For the Win and Loss! (FTW and FTL)

Author: The Troll

People seem to be unfamiliar with some common internet terms, and for some reason the FTW and FTL are a couple I’ve seen asked about regularly. The term “For the Win” comes from that silly little game show that has celebrities sitting in a big tower of Xs and O’s called Celebrity Squares. The contestants are supposed to answer whether or not they believe the celebrities explanation about something and if they are right they get themselves that square. It is marked by an X or O based on whatever they have been assigned. The goal is to win with a tic-tac-toe line by figuring out enough celeb mumbo jumbo to win the square.

Once a player has 2 X’s or O’s in a line and has an open spot to get the 3rd they will say something like “I’ll take Alf For the Win!”. If they guess right they do win. Yippie!

So that term has been taken into the internet lingo library and just shortened to “FTW”. Obviously it evolved to add on “FTL” which means For the Loss.

Some examples:

Poster 1: I just bought a new car.
Poster 2: Cars FTW!

Poster 1: I just bought a coat rack from Powell Furniture online.
Poster 2: Coat racks FTW.

Poster 1: I just ate some lard.
Poster 2: Lard FTL.

Poster 1: I am a rich kid.
Poster 2: Bragging about your money FTL.

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