Game Slang

#

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.

A

acc

Short for an account.

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

ace

1. Top player. Displayed as a badge in the in-game statistics (when pressing Tab) to indicate the best player on the team.
2. 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.

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

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

boost

1. 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.

2. Damage boost that is applied by any ability. E.g. by Mantis’ Allied Inspiration.

bp

1. Black Panther.
2. 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

1. Any ability that generates a spell field that looks like a bubble. E.g. Cloak & Dagger’s Dagger Storm or Thor’s Lightning Realm.
2. 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

cap

1. Captain America.
2. 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

1. 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.
2. 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.

1. Currently it’s the latest hero proficency step that changes the icon. Champions have their icons animated.
2. 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

1. 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.
2. 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

1. Competitive game mode. Also usually called ranked.
2. 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

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

demo

Match replay.

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

1. 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.
2. 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:

1. The actual damage per second. E.g. when your support says “dps is too high, we need one more healer”.
2. 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

hitscan

1. 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.
2. Any hero that as a hitscan attack as their primary. E.g. Hela.

hook

Winter Soldier’s Bionic Hook ability.

hot

Short for healing over time.

But it is very rarely used this way.

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”.

L

lamp

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

Also known as runes.

M

main

1. The hero you decide to play most of the time. People may have multiple mains.
2. The account you use to play competitive, to buy battlepass, cosmetics, etc. The other accounts are called alts.
3. The area where the most of the fights are going on on the map. The other areas are called flanks.
4. 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

1. To mark an enemy means to prevent this enemy to make an agressive move. Usually it means to drive back a flanker.
2. 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

1. In a broad sense meta is the overall concept of bad, good, and best heroes, their team-ups, match-ups, and the way they should be played today. E.g. you can say “this season is dive meta”, which means that dive heroes are stronger than others.
2. In a narrow sense meta is the best in role characters. E.g. “hela is meta” means that there is no stronger duelists (or at least poke duelists).

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.

off-angle

See angle.

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

1. Overtime. Most common usage.
2. One-tap.
3. 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

1. A hero one is selecting. E.g. if you selected Hela, somebody can say that you “picked hela”. Also see counter-pick.
2. 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.

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.

projectile

1. 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.

R

rune

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

Also known as lamps.

S

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.

strategist

The way support heroes are officially called in Marvel Rivals.

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.

switch

To change a hero.

Also see counter-switch.

V

vanguard

The way tank heroes are officially called in Marvel Rivals.