Esports Glossary

  • Updated

This article explains common terminology used by Generation Esports as well as the wider gaming/esports community. 

 

  • Application 

    • You apply to join the communities for tournaments (e.g. MSEL, HSEL, MGL).

  • Away team/player

    • The team/player that will join the custom match. I.e. this team does not create the custom match.

  • Ban

    • The rejection of a map, character, equipment, etc. within a game/match. See the Knowledge Base for more information for each specific game.

  • Battle Pass

    • A digital ticket purchased to allow access to paid tournaments.

    • Purchase as Self: Passes that are linked to a user's account and can be gifted.

    • Purchase as Team: Passes linked to a team can be assigned and revoked to various team members by team administrators.

  • BG

    • Bad Game, usually expressed at the end of a game, often in a negative manner.

  • BR

    • Battle Royale game (e.g. Fortnite, Apex Legends, CoD: Warzone)

  • Bracket

    • The tree of matches used in the playoff/elimination stage of the competition. 

  • Bye Win

    • Advancing to the next round of the tournament due to an odd number of teams. 
    • Bye Wins are counted the same as any other win in regular season standings. Players/teams awarded a Bye Win are given priority status in the queue system for the next match.

  • Challenge Tournament

    • A free Summer tournament run by the High School Esports League, the participants of which may be players that satisfy eligibility requirements (students). Teams for this type of tournament may contain players that do not currently belong to a team or belong to the same school.

  • Community

    • A hub for tournaments and announcements for specific organizations (e.g. HSEL, MSEL, or PREL.)
    • Teams may be associated with at most one community.

  • Cross-Platform

    • A game where users can play together in multiplayer regardless of their platform. Example: PC, Xbox, and Playstation users all can play together.

  • Cross-Platform Tournament

    • A tournament in which we allow players to use any number of platforms to be matched against each other.

  • DDOS

    • Direct Denial of Service
    • A flooding of information on the game’s servers or a user’s connection causing an increase in lag or negatively impacting server stability. 

  • DQ

    • Disqualification from one or more matches.

  • EZ

    • Quick Chat for “easy”. Sometimes used in a negative manner.

  • Finals / Grand Finals

    • The final match in the previous single-elimination bracket that consists of two teams. Tournament finals should follow standard playoff match length and rules unless otherwise specified.

  • Forfeit (FF)

    • To submit a loss before the match has completed.  

  • Format

    • The ruleset defining the structure of the tournament stages and game rules.

  • FPS

    • First Person Shooter game (e.g. Valorant, CS:GO, CoD: Cold War)

  • Free Agent Players

    • Students participating on a Free Agent Team during an High School Esports League Open Tournament. These students do not need to attend the same school or be enrolled in the same (or any) team to participate on a Free Agent Team’s Roster.  Free Agents may only participate in the Challenge tournaments. 
    • School Team Players may participate in Challenge tournaments as Free Agent players for other teams.

  • Free Agent Teams

    • Teams formed of students from different high schools competing in a Challenge Tournament. Rosters created within a free agent team compete in the same divisions as school teams during Challenge Tournaments. 
    • Free Agent Teams are not permitted to participate in HSEL/MSEL/NJCAAE Major (Fall and Spring) tournaments, but this may vary in other communities. 

  • Free to play (F2P)

    • Games that cost no money to download and play.

  • Game Connection

    • An individual's name which will display in-game for a specific game connected on their Generation Esports profile.
    • See also: Gamertag, Ingame Name, Screen Name

  • Gamertag/Screen Name 

    • Unique custom name created by all players which can be seen in-game. 

  • GG

    • Good Game - a quick chat pleasantry exchanged at the end of the game. 
    • See also, BG

  • GLHF

    • Good Luck Have Fun - a quick chat pleasantry used before the game or round starts.

  • Hack

    • A form of cheating. Common examples of “hacking” include scripting (see below), aim-assistance, gaining additional information about player/equipment location (map hack), and eliminating visual textures (wall hacking).

  • Home team/player

    • The team/player that will set up the Custom Match (see custom match)

  • Invitational

    • A tournament with a limited number of players invited to compete. 

  • Lag

    • A slowed response time between a gaming device and the game’s servers. 

  • Leaderboard

    • A chart that displays the seeding of the players/teams for a specific game tournament.

  • Lobby

    • The “waiting room” which all players connect to before the round begins. 

  • Major Tournaments

    • A Spring/Fall tournament hosted by HSEL or MSEL in which the players will be students all attending the same school, invited by an admin who is a teacher/faculty.
    • Free Agents and Free Agent Teams are not permitted in Major tournaments.

  • Make-up match

    • An additional match which can be played through the queue by any teams that were unable to play one or more previous matches in a tournament.

  • Match

    • Also known as a single bout of competitive play. A match may consist of a set of games (e.g. Best-of-3, Best-of-5, etc).

  • Match Chat

    • A public chat for all members in the game.

  • Match Dispute

    • A support ticket that is submitted to Generation Esports staff to protest the result of a match or inform about rule-breaking.
    • Examples for filing a Match Dispute are:
      • Score incorrectly reported
      • Game rules/settings not followed correctly
      • Non-rostered player participating in the match
      • Suspicions of cheating
      • Unsportsmanlike conduct (negative or offensive behavior)

  • Match-Making (matchmaking)

    • A service that searches for opponents to play against. 
    • See also, Queue

  • Match Page

    • Main page generated by the queue used to join the pre-lobby game screen. 

  • MOBA

    • Multiplayer Online Battle Arena game (e.g. Dota 2, SMITE, League of Legends).

