LoL Glossary: 50+ League of Legends Terms Explained (Roam, Harass, Takedown)

KDA

Kills / Deaths / Assists. As a ratio, KDA = (kills + assists) ÷ deaths, with deaths counted as 1 if you never died. It's the most visible match stat and the most overrated when read alone — read it together with death timing, lane-opponent deltas, and damage share.

Full guide:What Is KDA? How to Calculate It and What Counts as a Good KDA (Measured by Rank)

Takedown

A kill or an assist — any champion kill you took part in. It is the unit behind kill participation (KP) and many challenges and stat pages. Because it ignores who landed the last hit, it reflects support and tank contribution better than the K in KDA.

Full guide:What Is Kill Participation (KP)? How to Calculate It and Measured Role Averages

KP (Kill participation)

The share of your team's kills you took part in: (kills + assists) ÷ team kills. Measured in JP1 solo queue (patch 16.20, n = 640 games), median KP in Gold is Top 30.1%, Jungle 55.7%, Mid 46.4%, ADC 45.6%, Support 54.7%. It drops when you farm in isolation and rises when you join ganks and fights.

Full guide:What Is Kill Participation (KP)? How to Calculate It and Measured Role Averages

CS (Creep Score)

Last hits on minions and neutral monsters — in match data, totalMinionsKilled plus neutralMinionsKilled. The total grows with game length, so compare CS per minute instead.

Full guide:What Is a Good CS Per Minute in LoL? CS/min Chart, Measured Medians by Rank, Calculation & Tips

CS per minute

CS divided by game minutes — a length-normalized measure of farming. Measured in JP1 solo queue (patch 16.20, n = 640 games), median CS/min in Gold is Top 7.08, Jungle 6.51, Mid 6.74, ADC 7.68, Support 1.13. Supports are low by design because they leave minions to their laner. Compare within the same role and rank, or against your lane opponent, rather than against a fixed target.

Full guide:What Is a Good CS Per Minute in LoL? CS/min Chart, Measured Medians by Rank, Calculation & Tips

DPM (Damage per minute)

Damage dealt to champions (totalDamageDealtToChampions) divided by game minutes, so games of different lengths compare fairly. Measured in JP1 solo queue (patch 16.20, n = 640 games), median DPM in Gold is Top 633, Jungle 531, Mid 756, ADC 704, Support 375. Tanks and supports naturally sit lower, so read it against the role's job.

Full guide:LoL Damage Explained: Damage Types, DPM vs DPS, and Damage Share by Role

Damage share

Your portion of the team's damage to champions. Measured in JP1 solo queue (patch 16.20, n = 640 games), median damage share in Gold is Top 22.2%, Jungle 16.9%, Mid 21.7%, ADC 22.1%, Support 11.4%. It surfaces contribution that KDA can't see, but what counts as good depends on whether your role is meant to deal damage.

Full guide:LoL Damage Explained: Damage Types, DPM vs DPS, and Damage Share by Role

Vision score

Riot's combined measure of vision work: wards placed (credited for the vision they actually provide while alive), enemy wards cleared, and control wards. The exact weights aren't published. It grows with game length, so compare it per minute — measured in JP1 solo queue (patch 16.20, n = 640 games), median vision score per minute in Gold is Top 0.87, Jungle 0.98, Mid 0.77, ADC 0.62, Support 2.74.

Full guide:What Is a Good Vision Score in LoL? Measured Benchmarks by Role and Rank (Per Minute)

APM (Actions per minute)

Inputs per minute — clicks, key presses and ability casts. The stat comes from RTS games; League's client and match data have no APM field, so any APM you see is an external tool's estimate. In LoL, correct decisions matter far more than input speed, so it's a low-priority number.

Full guide:What Is APM (Actions Per Minute) in LoL? What It Means and Why It's Overrated

Voidgrubs

Three neutral monsters that spawn at 8:00 in the top-side pit (Baron's pit). They don't respawn: the camp despawns at 14:45, and Rift Herald spawns in the same spot at 15:00. Each grub killed gives the whole team a Touch of the Void stack, which makes basic attacks on structures burn for true damage; at three stacks the team gains Hunger of the Void, which summons Voidmites to help take turrets.

Elemental Drake

Neutral objective that first spawns at 5:00 and respawns 5 minutes after it dies. Each drake grants a permanent buff that depends on its element. When a team takes its fourth drake it claims the Dragon Soul, and from then on the pit spawns the Elder Dragon instead.

Baron Nashor

The map's strongest neutral objective, spawning at 20:00 and respawning 6 minutes after it dies (it spawned at 25:00 through 2025; patch 26.01 moved it back to 20:00). Killing it buffs every living teammate and empowers nearby minions. Often the central play of the mid-to-late game.

First Blood

The first champion kill of the game. It pays a 100-gold bonus on top of the normal kill bounty (300 gold in the early levels), making it an early lead lever.

