FPS Sports for Beginners - Phrases

If you’re reading this, then it’s safe to assume you’ve decided to bust down the doors to the beautiful world of competitive FPS. Welcome! You’re going to cheer; you’re going to cry, you might even bleed if you get angry enough. 

Getting into the FPS genre comes with its difficulties and challenges, of course, but that’s why we are here, to help you integrate into the pantheon of pain and punishment as easily and quickly as possible. 

To that end, we have designed a series of articles created to teach you the basics of the genre, giving you the know-how to be applied to whatever FPS title you want, and providing you with a solid foundation to build your championship-winning career on. 

The first thing we are going to start with is phrases. We’re assuming you’re entirely new to Esports, and not moving from a different genre, like MOBAs. If you are, then you may already know what some of these mean.

Terminology

Callout:

A callout is referred to as a specific piece of information you provide to your team through voice chat. Communication is the key to FPS success, so naturally, callouts are, too. This includes things like where enemies are, what they’re using, and so on. 

Tilt:

This is when you lose a game or multiple games, and your anger results in you playing worse, resulting in you losing more, getting madder, and so on. Going on tilt is a vicious cycle, so if you notice it, then put the controller down for a little while. 

One-shot:

When you call an enemy is one-shot, it means he is on low enough health for a teammate to kill them in one bullet. This is usually if you’ve lost a gunfight but done enough damage to warrant this callout. It provides your teammates with the knowledge that they can afford to be more aggressive when engaging him, and possibly use grenades to flush them out. 

Rotation: 

Rotation is when you move from one part of the map to the other. Most maps are split into two bomb sites, and often you find yourself needing to move from one site to the other quickly. This is when you would call for a rotate. Rotation is how you go about that rotate. 

Flank:

Flank refers to the area behind you and your team. A common strategy employed by a lot of low-level competitive FPS players is to find out lane isn’t being watched, and push it up in an attempt to shoot you in the back. 

Lane:

Nearly every competitive FPS map is a three-lane. This means that there are three clear avenues on the map that you can use. There may be connections between these lanes, but the main points of movement and engagement are still points in them. 

Hill:

Hill is a phrase that isn’t applicable to all FPS Esports. Mainly, it’s for Call of Duty and Overwatch. It refers to the hardpoint, which is the location that you and the enemy team are vying for control over at any one time. 

Hopefully, you’ve garnered some useful information here. Every title has its own callouts, especially when it comes to locations, but this foundation should be enough to get you started.