  • Official Match

    • An official match occurs during any Generation Esports (HSEL, MSEL, NJCAAE, etc) tournament. Regular Season, Playoff, and Final matches qualify as official matches.   

  • Online Subscription

    • An item purchased to play online in multiplayer games (e.g. Xbox Live and Playstation Network).  

  • Party

    • Group of players and spectators from a roster that enter the matchmaking service together. Check your organization’s and tournament’s specific rules regarding spectators.

  • Party Chat

    • A private chat reserved for members of a Party. 

  • Party Leader

    • The person who invited others to join the Party in game.

  • Party Member

    • A person who accepted an invitation to join a Party

  • Platform

    • Software used to set up teams, roster, and tournaments. 
    • Additionally used to refer to the gaming system used to play (PC, Xbox, Playstation, etc).

  • Ping

    • The response time between a gaming device and the game’s servers.

  • Playoffs

    • The playoff stage of the tournament is a single-elimination tournament among the highest placed teams/players from the regular season. The size of the playoff pool varies depending on the game being played. Playoff tiers include the per-quarterfinals, quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals/3rd place match. 

  • Private Match (Custom Match)

    • A match created on a platform by a user (or tournament admin) for express purposes of practice, scrimmage, or tournament play. 
    • Private matches are disconnected from the game’s greater community.

  • Prizing

    • Items awarded to players based on completion of quests, participation, performance, and standing after a competition. 

  • Purchase Passes

    • My passes
      • The area where you can see your active passes and order history.
    • Payment Methods
      • Credit Card or Debit Card.

  • Quests

    • Activities that can be completed within the Generation Esports platform to earn prizing. Example: Win 5 matches.

  • Queue

    • The matchmaking service hosted by Generation Esports.

  • Queue Window

    • The period of time in which a team/player can enter the matchmaking service.

  • Quick Chat

    • A subset of text acronyms/presets used to convey a message, typically in the chat within a game.

  • Region

    • Selection of the region you are playing from to have the best connection to the games' servers. 

  • Registration

    • Signing up a roster for a tournament. 
  • Regular Season
    • The regular season stage of a tournament, which may also be referred to as the “Group" stage, is the tournament's main stage. During this stage, players/teams compete for the highest placements to move on to the postseason.

  • Round

    • The player can play one match per round, but there can be multiple rounds per Stage.

  • Roster

    • A group of users participating in a specific game during a tournament or competition. The size of a roster will vary depending on the tournament entered. 
    • Rosters are locked (cannot be changed) one week before the start of playoffs.

  • Round Robin

    • A format of tournament in which rosters/players are placed into groups, and every member of the group plays an equal number of matches against everyone else in the group.

  • RTS

    • Real-Time Strategy game (e.g. Chess, Starcraft 2).

  • Scholarships

    • Money awarded for academic use. Similar to terrestrial sports in gaining a scholarship to play sports. 

  • School Team Players

    • Students who are currently enrolled in their school and are eligible to participate on that school's team for the High School Esports League. Players can participate in both the Major/Challenge tournaments with their respective schools.   

  • Score Reporting

    • Using the platform to record what team earned the win/loss and the series score

  • Scrimmage (Scrim)

    • A practice match that does not have any bearing on any active tournaments. May be scheduled through the queue or privately arranged.

  • Script (Scripting)

    • The use of coding or game modifications to cheat. See also, hack.

  • Series (Best of #)

    • Rounds/matches of competition which consist of a game being played multiple times, e.g. (Best of 3, best of 5).
    • Exact rules may vary from game to game - some games may require different maps or characters played in each game within the series.

  • Single elimination

    • A competition format where if you lose one match, you are eliminated.

  • Skin

    • A unique cosmetic character or equipment design that the player can select. 

  • Solo

    • Games that have teams of one player (1v1 games).

  • Spectator

    • An individual who is not playing the game, but watching through a player’s point of view (e.g. broadcasters, see Streaming).

  • Stage

    • A specific portion in the progression of the season. 

  • Streaming

    • Using apps such as Twitch, YouTube, Facebook, or Discord to broadcast gameplay providing others a player’s point of view in game. 
    • See the Knowledge Base for additional rules about streaming.

  • Substitute

    • An extra player on a team’s roster who may not necessarily play in every game or match.

  • Swag bag

    • An assortment of awesome gear from Generation Esports. See also, prizing.

  • Swiss

    • A format of tournament in which players with similar records are matched against each other.

  • Team

    • Organizations registered with Generation Esports must form an Esports Team. In the case of the High School Esports League, Middle School Esports League, or NJCAA Esports, teams must be composed of students from the same school.
    •  For team members to participate in events, the Team Administrator will create rosters from team members for the respective games and enter them into tournaments.

  • Team Administrator

    • The user who oversees the operations of a team and acts as a point of contact between the team and Generation Esports staff. 
      • For HSEL/MSEL/NJCAAE, Team administrators are faculty or staff of the school.

  • Team Captains

    • Players who assume the responsibility of serving as their team’s point of contact. Team Captains are responsible for queuing their team for matches and reporting match scores. Team administrators may designate Team Captains.

  • Team game

    • A game that requires more than one person to make a roster. 

  • Title

    • Used synonymously with “game”.

  • Tournament

    • Competition (for individual tournaments within a greater event).

  • Tournament Stages

    • Tournament stages are the designated rounds in which differing rules such as match length, new player/team registration, and match scheduling take place. For example, pre-season, regular season, and playoffs are separate tournament stages.
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  • Unofficial Matches

    • Any match that takes place outside of any Generation Esports tournament. These matches include, but are not limited to, Scrimmage matches and Community Events.  

  • Veto

    • A team rejecting a Ban selection.

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