Glossary of Competitive Terms⚓︎

• 5 Control Points (5CP) A symmetrical game mode with five control points in which both teams must simultaneously attack and defend, and victory is achieved by capturing all five in a round.
• Advantage (Ad) A resource one team has that the other currently does not. Usually refers to ÜberCharge advantage when used without a prefix.
• Advanced (Adv) The skill division just below, and the seeding division for, Invite.
• Amateur (AM) - The skill division for teams who are beginners to competitive TF2.
• Attack/Defend (A/D) - An asymmetrical game mode with control points in which teams take turns attacking and defending; uses Stopwatch rules.
• Bomb - An aggressive play using blast jumping or the Thermal Thruster to travel directly into or behind the enemy team. Often done to get a pick, as a sac, or as part of a push.
• Building Über - Maximizing the Medic’s ÜberCharge build rate by remaining below maximum overheal and avoiding other healing sources. Often done to get or maintain Über ad.
• Callout - A common name in the community for a particular area in a map.
• Call - A communication of important information or direction in a game.
• Challenger (Chal) - A former skill division between Invite and Advanced, existed in Highlander seasons 8 & 9.
• Chokepoint - A small connecting area between major map sections, easily spammable or watchable.
• Class Restrictions - Restrictions on players playing in divisions lower than their highest, meant to counteract sandbagging by preventing them from playing their best class(es).
• Clear Comms - A call to avoid low-quality calls and non-useful chatter.
• Combo - The core unit in competitive with the most direct push/hold capabilities. Often high damage and health.
• Combo Class - A class that is part of the combo. Usually Scout/Demoman/Medic in 6s; Pyro/Demoman/Heavy/Medic in HL.
• Comms - Voice chat; in-game team communication.
• Critical Heals (Crit Heals) - A state of increased rate of healing, where players can be healed by Medi Guns at up to 3x the normal rate after 10 or more seconds of avoiding damage.
• Cups - Short competitive events from one day to two weeks, often focused on lesser-played maps or experimental changes or formats.
• Demo - An recording of a match in .dem format, viewable from within TF2.
• Demo Review - Watching through a demo, usually in order to analyze and learn from the gameplay.
• Deathmatch Server (DM Server) - A 4v4 community practice game mode with quick respawns and no objective.
• Discord - A modern text and voice chat application used by many teams to communicate both outside of and in game, known for moderate latency and CPU overhead.
• Division - A grouping of teams by skill.
• Dry Push - A push without ÜberCharge.
• Feed - To die without accomplishing anything useful.
• Flank - An area of the map not typically contested by the combo or without an objective.
• Flank Class - A class outside of the combo, often heal-independent and mobile, that primarily plays in the flank. Usually Scout/Soldier in 6s; Scout/Soldier/Engineer in HL.
• Flash - To give a small portion of ÜberCharge to a teammate at the cost of total ÜberCharge duration.
• Focus Call - A call made to prioritize shooting certain targets over others, usually for importance or for ease of killing.
• Forward Hold (Aggressive Hold) - A hold that is relatively far ahead of the objective it is meant to defend.
• Golden Cap - A tiebreaker mechanic in 5CP, where the first team to win the round wins the match.
• Hold - An organized team defense.
• Intermediate (IM) - The skill division for teams who have a general sense of how competitive TF2 is played, but still need to develop upon those skills.
• Invite (Inv) - The highest skill division, made up of the most talented teams and players and featuring prize pools in Highlander as well as Trad. 6s.
• King of the Hill (KOTH) - A symmetrical game mode in which teams fight to control a single control point for a set amount of time, usually 3 minutes.
• Kite - To evade a team’s push, often to get them to overcommit and overextend.
• Heads-Up Display (HUD) - The part of the game interface that displays information such as health, ammo, objectives, etc.
• Lobby - A pickup game where players reserve individual class/role slots.
• Logs - A server file containing a full record of a game; usually refers to info generated by services such as logs.tf that displays statistics such as kill/death ratio, damage dealt and taken, healing given/received, etc.
• Looking For Player (LFP) - A team in need of players.
• Looking For Team (LFT) - A player in need of a team.
• Main (Starter) - The primary rostered player for a class/role.
• Main (M) - The skill division for teams who have a mid to solid grasp on competitive TF2.
• Maincall - A call of direction for wider team strategy; the primary game plan.
• Maincaller - The player on the team chiefly responsible for maincalls.
• Match - An official game scheduled by the league and that counts for league standing.
• Match Points - A standard measure of team performance in the regular season expressed in numbers.
• My Gaming Edge (MGE) - A 1v1 community practice game mode pitting players against each other in isolated arenas.
• Midfight - The initial fight for control of the middle point in 5CP or KOTH while neither team yet controls it.
• Mumble - An old-school voice chat application used by many legacy teams to communicate, usually self-hosted, and known for low latency and CPU overhead.
• Newcomer (NC) - The skill division for players who are brand new to competitive TF2.
