"Throwing the game" means something different to the current generation of gamers

When a player or team "throws the game," it means they lost of purpose. The most famous example I can think of is the Black Sox Scandal from the 1919 World Series, in which several players on the White Sox intentionally lost the series so they could make extra money on the side from gambling. You might also have heard of "fixing" a game. In boxing you might hear a fighter "taking a dive," for example in the movie Snatch. Either way, when someone throws a game, it's not because they couldn't win the game or their opponent beat them fairly, it's because they didn't want to win because they were externally motivated not to. A pretty shameful act in the wide world of sports.

I started playing League of Legends a year or two after its release in 2009. I kept playing until 2014. In that span, the game basically won the "MOBA wars" and became not only one of the most popular video games in the world, but a legitimate eSport capable of drawing huge crowds and large prize purses. It also correlated with the rise of streaming games via Twitch and other platforms. It had no small part in the growth of those platforms as well.

I have no idea which streamer was the first to use the term "throw" in this new context, but it happened and the term grew quickly. The first time, it might have been used with the correct meaning, with a statement as simple as "Is this guy throwing the game?" It's something you can say if a teammate is making poor decisions or taking huge risks. In that way, it makes sense. If a player is playing poorly, you can joke to your streamer audience they might be trying losing on purpose. The term "throw" quickly spread like wildfire and turned into it's new definition: A player made a critical mistake that lost the game.

I'm certain that other members of the League of Legends community and other streams started saying it without really knowing what it meant, and the new definition also works in the same context. Player makes a critical mistake that loses the game, you call it a throw.

I have two cousins who are both gamers. John, born in 1999, and Michael, born in 1999. I asked both of them what the term "throw" meant just to see if I was right about my above hypothesis. Michael described exactly what I thought he would: it was when a player made a mistake to lose the game (he has played League as well.) When I told him the old definition, he wasn't totally surprised, but it was clear that this new definition was going to get top billing in his head.

John sent me this image:

If you don't know what this is, it's already a classic moment in NBA history. LeBron James has dragged an under-equipped Cavaliers team to their fourth straight NBA Finals. This time, it's without the help of sidekick Kyrie Irving, best known today as an anti-semite and anti-vaxxer. In order for LeBron to stand a chance against the juggernaut of a Warriors team he's up against, he has to play perfectly. In Game 1, he does. I watched it live in a deserted Irish pub in downtown Champaign and marveled at how well LeBron controlled the game all the way through. He conserved his energy, picked his spots, and played a complete game, all to not even win the game handedly, but to give the Cavs a chance.

The chance came on the last possession of regulation. Veteran George Hill cuts to the basket and LeBron fires a bullet pass, but Klay Thompson grabs Hill, he falls down, and the whistle is blown. The score is 107-106 with the Cavs behind one point. Hill's two free throws could win the game for the Cavs. 4.7 seconds on the clock. Hill hits the first free throw. Tie game. He shoots the second. It bangs off the front iron. The Cavs have missed their chance.

But wait! J.R. Smith, in a Cavs uniform, has snatched the rebound. There's still 4+ seconds on the clock, the Cavs can still make a shot and potentially steal the game. Except... J.R. doesn't shoot. He dribbles around while LeBron and everyone else is screaming at him, and before he can really understand what's happening, he passes the ball as time expires and the Cavs miss their last chance. They go on to get smoked in overtime. LeBron played 47 minutes and gave everything he had: 19/32 from the field for 51 points, with 8 assists, 8 rebounds, 1 steal, and 1 block. The Cavs would get swept in the series and the Warriors would become champions again.

The question is, did J.R. "throw" the game there? No, he didn't. He made a brutal mistake, losing track of the score or the time remaining or both. But he did not lose on purpose. He wasn't in cahoots with a gambling syndicate like the White Sox team was.

I asked John to explain the image further and he confirmed the new definition.

...a throw has to have an easy path to victory that one player comically fucks up.

This isn't wrong in J.R.'s case either though. It was a boner for the ages. And that's where you can see how the wires got crossed.

The final check I made was Urban Dictionary. The top definition with 277 upvotes and 60 downvotes was:

Deliberately lose a game, cause your team to lose.

EG were leading 5 - 0, then they threw the game.
EG is leading 5 - 0, EG Throw possible.

And here we have a little of column A and a little of column B. We have the old definition where the loss is on purpose. But the example doesn't match the given definition. It states that EG lost the game on purpose (EG is short for Evil Geniuses which is a highly ranked League of Legends team.) If EG had a large lead, but lost the game, it means they allowed a comeback and couldn't close the late game. It doesn't mean they lost on purpose, it's just poor play.

The only thing interesting about this is seeing how language changes right before out very eyes. Some words have many definitions that could be related and sometimes have no relation at all, and it's things like this that allow that to happen. An old, esoteric term gets used for something, and in context it starts to mean something else because that community of people don't totally know what it means. But the term grows a new meaning that still makes sense in the same context. I'm not trying to be a pedant and say that all the League of Legends players are wrong. It's instead a real example of how words change and language is a malleable mess that will never really be set in stone.