it up. They included more teams with a very specific format. Instead of being Wild Cards, all previous Wild Card regions send one team into Play-Ins. In addition, all three Korean teams are exempt from Play-Ins and immediately get sent into Group Stage. The next four regions in ranking (CN, EU, LMS, NA) send in #3 seeds to Play-Ins but their #1 and 2 seeds are exempt as well.
Play-Ins: 12 teams (Previous wild card and #3 seeds from CN, EU, LMS, and NA) play against each other for the top 4 spots.
Group Stage: The four winners from Play-Ins join the #1/2 seeds from CN, EU, LMS, NA, and the three seeds from Korea to play. Top eight teams will make it to Quarter-Finals
Quarter-Finals: The top eight teams compete for a spot at the Semi-Finals
Semi-Finals: The top four teams duke it out for a spot at Finals
Finals: The top two teams have a final showdown for the grand prize of that year, the Summoner’s Cup, and the funds raised by Championship skins sold during the competition.
That’s it for esports! I’ll post a League of Legends one just for in-game words and phrases in the future.
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