• Null-Canceling Movement Script (Null Movement) - A script that will prevent simultaneously holding movement keys for opposite directions - such as left and right, or front and backwards - from bringing the user to a stop in that direction.
• Offseason - The time between league seasons, during which players usually form, join, and leave teams.
• Overheal (Buff) - Additional health of up to 150% of the player’s base health when healed by a Medic; slowly decays back to 100%.
• Overtime - Additional time provided past the round timer when a control point has capture progress on it or the cart is not rolling back, allowing teams to mount a last-minute push.
• Respawn Advantage - An advantage of quicker or better respawns, usually in favor of the attacking team.
• Passive Hold - A hold that is relatively far behind compared to the objective it is meant to defend, often to enable kiting or giving up the objective with minimal losses.
• Payload - An asymmetrical game mode in which teams take turns attacking and defending, where the attacking team must push a cart along a fixed track in order to capture control points; uses Stopwatch rules.
• Peak - To achieve the best results one ever has or will.
• Peek - To enter a sightline or chokepoint with minimal commitment.
• Pick - An kill on an enemy that opens up the possibility of a push.
• Pick Class - A class whose primary utility is their ability to get picks that would be too difficult for other classes to get. Usually Sniper/Spy.
• Pickup Game (PUG) - A short no-commitment game in a competitive format where players join and are matched or picked onto teams.
• Pinch (Pincer) - A coordinated attack from multiple angles to force the defending team to fight on two fronts or to cut off their escape.
• Player Advantage (Numbers) - An advantage in the number of players who are alive.
• Playoffs - The tournament after the regular season, played between the top seeded teams to determine the champion.
• Play Heals - To play in a war of attrition using heals, often when one team has access to healing and the other doesn’t.
• Post-Über Fight - The key portion of the fight after the ÜberCharge(s) ends and one or both teams are more vulnerable.
• Point of View Demo (POV Demo) - A demo from the point of view of the player who recorded it, with no free camera movement and only information the player could see.
• Power Class - A class with high damage output and high base health. Usually Soldier/Demoman/Heavy.
• Pub - Public servers, referred to as “casual” in matchmaking.
• Push - A coordinated team attack.
• Regular Season - The portion of the season during which all teams in the division compete against each other for a spot in playoffs.
• Ringer - An unrostered player who usually plays if no rostered player for a certain role is available, subject to special rules if playing in a match.
• Rollout - A choreographed team movement from spawn to the midfight, balancing speed and team health.
• Roster - The registered members of a team, not subject to rules regarding ringers.
• Roster Lock - The time in each season after which new players cannot be added to a team's roster, except under extenuating circumstances.
• Sacrifice (Sac, Sack) - A coordinated play in which players sacrifice themselves to try to achieve a long-term advantage of some sort, usually a Medic pick or respawn advantage.
• Sandbag - To roster and play in a division below the player’s expected skill level.
• Season - A seven to twelve week competition cycle with one to two matches per week.
• Scrim - A practice competitive game scheduled between two teams.
• Sightline - An angle through which a player, usually a Sniper, can exert influence.
• SourceTV (STV) - A spectating protocol in TF2 through which people can watch a match without joining the server.
• SourceTV Demo (STV Demo) - A demo recorded by the server and viewable as if spectating a game, in first or third person or free camera movement.
• Spam - Repeated splash damage from explosive weapons, often to suppress or discourage aggression.
• Spy Time - A time when a Spy is likely to go for a pick, usually based on the Spy’s respawn and travel time or in the middle of a fight, during which players should maintain heightened awareness.
• Stopwatch - The rules used for asymmetrical game modes in competitive, where both teams take turns attacking/defending and the team with the quicker offense or more points captured wins the round.
• Substitute (Sub) - A rostered player who serves as a backup if a main is missing.
• Support Class - A class whose primary utility to their team is to round out weaknesses. Usually Pyro/Engineer/Medic.
• Über Advantage - An advantage of built ÜberCharge, such that for a period of time one team will have ÜberCharge while the other will not. Usually referred to simply as “ad” and measured in ÜberCharge percentage, i.e. “50% ad.”
• Über Call - The voice line automatically used by Medics when they have a full ÜberCharge, can also be manually used.
• Über Counting - To keep track of both teams’ ÜberCharges using information such as last used ÜberCharges, respawns, and build rate.
• Über Fake - To manually use a Über call to try to trick enemies into believing you have ÜberCharge.
• Über Force - Forcing a Medic to use ÜberCharge to prevent themselves or another key player on the team from dying.
• Über Mask - Interrupting the Medic’s automatic ÜberCharge call with another, often quieter, voice command.
• Über Push - A push using ÜberCharge to initiate the attack.
• Über Exchange - A fight in which both teams use ÜberCharge, often looking to optimize positioning and team health, and to kill non-Übered players to gain an advantage in the post-Über fight.
• Wrap - A team rotation to cut off opponents' escape routes so as to catch them off-guard or to deny respawners access to the fight.