4Stack #31 — answers & breakdown

Thursday, August 13, 2026

Abbreviations, three groups of which are games. The fourth is the joke, and it only lands once you have noticed the pattern it breaks.

The sixteen cards in this puzzle were: CoD, CS, TF2, R6, WoW, FFXIV, ESO, OSRS, LoL, DotA, HotS, AoE, AFK, NPC, RNG, DLC.

The four stacks

FPS acronyms

CoD, CS, TF2, R6

Shooter shorthand, all of it in common use in matchmaking lobbies.

MMO acronyms

WoW, FFXIV, ESO, OSRS

MMO abbreviations. OSRS is Old School RuneScape, the 2013 restoration of a 2007 backup that is now more popular than the modern version.

MOBA & strategy acronyms

LoL, DotA, HotS, AoE

MOBAs and strategy — with AoE doing double duty, since Age of Empires is a real-time strategy game and not a MOBA at all, and AoE also means area of effect.

Acronyms that aren't games

AFK, NPC, RNG, DLC

Acronyms that are not games. This group only becomes findable once you accept that the board is not entirely made of titles, which is the whole design.

Want to try it yourself? Play puzzle #31 — archive plays don't affect your streak. Or jump into today's puzzle.