League of Legends: Terminology you need to know for championship live on BBC

League of Legends is a Moba - a multiplayer online battle arena - where two teams try to outdo each other by destroying each other's nexus. There are five players who each become a character, known as a champion.

Common terminology

Champions

The characters played by the team in each game. There's a whopping 148 to choose from, and it's increasing rapidly. They're a diverse bunch, all fulfilling a role with some focusing on taking down enemies or buildings and others who focus on healing or supporting the team (and some that sit somewhere between, known as 'flex picks' - see below)

Flex picks

A champion who is versatile enough to be used in more than one lane or position.

Tanky

A champion that can receive a lot of punishment and stay standing.

Squishy

A champion who can be killed very fast, but can do a lot of damage.

The lanes

• Top lane: literally the top of the map. No specific champions stick to this lane, although it wasn't always that way! Typically, tanky champions will be based in this lane.
• Mid lane: usually the place where champions who can do a lot of damage quickly will be found. They're normally 'ability power (AP) carry' champions, which means they're pretty hot on casting spells.
• Bottom lane: usually the domain of two players, often marksmen or 'attack damage (AD) carry' characters and support champions. In the early stages of the game these champions can be quite weak, but players will level them up to 'carry' the team later in the game. The job of the support is to keep their carry alive alive and make sure they can get early gold and experience - essentially they just have to protect the rest of the players on their team.
• Jungle: there's four quadrants of jungle on the map - it's divided into two by the lanes and then again by a river. This is where you can find tankier champions, but you might find carry champions here too. They'll often have immobilising powers such as stuns and snares.

First Blood

Quite simply, the first death of the game. (Don't feel too sorry for the players - they re-spawn; otherwise it'd be a pretty short game!)

Multi-kills

This is when a player kills more than one player in quick succession. The penta-kill is the ultimate multi-kill - it means a player has just wiped an entire team off the map.

Buildings

Turrets (or turrets): there are three turrets in each lane, and two that project the nexus. These can be attacked until they fall, so it's in the interest of teams to protect their own. If a team successfully knocks down a turret they will earn gold. Every turret - which vary in quality - will fight back, which is why teams will rely on minions taking a lot of the demolition fallout for them.

Inhibitors: these sit behind the turrets (there's one in each lane) and unlike turrets, they don't fight back - although they come back after a few minutes of sleep and return to the map. If you destroy, say, the mid-lane inhibitor, the minions you spawn from that lane will become stronger.

Nexus: if you destroy the other team's nexus, you'll win the game. Although you'll need to destroy one of their inhibitors first. The Nexus sits in front of the fountain.

Fountain: this is where champions re-spawn (remember when we said champions come back to life?) If your champion dies, you don't lose anything except precious, precious time.

The shop: technically not a building, but when you're on the fountain you can enter this virtual bazaar, packed full to the rafters with items that can enhance your character's skills, health, ability power, spells and much, much more.

Gold

Gold is the currency of the summoner's rift. You earn by getting the final hit on a minion, destroying a turret, or killing an enemy champion or the Baron (more on him later). The fun part comes in the spending, of course, which you can do by heading to the fountain and visiting the shop (see above).

Recall

An ability all champions have where they can teleport back to the fountain after eight seconds. If you beat the baron or hold the eye of the herald, your recall time is halved to four seconds so you can make a faster exit!

Dragon

There are five of these hideously strong beasts, although only one on the map at a time. A kill rewards a team with a "buff"; an increase of power such as being able to deal more damage or move faster. Each dragon type gives a different type of buff, with some being considered stronger than others, and it is randomly decided which will spawn until a team manages to slay four dragons and then the elder dragon will spawn. Killing for dragons will also grant an extra team wide buff. If a team kills more than one of the same type of dragon the buff strength will be increased.

• Cloud Dragon: Grants ultimate cool-down reduction.
• Infernal Dragon: Increased attack damage and ability power.
• Ocean Dragon: Increased health regeneration.
• Mountain Dragon: Increased armour and magic resistance.
• Elder Dragon: Increased true damage and ability to execute enemies under 20% health.

Baron

This ugly purple guy makes his first appearance twenty minutes into the game. He's at the other side of the map to the dragon and you'll pretty much need your whole team on board to beat him. If you do succeed, your team will earn the 'hand of baron', which means that allied minions in your immediate area will be super-powered; becoming faster, more resistant to attack and deal more damage. You will also gain increased attack damage and ability power. In essence, it's a game changer (although it lasts just three minutes, so make the most of it). Killing the baron also means your recall time to the fountain is reduced by four seconds. His unattractive mug is revived six minutes after his previous defeat.

Rift Herald

With the baron not appearing until 20 minutes into the game, his pit will be occupied by the Rift Herald from the eight-minute mark until the baron shows up. Killing the rift herald gives one team member the The eye of the herald, which decreases recall time to four seconds. But the real power it gives is when activated, which will summon the rift herald to the closest lane and it will attack the enemies' turrets, making your siege even stronger. The Rift Herald will disappear at the 20 minute mark, being replaced by the baron.

Gank

A gank - or ganking - can refer to when a jungler champion heads to a lane and attempts to kill an opponent, meaning a two-against-one battle. More generally it's when a champion 'goes rogue' and heads away from their lane or jungle on a mission to kill...

Summoner spells

You want to kill, defend or spy on your enemy? Yep, there's a spell for that. Each player gets to choose two summoner spells for their arsenal before the game begins, such as teleportation or ignite, a point-and-click ability (more on the latter below) that inflicts damage over time.

Skills

Skills can take the form of 'point-and-click' abilities - ie clicking on a spell in your interface on the bottom of your screen, and then clicking where it's needed. Traditionally players will use hotkeys (keyboard shortcuts) to cast spells efficiently. They can also take the form of skill shots, which can be cast anywhere. You have to aim the spell at your intended victim - a bit like throwing a dodgeball in someone's face. And yes, that does mean you might not hit your target if the prey gets wise.

Minions

Not the worldwide super cute yellow animated phenomenon seen on everything from packets of tissues to car dashboards, but computer-controlled non-player characters (NPCs) that spawn in each lane every 30 seconds. Each batch of freshly spawned minions will feature three melee (attack) minions, three magic 'caster' minions who can attack from range. Beefy 'cannon' minions who can attack from a longer range will also spawn with every third minion wave at the start of the game, increasing to every other wave at the 15-minute mark and every wave at the 25-minute mark.

Rotations

This is when you move from one place to another on the map. This could refer to an individual or the entire team. You could rotate from mid lane to the baron pit, for example.

Vision

Wards: these are items that allow you to see areas of the map that you or your team-mates are not currently in. They can be used to see where opponents are and which areas of the map are safe. The wards themselves are placed on the ground, giving vision of the area to your whole team, but enemies can destroy them if they spot them. Without wards in an area your team will see the fog of war, meaning you can see structures and walls but not enemy locations. Having wards around the dragon and baron pits is always a good idea, so your opponents are unable to sneak in unnoticed.

Trinkets: every champion has a 'trinkets slot' in their inventory. They can choose from three main trinkets to place here; the warding totem (allows you to place a stealth ward for free), the oracle lens (which summons a drone that follows you for 10 seconds to reveal stealth wards and hidden foes) and the farsight alteration (allows a champion to reveal a small location a significant distance away for a couple of seconds). If you have the eye of the herald, it will replace your trinket until it is used. It's important for teams to decide who'll take each trinket.

Fog of War: areas outside of a champion's immediate vision radius and what their wards can see.