Game Slang

Last updated October 14, 2026

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2-2-2

Or other numbers in the same format mean team composition. The first number indicates the number of tanks, the second — damage dealers, the third — supports. Can also be used without dashes.

3 supp

Any team composition with 3 strategists.

A

acc

Short for an account.

In other games acc also means “accuracy”, but MR players usually call it aim.

ace

Top player. Displayed as a badge in the in-game statistics (when pressing Tab) to indicate the best player on the team.
Multikill with five or more victims.

agent

Either eomm agent, or government agent. Meanings are similar though. It’s a teammate who makes stupid decisions despite playing at high rank.

aim

Accuracy.

aimbot

A cheat that automatically aims at enemy players.

alt

Short for an alternate account.

It is an account that people usually use aside of their main account, to either try new heroes, or to smurf.

amp

Rocket Raccoon’s ultimate — C.Y.A.

angle

A way you interact with enemies.

“Main angle” (used rarely though; see main) is a way where you see enemies and they see you.

“Off-angle” usually means that you see enemies while they do not see you. Most of the time you are off-angling while flanking.

animated lord

The other name for Champion which is currently the latest hero proficency step that changes the icon. Champions have their icons animated.

ankh

A thing Moon Knight leaves on a surface when he uses his Ancient Ankh ability.

anti-cc

See cc.

B

backline

The back side of the enemy team. Usually enemy supports are playing in backline.

The other side is called a frontline.

ball

Jubilee’s Blooming Ball. Usually used as plural though, because people are nasty and we all like dirty jokes.

bc

Black Cat.

beacon

A thing Rocket Racoon leaves on a surface when he uses B.R.B. ability.

bhop

Short for bunny hop.

Consecutive jumps. A technique that allows a player to move around the map faster than usual. It is typically performed by pressing the jump key at the moment of landing. In MR, it works only if the player already has initial momentum.

boop

Pushing enemies via any ability on a distant range. E.g. by using Magneto’s Mag-Cannon or Cyclops’s . Most common meaning.
A shield Magneto gives you with his Metal Bulwark. Rarely used though. It’s usually called a bubble.

boost

Raise, uplift. The intentional act of helping certain players climb ranks they aren’t skilled enough for. Thus, a player who is “carried” this way is boosted.
Damage boost that is applied by any ability. E.g. by Mantis’ Allied Inspiration.

bp

Black Panther.
BattlePass.

brawl

One of the three playstyles: poke, dive, brawl. It’s a close-range playstyle, that is usually melee and most of the time includes a lot of CC abilities. It counters dive due to the range and CC, and is countered by poke because poke out-ranges brawl.

A textbook example of a brawl hero is The Thing.

brb

See beacon.

Very rarely it means “be right back”.

bubble

Any ability that generates a spell field or any effect that looks like a bubble. E.g. Cloak & Dagger’s Dagger Storm, Thor’s Lightning Realm, Namor’s Blessing of The Deep, etc.
A shield Magneto gives you with his Metal Bulwark. Sometimes it is called a bubble.

bucky

Winter Soldier.

bunny hop

See bhop.

bw

Black Widow.

C

c9

To lose a game by being too greedy for kills and leaving the objective.

The term is actually the name of the esports team — Cloud9. In early 2017, during the Overwatch Apex Season 2 tournament, in the match against AF Blue they “c9ed” twice on the first map, effectively giving up the entire map as a result. They also c9ed later in the game one more time.

Cloud9 was one of the strongest team during the tournament, while AF Blue was not. So since Cloud9 lost only becase of kill greed and the lack of coordination, the meme was born.

If you want to see the origin of the term by yourself, here is the recording. Timecodes are: 21:20, 24:45, and 1:09:20.

Today this term is usually used in a broader sense: loosing due to leaving the objective. Mostly it happens during OT.

cap

Captain America.
To capture the point. Usually when someone asks you to cap, it means they want you to go to the point or stay there as long as it possible, depending on the context.

cart

Alias for objective on certain game modes.

cc

Short for crowd control — the abilities or effects that restrict an enemy’s movement or actions, such as stuns, slows, knockbacks, immobilization, knockdowns, or similar disabling effects.

