FPS Slang Glossary: Frag, Ace, Clutch and More

A

Ace: One player killing all five members of the enemy team in a single round, a term used in Counter-Strike, Valorant and other five-a-side shooters.

Camping: Staying in one spot and waiting for opponents to come to you, rather than moving around the map.
Clutch: Winning a round as the last player alive on your team, often against several opponents. A one versus three clutch is written 1v3.

Deathmatch: A mode where every player fights every other player and the winner is the one with the most frags. Team deathmatch splits players into sides.

Eco round: In Counter-Strike and Valorant, a round where a team spends little or nothing so it can afford full equipment later.
Entry frag: The first kill of a round, usually made by the player leading an attack into a bombsite or objective.

Flick: A fast, precise mouse movement that snaps the crosshair onto a target.
Frag: To kill another player in a multiplayer game, or the kill itself. The word comes from military slang for an attack with a fragmentation grenade and was popularised by Doom and Quake in the 1990s, where the scoreboard counted frags.
Frag grenade: A fragmentation grenade, which deals damage in an area when it explodes. Many shooters name their standard grenade this way.
Frag limit: The number of kills that ends a deathmatch. The first player to reach it wins the map.
Frag movie: An edited video of a player's or team's best kills, usually cut to music. Frag movies grew out of the Quake and Counter-Strike scenes in the late 1990s and early 2000s and are the ancestors of today's highlight reels.
Fragger: A player whose main job is getting kills. In Counter-Strike an entry fragger is the first player into a site, trading their life for space and information.

Headshot: A shot to an opponent's head, which deals extra damage in most shooters and kills instantly with many weapons.
Hitscan: A weapon whose shots hit instantly along the line of aim, with no travel time. Most rifles are hitscan; rockets and grenades are projectiles.

K/D ratio: Kills divided by deaths. A K/D above 1.0 means a player gets more frags than they give up.
Killing spree: A run of kills without dying. Unreal Tournament's announcer made phrases such as rampage, dominating, unstoppable and godlike famous.

LAN: A local area network. A LAN event or LAN party is where players bring their computers to the same place, which removes online lag and is how most major tournaments are played.

Multikill: Several kills in quick succession. Unreal Tournament announced them as double kill, multi kill, mega kill, ultra kill, monster kill and so on.

Noscope: Hitting a shot with a sniper rifle without looking through the scope.

One tap: A kill with a single bullet, usually a headshot with a rifle or pistol.

Peeker's advantage: The small edge a player moving round a corner has over a player holding still, caused by network delay.
Pick: An early kill that gives a team a numbers advantage before the main fight starts.

Rail: Short for the railgun, a hitscan weapon in Quake that rewards precise aim. Landing one at long range is a classic frag movie moment.
Rocket jump: Firing a rocket at your feet to launch yourself higher or further than a normal jump, at the cost of some health. A core movement skill in Quake.

Smurf: An experienced player using a new or low-ranked account to play against weaker opponents.
Spawn kill: Killing a player as soon as they respawn, before they have a chance to react. Often seen as poor sportsmanship.
Spray: Holding down the trigger on an automatic weapon. A spray pattern is the fixed path the recoil follows, which skilled players learn to control.
Strafe jumping: A movement technique in Quake and similar engines that builds speed by combining strafing, mouse turning and jumping.

Tick rate: How many times per second a game server updates the game state. A higher tick rate makes hit registration more accurate.
Trade: Killing the opponent who has just killed your teammate, so the exchange ends even.

Wallbang: Shooting an opponent through a wall, door or other surface that bullets can pass through.