l carry

To single-handedly win a game when your team is underperforming. "He hard-carried that match" = did most of the work. Extended into everyday English: "I carried that group project." The best carry player makes it look easy; nobody else gets to claim they helped.

A W carry is a textbook example of carrying done right — decisive, clean, and resulting in an actual win without the drama or chaos of a closer call. The 'W' is doing double duty: it confirms the outcome was a genuine win while also rating the carry performance itself as a W-tier effort. W carry gets used as both a post-game assessment ('that was a W carry, no notes') and a hype phrase mid-game when someone is clearly on their way to pulling off something impressive. The implication is not just competence but aesthetic quality — this is how you're supposed to carry.

A mid carry is a performance that technically counts as carrying — you did more than your teammates, your numbers were above average — but the ceiling was so low that the whole thing still felt uninspiring. You won, but barely. You carried, but it required no heroics. Mid carry is the carry equivalent of a participation medal: you were the best option available, which says more about the options than about you. The Gen Z 'mid' (mediocre) applied to 'carry' creates a precise deflation: the bar was clears, but just barely, and nobody's writing home about it.