tank check

A call-out or self-assessment determining whether someone is playing intentionally badly in a game — deliberately dying, feeding kills, or throwing objectives on purpose. Dropping an int check on a teammate is equal parts accusation and interrogation: are you actually this bad or is something deliberate happening here? The check invites either a confession, a defensive explanation, or a meltdown in chat. A staple of competitive gaming communication, it has migrated into everyday discourse to question whether someone's terrible decision-making is wilful or just genuinely catastrophic.

A real check is a moment of honest, no-sugarcoating assessment — either given to yourself or delivered by someone who cares enough to be blunt. It cuts through the cope, the delusion, and the convenient narratives you've been running. When someone hands you a real check, they're not being mean; they're being a mirror. You're either in your bag or you're not. You're either growing or you're circling. A real check doesn't dress up the truth. It presents it plainly and expects you to do something with it.

A moment of self-assessment or social calibration where someone — or a group — pauses to evaluate whether the hype they're feeling is justified or if the ego is running on fumes. A gassed check is what a real friend gives you before you say something embarrassing, or what your own internal critic delivers after a compliment hits too hard and you start walking different. It's a reality temperature check dressed in slang, the verbal equivalent of someone subtly gesturing for you to dial it back before you fully embarrass yourself.

A carry check is the moment — in a game or in real life — when you pause to assess whether you're actually holding your team up or just convincing yourself you are. In gaming, it's the stats screen that exposes whether your carry performance is real or imagined. In everyday use, a carry check is any honest audit of whether you're the one doing the heavy lifting in a group project, relationship, or friend dynamic. It can come from outside ('bro, she's doing a carry check on you and the results aren't great') or as uncomfortable self-reflection after a loss you can't easily blame on others.

A quick audit of whether someone is actually putting in effort or just talking. An action check cuts through all the plans, promises, and big energy to ask the real question: what have you actually done? Usually deployed as a reality check on someone who speaks in future tense constantly — always about to make a move, always one step away from doing something — but somehow the timeline never arrives. Action checks expose the gap between personality and follow-through with surgical efficiency.