Abilities that prevent CC are called anti-cc.

cd

Short for a cooldown. In a broad sense, it may mean any important ability. E.g. “bp, you need to bait their cds first”. In a narrow sense, cooldown is a time needed for an ability to restore after usage.
Cloak & Dagger. To avoid ambiguity it’s better to use it capitalized or just say cnd instead.

cel

Short for Celestial.

The competitive rank above Grandmaster and below Eternity.

champ

Short for Champion.

Currently it’s the latest hero proficency step that changes the icon. Champions have their icons animated.
It’s also may mean a hero, because in League of Legends they are called this way.

cheaper town hall

A meme based on the commonly misheard voice line of Iron Fist. Sometimes also spelled cheaper townhome.

The voice line is actually 气贯长虹！ or Qì guàn cháng hóng!. It means “My Chi will pierce the rainbow!”. But since Western players can’t spell it correctly, they say the words they know.

The similar joke goes for Luna Snow. One of her lines is “Ice up!”, but if you heard it once as “I suck!”, you can not unhear it.

choke

Short for a choke point. A narrow or constrained part of a map through which players are forced to pass, making it easier to hold or defend.
Emma Frost’s Carbon Crush ability, because she grabs enemies by their necks.

clanker

Ultron.

clops

Cyclops. Also cyc.

cluster

Spider-Man’s Web Cluster ability.

cnd

Cloak & Dagger.

comp

Competitive game mode. Also usually called ranked.
Team composition. In a broad sense, it means the overall composition and how it works or does not work against enemies. In a more narrow sense, it means the scheme of the composition, like 2-2-2.

counter-pick

The way you gain advantage in a game by picking a heroes who have abilities that counter the abilities of your enemies.

Textbook examples of counter-picking are picking Namor against Spider-Man or The Thing against Black Panther.

counter-switch

Same as counter-pick.

crit

Short for critical hit.

A shot that usually deals a double damage by hitting the enemy’s head.

cya

Rocket Raccoon’s ultimate — C.Y.A. But usually nobody calls it that way since it’s commonly referred as amp.

cyc

Cyclops. Also clops.

D

dd

Usually, Daredevil.
Sometimes it means duelists, since “dd” in other games means “damage dealer”.

demo

Match replay.

diff

Short for difference.

Usually used as “X diff” and means something like “our X is better than your X and that is the main reason of the result”. E.g. if each team has Spider-Man, and one of them went with positive KD while the other one went with negative, the teammates of the first one may type “spidey diff” highlighting this difference.

But usually it’s just the way to flex for people with huge ego. In reality it would be the going positive Spider-Man from the previous example who typed “spidey diff” to humiliate the opponent.

dive

One of the three playstyles: poke, dive, brawl. It’s a close-range playstyle, that has high damage per second, high mobility, and usually requires a player to time the abilities right rather then aim all the shots. It counters poke due to high DPS, but is countered by brawl due to lots of CC-abilities that brawl heroes have.

A textbook example of a dive hero is Black Panther.

dm

Most of the time it means “Doom Match” — a game mode where you are revived instantly after your death. In other games it’s called “Death Match” though.
Rarely it means just “direct messages” — a way to send private messages via the game chat (the purple one).

dmg

Damage.

double g

See guanguang.

dp

Deapool.

dps

It stands for “damage per second” and can have two meanings:

The actual damage per second. E.g. when your support says “dps is too high, we need one more healer”.
Any duelist hero, because they usually have higher damage per second. E.g. when your support says “we have 4 dps, pls someone switch to healer”.

duelist

The way dps heroes are officially called in Marvel Rivals.

dunk

A successful Magneto ultimate — Meteor M. The term comes from a basketball. See Slam dunk for more.

