Online Gaming Morphology Map
A note before you read on: this entry intends to catalogue the insult vocabulary of competitive online gaming—and primarily that of League of Legends, where I’ve received insults with unparalleled levels of both creativity and malice. These include slurs, ableist and sexual epithets, and language explicitly meant to degrade and offend. Of course, I do not condone this language but merely present it as data. To those who have never played an online competitive game, the list below will likely read as both offensive and unparseable. And for everyone else, worry not—I’ve only included the usual Tuesday-morning fare. Even so, consider yourself WARNED!
Hover (or tap) any underlined term for its meaning — or browse the full glossary.
Augmentative prefixes
Intensifiers — they scale up whatever follows.
- astro-Intensifier: "astronomically", to a vast degree.
- turbo-Intensifier: "extremely", and aggressively so.
- giga-Intensifier: "enormously" (literally a billion-fold).
- mega-Intensifier: "hugely".
- ultra-Intensifier: "to the extreme".
- hard-Intensifier: "thoroughly, decisively" — as in hardstuck, hard-inting.
Pejorative prefixes
Intensifiers that also pass judgement — they belittle as they amplify.
Verbal stems
The actions — what one player does to another.
- fuckVulgar: to dominate or ruin utterly.
- intShort for "intentionally feeding" — to lose on purpose by repeatedly dying to the enemy.
- clapTo beat decisively, hand someone a one-sided loss.
- gapTo outclass; the visible skill "gap" between you and your opponent.
- gapeVulgar escalation of "gap" — to be utterly outclassed.
- mogTo overshadow so thoroughly it humiliates; to outclass and dominate. (From "AMOG", alpha-male-of-group.)
- stompTo win overwhelmingly, with no real contest.
- smurfTo play a low-ranked account well below your real skill, crushing weaker opponents; also the account itself.
- diffFrom "difference" — to beat your direct counterpart. "Jungle diff" = our jungler outplayed yours.
- [deep]fryTo destroy thoroughly; to outplay someone so badly they look cooked.
- reportTo file an in-game complaint against a player; "reported" is used as a verbal jab.
- griefTo deliberately ruin your own team’s game (refusing to play, sabotaging) without necessarily feeding.
- carryTo win the game largely single-handedly, dragging weaker teammates to victory.
- throwTo lose from a winning position through avoidable mistakes.
- feedTo die to the enemy repeatedly, "feeding" them gold and strength.
Attributive nouns
Labels pinned to a player like an epithet.
- [e]lo(w)"Elo" is a numeric skill rating; "elow" / "low elo" puns it into "low" — i.e. low-skill.
- [trash]canA worthless player (trash + receptacle).
- [hard]stuckStuck at a rank and unable to climb out of it; "hardstuck" stresses how immovably.
- [rank]One’s competitive division or rating.
- homelessGeneric insult: destitute, pitiful, with nothing to one’s name.
- clown/jesterA fool; someone playing so badly it’s a circus ("clown fiesta").
- bot/npc"Bot" = computer-controlled, i.e. playing mechanically; "npc" = a background non-player character, lacking independent thought.
Locative nouns
Where the low-skilled are imagined to be confined.
Emphatic determiners
They certify the insult that follows as total and beyond dispute.
Terminal nouns
The head noun the whole insult builds toward.
Example usage
- just turbomogged this ultra hardstuck inting shitstain pdf file
- im gigagapping this absolute cancerlow turbothrowing reject