Terms That Every Valorant Player Should Know

Valorant Terms, Definitions, Acronyms, and Slang

Welcome to our glossary of Valorant terms! We’ve created this as a dedicated reference for current and future players who want to keep up with communication norms used in discussions both in-game and out of game in places such as forums and Discord.

This list will be updated over time so please let us know if we missed anything that you think should be included in the comments below!

If you’re looking for a specific term or want to explore our list quickly, we recommend using Cntrl + F.

Valorant Terminology

Ace

When one player kills every player on the enemy team.

Stands for aiming down sights.

Anti-eco

Refers to buying weapons to try to keep a lead over a team that is resorting to saving.
Typically you want to take weapons that avoid close quarters combat since a team that is saving can often afford shotguns.
See “Eco/eco-round”

Bomb

Synonymous with “Spike”.

Bunnyhop

An advanced technique that allows you to mix up your movement and move slightly faster than sprinting by buffering your jumps and air strafing.
Also known as b-hop

Buy

Refers to the decisions teams make in relation to buying guns and managing their economy
- Full-buy
  - When your team is able to buy to be fully equipped.
  - Usually a combination of heavy shields + a Vandal/Phantom/Operator/Odin
- Force buy
  - When your team is close to losing or the sides are close to switching so you spend the rest of your remaining credits and buy what you can.
  - Also known as an all-in
- Half-buy
  - When your team chooses to buy but can’t afford a full-buy and it isn’t a force buy. Example: Light armor + Stinger
See eco round

Callout

Refers to indicating a place on a map by a particular name, such as “Heaven”, or “Elbow”.
Example: “Jett killed me from Heaven.”

Camp

To defensively hold an area for a long time, waiting for an enemy rather than seeking them out.

CD

Shortened version for “cooldown”.
Example: Sage – “My heal is on CD”.

Clear/clear site

When the attackers thoroughly check the site before planting the spike to decrease the chance of a hidden defender sneaking upon them.
Example: “The back site cubby is clear.”

Counterstrafe

An advanced firing technique that allows you to shoot accurately if you simultaneously fire when you strafe in the opposite direction.

CT

A term that has been brought over from Counterstrike, referring to “counter terrorists” which are equivalent to Valorant defenders.
It’s often used in callouts such as, “CT spawn” referring to when an enemy is coming from the defender’s spawn.

Cubby

Refers to a part of the map with a deep corner that players can hide and peek from behind.
Here’s a cubby that’s commonly used on Bind:

Here’s another angle:

Crossfire

When two teammates position and fire so they are on opposite sides of an enemy between them.

Default

When you’re on the attacking side and your team plays a neutral/non-commital strategy to gain information and/or look for picks.

Dink

Refers to a headshot that doesn’t kill an enemy, usually used to indicate that the target is close to dying.
Also known as “gooshed”

Double up

Tends to have two different meanings:
- To position with an ally to set yourself up for a trade
- To stack a site with an additional defender when there is usually one

Drop

Refers to buying a teammate a gun.
Example: “Can you drop me a Vandal?

Flick

To quickly move your crosshair and shoot, usually killing a target with a single shot.

Eco/eco round

When a team chooses to save credits in order to have the ability to full buy during the following round.
Also known as “saving”.

Entry fragger

The player or agent who looks to initiate the fight when attacking by entering first and getting the opening kill.
Examples of agents that are typically entry fraggers:
- Phoenix
- Raze
- Reyna

Exit frag

Before a bomb detonates, players will often run away so they can survive and save their guns. Looking for exit frags means to position yourself so you can kill these players rather than trying to defuse (usually done in 1v4, 1v5 situations).
See “Frag”.

Flank

When a player (usually a defender) sneaks around to attack the enemy team from behind.

Flash

Short for “flashbang”, often used in reference to Phoenix’s Q, Breach’s Q, and Reyna’s C.

Flawless

When a team wins a round by killing all enemies and doesn’t suffer any casualties.

Frag

Refers to a kill
Top frag = the player with the most kills on a team or for the match
Bottom frag = the player with the least amount of kills on a team or for the match

GH

Good half.

Gooshed

See Dink.

Hip

Firing from the hip, or without using alternate fire to zoom (ADS).