First Tower

The first turret destroyed in the game. It grants a 300-gold bonus on top of the normal turret rewards, and opens up the map for the team that takes it.

Shutdown (Bounty)

Bonus gold for killing an enemy who has built up a bounty. It used to be driven by kill streaks, but since patch 14.21 it is purely gold-based: a bounty accrues from a champion's net gold — gold earned from kills and assists (about 1 bounty gold per 4 gold), plus farm while ahead (about 1 per 20 gold), minus the gold handed to killers on death — and once it passes a threshold it shows to enemies as shutdown gold. Getting killed clears the bounty (any amount above 700 gold carries over to the next life). It's the game's built-in comeback lever, so a fed player must play to avoid handing it back.

Wave management

Controlling where the minion wave meets in lane. The basic tools are freezing, slow pushing, and crashing the wave. It decides gank exposure, turret safety, and when you can roam or recall.

Full guide:Wave Management 101: Freezing, Slow Pushing, and Crashing

Freeze

Holding the wave just outside your own turret by keeping the enemy wave 3–4 minions larger than yours and only last-hitting. Your opponent has to walk up to farm, which exposes them to ganks.

Full guide:Wave Management 101: Freezing, Slow Pushing, and Crashing

Slow push

Letting your wave grow by thinning the enemy wave slowly, so a large wave builds toward the enemy turret. Used to set up a recall, a roam, or a gank.

Full guide:Wave Management 101: Freezing, Slow Pushing, and Crashing

Reset

Going back to base to buy items and heal. Pushing the wave just before you recall forces the opponent to choose between recalling too or losing CS and turret health.

Trade

A short exchange of damage in lane. You "win" a trade by taking less HP and mana damage than you deal. Stacking favorable trades while still farming creates the opening for an all-in or a roam. Cooldowns and nearby minion count decide who comes out ahead.

Harass

Chipping the lane opponent's health with auto-attacks or abilities while taking little back, usually while still last-hitting. The goal is to force a recall or make farming unsafe. Long-range champions excel at it; the receiving side answers by standing behind minions or saving sustain. Unlike a trade, harass aims to deal damage without eating a response.

All-in

Committing your full kit and summoners to try to kill the target outright — a kill if it lands, your death if it doesn't. Check the opponent's Flash and escape cooldowns, the wave position, and the enemy jungler before you go.

Jungle

The map area between the three lanes, where neutral camps spawn. The jungler's home turf, covering both teams' quadrants and the objective pits.

River

The diagonal channel through the middle of the map, home to the drake and Baron pits and the scuttle crabs. The contested zone between lanes and jungle, and the center of early vision fights.

Scuttle (Rift Scuttler)

Neutral river camp. When killed it leaves a shrine that grants vision and a movement-speed zone. A key early-game river control objective.

Gank

A jungler (or a roaming laner) entering a lane to create a numbers advantage for a kill or to burn summoner spells. A successful gank snowballs the lane; a failed one costs time and XP while the enemy jungler plays on the other side. Clearing enemy vision first keeps it hidden.

Full guide:Jungle Pathing 101: Evaluate Your Jungle Game From the Match Data

Counter-jungle

Stealing camps from the enemy jungle. Forces an XP and gold lead but exposes you to a 2v1 if their jungler and a laner converge. Best on invade-strong champions like Shaco, Kindred, and Lee Sin.

ShacoKindredLee Sin

Full guide:Jungle Pathing 101: Evaluate Your Jungle Game From the Match Data

Roam

Leaving your lane to assist another lane or contest an objective. Push the wave in first — roaming off a lost wave costs you CS and turret plates. Mid laners reach both sides fastest, so roam timing defines mid-game tempo.

Full guide:Wave Management 101: Freezing, Slow Pushing, and Crashing

Control ward

A 75-gold ward (40 gold once the support quest is complete) that is visible to enemies. It reveals and disables enemy wards in its radius and also exposes traps and camouflaged champions. It has 4 health; each player can have one on the map and carry two. Measured in JP1 solo queue (patch 16.20, n = 640 games), median control wards bought per game in Gold are Top 0.0, Jungle 3.0, Mid 1.0, ADC 0.0, Support 8.5 — outside support and jungle, almost nobody buys them.

Full guide:What Is a Good Vision Score in LoL? Measured Benchmarks by Role and Rank (Per Minute)

Prox / Proximity

Short for proximity, used in callouts: "jungler mid prox" means the enemy jungler is near mid lane.

Engage

Starting a teamfight, typically with a gap-closer that lands crowd control, such as Nautilus Q or Leona E. Timing and target choice decide whether the fight is winnable.

NautilusLeona

Disengage

Tools that break off a fight or push enemies away to reset it, such as Janna R or Gragas R. The counter to hard-engage compositions.

JannaGragas

Peel

Protecting your carry from enemy threats with crowd control, shields, or your own body. A core support and tank job in teamfights.