E

e

Any ability that is bound on by default, but you do not remember the name of it. E.g. “cyc is killing me with his e bruh”.

elim

Short for an elimination.

It’s a kill. Usually that one that is counted on the left column of the stats window, i.e. not final hit.

eomm

EOMM stands for “Engagement Optimized Matchmaking”, a system designed to maximize player retention by managing win/loss streaks rather than ensuring fair, balanced matches.

There is a conspiracy that NetEase uses EOMM in Marvel Rivals.

eomm agent

A teammate perceived as being so inexplicably bad that players jokingly claim the matchmaking system intentionally put them on the team to force a loss due to EOMM.

Also see government agent.

F

fanta

Mister Fantastic. Also mr fanta.

ff

Stands for forfeit or fast finish.

It means surrender.

“ffs” means “for fuck’s sake” though and has nothing to do with surrendering.

final

Final hit (also known as final blow). The kill where you are the one who did the last damage to an enemy.

Final hits have their own column in the stats at the end of the game.

fist

Iron Fist.

Some people short his name to if.

flank

A side route to the objective. On most maps it lays on the left or the right side of the main route.

If you’re using a flank, you’re flanking.

flanker

Someone who’s using a flank.

Usually, this term is used to describe a hero, not a player. E.g. Magik is usually played as a flanker.

flex

Apart of the meme sense of behaving in a way to annoy people around, it means to be able to play different role. For instance, if you’re usually play Vanguards, but can play Duelists, it means that you can flex.

for the vibes

A community meme meaning “to do something for any purpose but winning”.

It was coined by a streamer zazzastack during a $40k tournament, when she decided not to swap from Black Widow even though going negative, because, as she said, they all were playing for the vibes there.

frontline

The front side of the enemy team. Usually enemy tanks are playing in frontline.

The other side is called a backline.

G

gm

Short for Grandmaster.

The competitive rank above Diamond and below Celestial.

government agent

A teammate who makes stupid decisions despite playing at high rank. It’s a running joke that NetEase being a Chinese company places government agents in your lobby on your team to throw the game when you’re winning too much and NetEase want you to lose.

Also see eomm agent.

grab

Any ability that grabs you. Most common examples are Wolverine’s Feral Leap and Emma Frost’s Carbon Crush, but the latter is commonly called a choke.

guanguang

Guangyun Chen, Creative Director of Marvel Rivals. You can see him in any Dev Vision video. E.g. the one for S10.

Also known as double g, or “guang2”, or in any similar way.

H

half

To be half is to have about 50% of the maximum HP.

hitbox

The part of the hero model that registers hits.

E.g. some skins have external elements that does not register damage you apply to them. That’s because the hitbox of the heroes a smaller than such skins.

Sometimes hitbox is also called hurtbox.

hitscan

The type of attack that applies damage, healing, or an effect exactly at the place you aim, at the moment you push the button. In other words, your attack does not have a travel time as projectile attacks do.
Any hero that has a hitscan attack as their primary. E.g. Hela.

The overall title comes from game dev. When you code a projectile attack, you create, well, a projectile flying through space. Then you calculate its speed, the speed of the enemy, find whether there is a collision, etc. But when you code a hitscan attack, you just check whether one player clicked on the hitbox of an enemy player; in other words, you’re scanning the hitbox of the enemy player.

hook

Winter Soldier’s Bionic Hook ability.

hot

Short for healing over time.

But it is very rarely used this way.

hurtbox

Usually the same as hitbox.

I

i-frame

Short for invincibility frame.

If a hero has an ability with an animation during which there are moments where you can do anything to this hero (no damage, no stuns, nothing) it’s said that this hero has i-frames.

The frame here is meant to be a video frame that your graphics card generates during a game tens or hundreds times per second.

if

Iron Fist. But he is usually called fist.

K

kd

Short for kills per deaths. Sometimes written as k/d.

