Glossary of player terms

“

Hohoho, hohoho! You got owned! Click to listen — The Scout

”

A number of unofficial terms find regular usage in the game. This glossary lists some of the more common ones players may see:

AFK

-Away from Keyboard.

Aerial / Air shot / Airshot

- Hitting or killing an opponent in midair, usually followed from as a result of juggling. An aerial is a type of air shot.

Airblast

- Term for the compression blast ability.

Back-capping / Back-capturing

- See article.

Bodyshotter

- Refers to Snipers who (repeatedly) bodyshot people, rather then headshot, resulting in the enemy having to go get more health.

BRB

- Short for Be Right Back, synonymous with AFK.

Buff

- May refer to the act of a weapon or item being improved or made stronger, or to a charged Buff Banner ready for deployment.

Bunny hopping / B-Hopping

- See article.

Camping / Spawn Camping

- See article.

Cap, Capping, Capped

- A control point capture or the act of capturing a control point.

Carpets / Sticky Carpets / Sticky Bomb Carpets

- Large groups of sticky bombs that render certain areas impassable until dealt with.

Bomb, the / Kart

- The Payload Cart

Cheap

- Describing a tactic that is effective but requires little skill or effort. Often combined with 'spammer'.

Circle strafe

- See article

Crit(s)

- A Critical hit

Crocket

- A Critical Rocket

Crit ÜberCharge / CrÜber / Kritcharge / Kritz / Kritzed

- A Kritzkrieg ÜberCharge, or the act of being subjected to one.

DC / D/C

- Disconnect/ed.

Demo

- A Demoman.

Demoknight

- A Demoman that is carrying the Chargin' Targe and the Eyelander or Scotsman's Skullcutter.

DH

- Used to describe the Direct Hit Rocket Launcher.

DM

- A player or class's "DeathMatch", meaning their combat prowess.

DR

- Used to describe the Dead Ringer Spy watch and also indicate that a Spy that was just killed is using it and is therefore still alive.

Engie / Engy

- An Engineer.

Facestab

- A glitched backstab that registers as an instant kill despite hitting the face.

Failstab

- A glitched backstab that fails to register as a kill on hitting.

FAN / FaN

- Used to describe the Force-of-nature Scattergun.

Farming

- The act of playing with the intention of getting achievements, though it may also refer to Idling or other artificially controlled processes.

Griefing

- See article.

Huntspam / Lucksman / Arrow Spam

- Terms for the Huntsman, its 'lucky' qualities being attributed to its large hitboxes (it uses the same hitboxes as flame particles).

Idler

- Someone who is present on the server but is deliberately AFK for a long period of time to earn items via the random drop system.. Also someone who uses external idling programs or uses idling servers.

Insta-kill / Instakill

- A kill which is inflicted instantly in a single hit, such as out-of-bounds fall damage, being hit by a train or being caught in the Payload explosion.

Intel / Flag

- The Intelligence

Juggling

- See article.

KDR

- Kill death ratio, used in a conversation such as "Player A:whats your kdr?? Player B:27 Kills 7 Deaths". May also be expressed as a simple ratio, ie. 27:4. Medics will gauge this based on assists due to kills not being one of their main sources of points.

Knock back

- See article.

Lag

- Erratic movement a player experiences or witnesses in other players due to poor frame rates and/or a low connection.

Leeching

- Official term for the act of a disguised Spy gaining health from an enemy Medic, Dispenser or Payload.

Mic

- A microphone, used for communication over voice chat or Xbox live.

Micspam

- The act of repeatedly playing sounds through or generally abusing the voice chat feature. This may involve using the program HLSS, which allows users to play .wav files directly through their ingame mic.

Mix

- See PUG.

Nades

- Projectiles fired from the Grenade Launcher.

Needle boosting

- See article.

Nest

- The collectivized area of an Engineer and his buildings.

Newb/Newbie

- Someone who is new to the game.

n00b / noob

- A derogatory term used to imply a player is new to the game and therefore unskilled.

Owned / Pwned

- A taunt used to inform a defeated player that they have been thoroughly beaten to an unseemly degree.

Pipebomb

- An alternate name of the Demoman's sticky bombs.

Piss

- Slang term for Jarate.

Poof / Poofing

- Term for the compression blast ability.

Poofer

- Term for the normal Flamethrower which has the compression blast ability (see above).

Poor and Irish

- A player who does not own any hats, coined by the Gentle Manne of Leisure in a hidden update page.

Pub

- A public server

PUG

- Pick Up Game/Group, referring to a private game with team compositions determined by out-of-game communication (as opposed to a clan match or pub).

Rage

- Term used for the charge a Buff Banner using Soldier has built up.

Ragequit

- When a player leaves the server deliberately straight after getting killed multiple times or getting beaten by the other team (usually out of frustration).

Revving

- Spinning up the Minigun using the alternate-fire button.

Rush

- See article.

Scrim

- A focused multiplayer match, often inter-clan.

SG / Sentry Gun / Turret

- A Sentry Gun

Sol / Solly

- A Soldier

Spamming / Spam

- An unwanted abundance of something such as chat messages, a specific class or a certain attack.

Spawn, The

- The area in which you initially spawn and/or any area in which you respawn.

Spawn Camping

- A situation in which the enemy team is camping your spawn entrance, killing you as soon as you get out.

Spec

- Spectate

Spy Cap

- Using a Spy to secretly capture a control point by slipping behind enemy lines and uncloaking on the point.

Spy Check

- Usually used to ask team members to check for Spies.

Spy Crab

- A Spy who, by crouching and looking up while having the Disguise Kit equipped, has attained the movements of a crab. Also refers to the taunt associated with the Disguise Kit.

Spyro

- A slang term used in game for an enemy Spy disguised as a Pyro.

SR / SCO-RES

- The Scottish Resistance. The SCO-RES definition refers to the page of the WAR Update's comic which partially showed the weapon's name on an obscured crate (the only visible part of the label being SCO-RES).

Stab'n'Sap

- The act as a Spy of going behind an Engineer, backstabbing him then immediately switching to the Electro Sapper and sapping his Sentry Gun before it turns around, then sapping his remaining gear before he respawns.

Stairstab

- The act of jumping over another player's head from an elevated height as a Spy and backstabbing them.

Steamroll

- To take capture points/Intelligence/move the cart extremely quickly at the beggining of a game, often resulting in a crushing defeat (especially when using numerous heavy-Medic pairs).

Stickies

- Sticky bombs.

Tele / TP

- A Teleporter.

Turtling

- See article

Uber

- An ÜberCharge

Ubered

- Someone who is being ÜberCharged

WM1

- (Forward + Mouse1) Derogatory term for the act of suicidally attacking head on with the Flamethrower or Backburner as a Pyro. It is also used to imply the Pyro class requires no skill.

WM2

- (Forward + Mouse2) Term coined after the compression blast buffs were introduced, referring to Pyros who only use the compression blast to reflect projectiles/people regardless of the situation.

Wallhugging

- Referring to a Sniper always hiding behind a wall and only coming out to make a shot.

Wrenching

- The act of repairing/upgrading a building with your Wrench.