CC (Crowd Control): Immobilize & Impaired movement

Any effect that limits what an enemy can do. Immobilizing effects take away control of movement entirely: stuns, roots (snares), airborne (knock-ups), suppression, sleep, and forced-action effects like charm and taunt. Impaired movement is the wider group — every immobilizing effect plus slows, grounding, and drowsy. Match data records CC as time spent crowd-controlling enemies (timeCCingOthers), which is how engage and support contribution shows up in the numbers.

Focus

Concentrating the team's damage onto one target in a fight — usually the highest-threat carry, or whoever is caught out of position. Killing enemies one at a time creates a numbers advantage faster than spreading damage across everyone.

Full guide:ADC Positioning: What KDA Hides and Damage Share Reveals

Dive

Going under the enemy turret for a kill. Requires coordination and someone to take turret aggro. Failed dives bleed gold to the enemy.

Bait

Deliberately looking vulnerable to lure the enemy into committing a spell, an all-in, or a tower dive, then turning on them. It works on an information gap — a hidden jungler or an un-spotted Flash. If the enemy can see the trap, it isn't a bait.

Pick comp

A composition built to catch isolated targets out of vision — an assassin like Zed paired with catch tools like Ahri's charm. Strongest in the mid-game setup around objectives.

ZedAhri

Poke comp

A composition built on long-range chip damage before the fight commits — Xerath, Varus, Jayce. It wins by softening enemies before an objective until they can't afford to fight.

XerathVarusJayce

Teamfight comp

A composition optimized for 5v5 fights — area damage, tankiness, sustain. It wants the game decided in mid-to-late objective fights.

Summoner spells

Two shared spells each player brings into the game on top of their champion's kit. Cooldowns are long — Flash 300 seconds, Ignite 180, Heal 240 — so tracking when the enemy used theirs tells you when to make a play.

Flash

A short-range blink on a 300-second (5-minute) cooldown, used to escape, dodge a skillshot, cross a wall, or close the gap for a kill. The window while an enemy's Flash is down is the time to make a play.

Ignite

Damage over time plus Grievous Wounds (reduced healing) on one enemy. Its 180-second cooldown is short for a summoner spell, and it raises early kill pressure — a staple on aggressive top, mid, and support picks.

Teleport

A channel that moves you to an allied turret, minion, or ward across the map. Standard on top lane, and the main resource for joining fights and objective contests far from your lane.

Recall (B)

An 8-second channel back to base, interrupted by damage. Recalling while unseen turns downtime into items without giving the enemy information.

Base / Fountain

Your team's spawn area, where recall takes you. It heals you and lets you buy items.

Ranked Solo / Duo

The standard ranked queue, played alone or with one duo partner. LP gained and lost moves you between divisions and tiers.

Full guide:Korea vs Japan Solo Queue by Rank: Deaths, KP, DPM and CS/min at the Same Tier (KR vs JP1, Measured)

Ranked Flex

A separate ranked queue that allows larger premade parties. Its rank and MMR are tracked separately from Solo/Duo.

Tier / Division

Rank ladder structure: Iron → Bronze → Silver → Gold → Platinum → Emerald → Diamond → Master → Grandmaster → Challenger. Each tier up to Diamond has divisions IV through I; Master and above have none.

Full guide:LoL Beginner Stat Targets: Measured CS/min, KP, Vision and Deaths by Rank

LP

League Points, gained for ranked wins and lost for losses. Reaching 100 LP moves you straight into the next division with the extra LP carried over — promotion series were removed in 2023. Master and above have no divisions; players are ordered by LP on a single leaderboard.

MMR

Matchmaking Rating — Riot's hidden skill rating, separate from your displayed rank. It picks your opponents and influences LP gains: when your MMR is above your rank, wins tend to give more LP and losses cost less.

ARAM

All Random All Mid: random champions on the single-lane Howling Abyss map. No use for practicing laning or jungling, but good for teamfighting and landing skillshots, and games are short.

Surrender (FF)

A team vote to end a game early. Type /ff or /surrender in chat to start it. On Summoner's Rift a vote can be called from 15 minutes and passes when 4 of 5 players (70%) agree; abstaining counts as a no vote. With three or fewer active players the vote must be unanimous, and a team with an absent player can surrender from 3:30 with a unanimous vote. Conceding winnable games stalls improvement, but cutting losses on a clearly lost game is a legitimate call.

Meta

The champions, items, and strategies that are strong on the live patch. League patches roughly every two weeks, so read it from stat sites' win and pick rates — not from an LLM, whose knowledge stops at its training cutoff.

Full guide:Why AI Coaches Sometimes Give Bad LoL Advice (and How to Prompt Around It)

Tier list

A ranking of champion strength on the current patch (S/A/B/C). Stat sites such as op.gg and u.gg build them from win and pick rates.

Full guide:Why AI Coaches Sometimes Give Bad LoL Advice (and How to Prompt Around It)