The amout of kills per deaths. E.g. someone can say that they have “3 kd” which means that their kills is three times higher than deaths. The other way to write about is “k/d”, e.g. “1/8” means 1 kill, 8 deaths.

Also see kda.

kda

Kills / deaths / assists.

Basically the same as kd, but with assists. The actual number is used very rarely ((kills + assists) / deaths), and they people say “kda” they usually mean “kd”.

kite

To kite means to drag an enemy somewhere to make things easier for you in some way.

Usually in Marvel Rivals you kite enemies to your team getting back from spawn. This way you force enemies to overextend and get advantage of the position.

L

lamp

Loki’s Regeneration Domain ability. More specifically — the things Loki deploys with this ability that can be destroyed.

Also known as runes.

lord

The hero proficiency step that changes the hero icon to more fancy one. Usually if player has lord icon it means they have 20+ hours played on this hero only. (Lord icon does not relate to skill level though.)
Star-Lord.

low

To be low means to have a small amount of the maximum HP.

Usually when player has less then 50% HP they are called low.

luna

Luna Snow.

M

main

The hero you decide to play most of the time. People may have multiple mains.
The account you use to play competitive, to buy battlepass, cosmetics, etc. The other accounts are called alts.
The area where the most of the fights are going on on the map. The other areas are called flanks.
The angle you use to fight enemies. E.g. when you just stay in front of the enemy frontline, you’re using main angle; if you’re trying to shoot around frontline or just from an unexpected position, you’re usually using an off-angle.

mainer

The one who mains a hero.

E.g. if you main Spider-Man, you’re Spider-Man mainer.

mama coco

An outdated meme from the first seasons of the game.

When Doctor Strange uses his ultimate, he says “By the Eye of Agamotto!”. But since many people did not care about the lore, they started to make jokes about the way it sounds. It’s funny, because you can hear “But the Eye of Mama Coco!”.

Mama Coco is a character from 2017 Pixar animated movie called Coco.

Similar thing happend to Iron Fist’s ultimate, see cheaper town hall.

mark

To mark an enemy means to prevent this enemy to make an agressive move. Usually it means to drive back a flanker.
The icon shown above the player’s head meaning that some effect was applied to them. Usually referred to Black Panther’s Vibranium Mark that are left by his Spear Toss.

marked

An enemy who was prevented to attack. See mark.

meta slave

The one who picks heros because they are called meta by streamers, not because they are suitable in the current comp.

mk

Moon Knight.

mm

Matchmaking.

In a broad sense it means the way game combines players together. E.g. you can say “omfg this mm is trash”.

In a narrow sense it means Competitive. The game mode where you get and lose points after each game.

mr

Marvel Rivals.

mr fanta

See fanta.

mvp

Most Valuable Player.

This is a player who most impacted the game, and those team is won. The similar player from the losing team is called SVP.

Mid-game you can see who is going to get MVP/SVP at the end by looking at the ace sign near the players’ icons on statistic screen.

N

negative

Going negative means that your KD is below 0.5. In other words, you have more deaths then kills.

nest

The thing Peni Parker deploys with her Bionic Spider-Nest ability (or any other ability like this), that generates Spider-Drones.

netease

NetEase — the developer of Marvel Rivals.

O

oaa

One Above All.

The highest rank in Competitive game mode.

objective

The overall goal of the current map’s game mode. E.g. on Domination maps the objective is the point you need to capture, while on Convoy the objective is a vehicle you need to escort to the end of the map.

The vehicle is also known as cart or playload. The place is usually called point.

off-angle

See angle.

one

One is a callout that can have two meanings:

Can be killed by one shot. E.g. when enemy Magneto has very small amount of HP, you can say “mag one!”.
Separated from the rest of the team. E.g. when enemy Luna Snow is too far away from their team, you can say “luna one!”.

The meaning is usually obvious from the context, but the first one is more commonly used than the second.

one-tap

Kill that was made by one mouse click (or trigger tap). E.g. when Hela is headshotting enemies they may say that she is “one-tapping” them.

op

Overpowered.