Heaven/Hell

A callout term often used to describe a high location where snipers and other long-ranged weapons are used from.
Hell refers to the location directly below heaven.
Here is an example of heaven and hell on Split:

Here’s an example of heaven and hell on Haven:

Jiggle peek

To quickly peek out and return to cover to gain information or to bait an enemy into shooting at you.

Line up

A particular positioning set up to guarantee that your ability lands in a certain way.
Here’s an example of a Sova line up that let’s you shoot from Site B to the showers teleporter:

Lit

Often used to describe when an enemy has taken a lot of damage and is close to dying.

Long

Refers to long alleyways and pathways where snipers tend to be.
Here is B Long from Bind from the perspective of the defenders.

Lurk

To position and look out to catch flankers, usually done on offense.

Molly

Short for Molotov, referring to an ability that lingers in an area and deals damage such as Viper C, Phoenix E, and Brimstone Q.

Nt

Nice try.

Ninja defuse

When a defender sneaks past attackers and defuses the spike without the attackers noticing.

One-tap

To headshot with one shot, such as with a Sheriff, Vandal, or Guardian.

One-shot

Similar to “Lit”.

One-way

A smoke grenade that allows a player to see enemies but the enemies cannot see them.
Here’s an example of a Viper one-way on Bind:

Peek

To poke out of cover to look for enemies.

Peek on me/peek off me

Let’s say there are two teammates holding the same angle (Player A and B).
Player A says, peek on me.
This means that Player A wants player B to hide and avoid revealing themselves until they hear Player A making engaging with an enemy.
This helps to ensure that if Player A dies, Player B has a higher chance of getting the trade kill.

Peeker’s Advantage

Due to technical lag time from the game, an aggressive peeker will see an enemy behind cover slightly before the enemy sees them.

Pick

To get safely get a kill on an isolated enemy.
“Play for picks”
- To play passively and wait to punish enemies that push out aggressively

Play slow

To play passively and to delay instead of looking to make aggressively plays to give your team time to rotate before you die.

Plant for “____”

Refers to planting the spike toward a particular location that your team has under control
Here is an example of planting for u-hall/CT spawn on Bind:

Pre-fire

To preemptively fire at an area or angle that enemies are often at.
This can allow you to get the jump on an enemy without having to react to seeing them there initially but it can reveal your location, especially if you have a gun without a silencer

Retake

When the defenders concede a site to the attackers in order to regroup and coordinate to regain control of the site.

Rez

Short for “Resurrection”.

Roomba

Community term referring to Raze’s Boombot.

Rotate

When a player or team commits to traveling across the map to another location.
For attackers, it’s usually when you try to attack a site and realize that it is heavily defended. You can try to rotate to another site quickly and set up before the defenders can readjust.
For defenders, it can be after realizing that the attackers are committing the spike to a site so the remaining defenders try to rotate in time to help defend the spike or defuse it.

Rush

When the attackers try to overwhelm the defenders with speed and superior numbers by quickly running onto site before the defenders can react or send help.

Spawn

Refers to the starting location where players spawn at the beginning of a round.
Here is the attacker’s spawn on Bind:

Stick

When a player commits to defusing a spike rather than tapping it to fake out an enemy.

Stack

To have many team members attack a site or defend an area.
For example, if the defenders have a feeling that the attackers will choose a particular site, they can stack it with more defenders than they would usually commit.

T

Similar to CT, it’s a term that refers to “terrorist”, which is the attacking side in Counter Strike.
Example: “Omen is lurking in T-Spawn.”

Team Ace

When everyone on your team gets one kill and suffers no casualties.

Thrifty

When a team wins an eco round against a team with superior resources.
Example: One team full buys and the other saves. If the saving team wins, it is Thrifty.

TP

Short for “teleport”, usually used in reference to taking a teleporter on Bind “one tp’d” or when an Omen is going to use their ultimate, “I’m going to TP to their spawn”

Trade

When a player dies but their teammate immediately kills the enemy that killed them.

Swing

When you peek quickly and at a wider angle to catch an enemy holding the expected angle by surprise.

Utility

A general term used to refer to abilities.
Examples: “I’m out of utility”, “They used all their utility”.

Wallbang

Getting a kill by shooting through a wall or terrain.

Wall hack

Seeing where an enemy is through the wall, such as with Sova’s Recon Bolt.

Thanks for reading, let us know if we missed any terms and we will add them! This list of terms will continue to grow and improve over time. A big thanks to our Discord community members for helping us put it together.

Valorant Beginners