Starcraft 2 Terminology

If you have played Starcraft 2 for any period of time, you will note right away that there is a completely unique Starcraft 2 terminology. Below you will find the 10 of the most common terms unique to this exciting video game.

Cheese

Canon T3

The Starcraft 2 terminology “cheese” refers to a gimmicky strategy that relies on the victim of the cheese being taken by surprise. An example would be a cannon rush as if a wouldbe cannon rusher is caught in the act, the strategy usually does not work. The saying is short for “I smell cheese”, which makes a reference to cheesy strategies.

Harass

A harass or harassment refers to tactics that are used to slow down your enemy, particularly in the enemy’s mineral operations. This tactic is never meant to directly kill the enemy or engage his army. An example of this would be repetitively sending in Reapers to kill a few Probes and then running away.

Ling

Short for “Zergling”, which is a basic Zerg unit. Much of the Starcraft 2 terminology is similar abbreviations of common in-game units.

Push

This refers to an offensive attack.

Race abbreviations

A common method for players to shorten matchups is to use the first letter of each race. A “v” is often included to indicate “versus”. An example would be a player saying “ZvT”, which means the match is Zerg versus Terran.

Roach

The Roach is a Starcraft 2 Zerg unit, however, it is often used in a sentence as a verb. For example a player might say, “I am going to Roach”. In particular, this means that the player is likely to execute a timed push against the enemy with Roaches. This same Starcraft 2 terminology can be used with other units.

Rush

A rush simply refers to a very early attack involving Tier 1 units (unless a unit is otherwise specified). A rush can be meant to finish off the opponent or to force him to spend money on defense rather than expanding.

Teching

Teching, short for technology, refers to spending resources to develop more advanced buildings. If your ally is “teching”, he is not likely to produce many units in the short term but is rather going for more advanced units.

Tier

Tiers are unit classifications. Units are typically classified as Tier 1, Tier 2, or Tier 3 (these are often abbreviated as “T1″, “T2″, or “T3“). Tier 1 units are basic units, Tier 2 units are somewhat early units that cost Vespene gas, typically requiring a single advanced structure, and Tier 3 units are the most advanced units and require multiple buildings.

Timed Push

A Timed Push is a specific tactic that involves a push based around a typical time for the enemy to have defense up. For example, versus a Zerg player, a timed push of Hellions involves the exact build order and timing it takes to get five Hellions produced and on the offensive. Zerg players have a hard time stopping this “timed push”.

Starcraft 2 Terminology