Usually used referring to a certain hero that is too powerful to deal with.

On forum-like websites like Reddit OP also means “original poster”, i.e. the person that created a post/comment that you’re referring to. But it’s never used in this way in the game.

ot

Overtime. Most common usage.
One-tap.
Sometimes used as an alias for otp.

otp

One-trick player. It is a player who mains one hero or one role. E.g. there are a lot of Spider-Man OTPs or support OTPs.

ow

Overwatch.

The game from Blizzard that was initially released in 2016 and re-released in 2023 (re-release is also known as ow2).

Since Marvel Rivals is the game of the same genre as Overwatch, they are usually compared on different aspects, and there are lots of players who play both games.

P

payload

Alias for objective on certain game modes.

peek

A movement used to look for an enemy, shot them, and hide again. Usually you’re peeking around a corner.

Should not be confused with pick.

peel

Helping teammates to deal with enemies who attacking them. Usually you can see this term used in a phrase “peel for your supports!”.

E.g. if you see Spider-Man going for your backline while you’re playing dps on frontline, you may go back to peel for your backline, to prevent Spider-Man killing them all.

pick

A hero one is selecting. E.g. if you selected Hela, somebody can say that you “picked hela”. Also see counter-pick.
An opportunity to kill an enemy. Usually used in a phrase like “play for picks”, i.e. “do not play too agressive unless we find an opportunity to kill someone”.

ping

Network latency.

It’s measured in milliseconds and means the time game packets need to spend to get from you to game server (and back, depending on the game).

In Marvel Rivals people usually complain about ping when they have it higher than ≈100 ms. It is also hard to play hitscan heroes when the ping is higher than ≈60 ms.
A callout you can make via game’s interface (by default pressing and picking a target). E.g. you can ping an enemy, a point, or just any place on a map.

plat

Short for Platinum.

The competitive rank above Gold and below Diamond.

poke

One of the three playstyles: poke, dive, brawl. It’s a mid- to long-range shooting playstyle. It counters brawl due to the range, and is countered by dive because dive out-damages poke on melee range.

A textbook example of a poke hero is Hela.

prime bogur

Bogur is a Bulgarian streamer known for playing well on vanguards in Marvel Rivals. His community (called by him a Bogurnation) says he is “in prime” when he lands beautiful ultimates, usually on Doctor Strange. Therefore, when someone says “prime bogur” they usually mean that a tank player is going well.

point

Alias for objective.

positive

Being positive means to have KD higher then 0.5. In other words, to have more kills than deaths.

projectile

A “bullet” of your attack that has a travel time. E.g. Namor’s Trident of Neptune sends a trident — a projectile — to an enemy.
An attack that sends “bullets”, rather then hitscans.
Any hero that has a projectile attack as their primary. E.g. Moon Knight.

psy

Psylocke.

pull

The way Spider-Man is moving enemies from the map — by pulling them via his Get Over Here! ability.

purify

To remove all the negative effects like stuns. There are different abilities that allow to purify teammates. E.g. Gambit has Purifying Pick-Up.

Q

q

Ultimate ability. It’s usually bound to .
Matchmaking queue (as noun or verb; e.g. “q comp” means “start search for Competitive game”).

qm

Quick Match game mode. But it’s usually abbreviated as QP.

qp

Short for Quick Play.

A most common way to call a Quick Match game mode.

Rarely it’s called QM.

R

ranked

The other name for Competitive game mode.

rep

Short for report.

res

Resurrection.

It is what Adam Warlock’s ultimate Karmic Revival does. The term also may be used to any ability that does the same, e.g. for Rocket Raccoon’s B.R.B. (so Rocket deploys “res beacon”).

Sometimes it’s spelled like rez.

rez

Same as res.

rg

Short for regroup.

A callout one can make to ask their team to stop rushing and dying one by one, wait a bit, and go together.

rollout

The fastest way to go from one place to another.

Usually used by Spider-Man or Venom mains since they have abilities to swing around the map and preserve the inertia of the swing.

rune

Loki’s Regeneration Domain ability. More specifically — the things Loki deploys with this ability that can be destroyed.

Also known as lamps.

S

safe ult

Any ultimate that mass heals teammates in place and can not be easily destroyed. In other words, an ult that allow your team to outlive an offensive enemy ultimate.

Not all stragesits have safe ultimates. E.g. Rocket Racoon’s C.Y.A. is not usually count as safe, because it can be destroyed in a second. Adam Warlock’s Karmic Revival is not safe ult, because it does not heal. And so on.

sai

Psylocke.

She called so because it’s her “real” name. At least the name of the Psylocke version that is used in Marvel Rivals.

sg

Squirrel Girl.

smurf

A skilled player who uses an alt to play with other less skilled players in lower ranks, usually to humiliate them.

The story of the name comes from the days of Warcraft II and two players picked the names “PapaSmurf” and “Smurfette” for their alts to humiliate low-level players.

If you’re interested in the history of the term, check this answer on English Stack Exchange. If you want to hear the story of the players, here is a video by theScore esports.

snowball

Luna Snow’s Absolute Zero ability.

It’s called that way because it looks like a snowball.

snowflake

Luna Snow’s Share The Stage ability.

It’s called that way because it shows a little snowflake icon above the teammate’s healthbar on their screen when Luna uses this ability on them.

spawn

A place where you revive after being killed.

spawn camp

Camp is short for camping.

Camping is a behavior when one player is standing still and waiting until other player appears to kill them unexpectedly. So, spawn camping is camping close to the spawn.

It is usually done by highly mobile heroes like Spider-Man against low HP heroes like strategists.

squid

A creature Namor deploys using his abilities like Aquatic Dominion.

stall

To stall means to stay on the point as long as you can.

strategist

The way support heroes are officially called in Marvel Rivals.

supp

Short for support.

support

A type of hero that applies healing on their teammates.

In Marvel Rivals they are called strategists.

svp

Second Valuable Player.

This is a player who most impacted the game, and those team is lost. The similar player from the winning team is called MVP.

Mid-game you can see who is going to get MVP/SVP at the end by looking at the ace sign near the players’ icons on statistic screen.

sw

Scarlet Witch.

But wanda is more used alias for her.

switch

To change a hero.

Also see counter-switch.

T

tank

A type of hero that takes space and controls the frontline of the battle.

In Marvel Rivals they are called vanguards.

temu

A Chinese-owned online marketplace known for selling lots of cheap crap.

The term is used mosty in the context of comparing two players from different sides of the game playing the one character. Saying “we have temu spidey” means that while the enemy team has a cool Spider-Man, our team got a fake one that does not perform that good.

touch

To touch means to go to the point and stay there to make sure that your team is not going to lose because there is nobody on the point.

Usually used at the end of the round when nobody is on point, and somebody is needed there to trigger overtime.

tp

Short for portal.

Used as noun or verb depending on the context.

tricky portal

The portal Doctor Strange creates to catch the enemies by surprise and move them from the map, block the only passages, or spilt the enemy team in half.

U

ult

Ultimate ability. The one you trigger by pressing .

V

vanguard

The way tank heroes are officially called in Marvel Rivals.

W

wanda

Scarlet Witch.

widow

Black Widow.

But usually she is abbreviated as BW.

wolv

Wolverine.

ws

Winter Soldier.

But usually he is called Bucky.

Z

zazza

A reference to Twitch streamer zazzastack.

When someone called zazza (usually a Black Widow player) is means they throw the game doing nothing.

See for the vibes for more context.

zhiyong

Lead combat designer of Marvel Rivals.

Since he is the one who always introduced the balance changes in Dev Vision videos, his name is usually used ironically like “zhiyong, nerf that bp to the ground, i can’t take it anymore”.

zombie thor

Thor when his Hela team-up passive Ragnarok Rebirth is triggered.