How scrims sharpen esports gameplay: Scrimmage dos & don’ts

Scrims – organized friendlies between esports teams of roughly equal ability – are a great way to improve esprit de corps and develop live-action skill sets. Instead of playing purely to win, the aim is for both sides to get better. 

That requires special settings and rules of etiquette that might feel out of place in the heated environment of multiplayer gaming. 

How do scrims work, what’s the best way to prepare, and where do you look for suitable matches? Here’s how informal practice play can hone your competitive edge.

Scrims (e.g., scrimmage matches) have been in the coaching playbook since the dawn of team sport. When the action happens online, however, they take on a different character.

In esports, they work like this: two or more squads of roughly equal ability set up a practice match for learning purposes. Both sides try to win, but the real objective is to gain experience playing as a group. 

Some things can’t be learned from simulations alone. Taking on real adversaries together reinforces the human element, improving cohesion and sparking that hardest thing of all to synthesize: group chemistry. The more you do it, the better you get.

Donny Stumpel, owner of Next Level Sports and an esports coaching trainer, says scrims shouldn’t aim to be perfect. He said:

“You want your players to put in the effort and focus on improvement, not get stuck on results and outcomes, whether good or bad, winning or losing the game.”

Knowing how your teammates are likely to react in different gameplay scenarios makes your responses sharper. Coaches and in-game leads (IGLs) can then leverage those finely-honed instincts to maximize competitive advantage when a real match is underway.

The point of a scrim is to practice and learn, so it makes sense to focus on something specific: a challenging map, different weapon mixes, a new game strategy, or improving coordination.

For newcomers, maximizing team synergy can be a great place to start. It doesn’t require extensive planning and strengthens core dynamics like anticipating how teammates move, acting in unison, providing cover fire, executing coordinated pursues, identifying the most useful callouts, and determining how well you respond to teammates’ callouts.

These are the sorts of soft skills that only improve after time spent playing as a group.

Going into the scrim, everyone on your side should know what the objectives are and what you want to get out of it. The coach should discuss the scrim in advance and everyone should be on the same page before it starts. 

Naturally, the goals should fit the game. For this article we’ll use VALORANT and League of Legends to illustrate.

In VALORANT, for example, you might set up a scrim for the Breeze map. 

On attack, one objective might be to improve communications and utility usage when moving into, say, the pyramids area. As rounds progress, the coach might look for opportunities to improve team discipline, site clearing, or confidence on entry.

On defence, you might focus on minimizing losses against a 5-man rush, or working out how best to gather intel on the opponent’s main areas of strength.

In League of Legends, the scrim might focus on a new meta strategy that keeps turning up on Summoner’s Rift, testing its effectiveness or learning how to counter it. 

Improving coordination between your top laner and jungler might be one objective. The coach might also be on the lookout for scenarios and compositions where the team excels or needs to do better.

Just as in normal ranked competition, scrims require an IGL and a coach who isn’t directly involved in the action. Depending on the game, the scrim coach should stay in the lobby or take up a position as an observer. After that, their role can be active or passive.

In an active role, the coach is in continual contact with the team, sharing feedback, providing guidance (freeze, set up crossfire, don’t overpeek), and asking questions throughout the scrim. If the coach opts for a passive role, he or she will basically be watching and taking notes for the match post-mortem and VOD review.

In both cases, it’s normal for the coach to kick things off by reminding players about scrim protocols, etiquette, and the objectives of the practice match. 

Scrims also require some tweaks to game settings, especially in the lobby setup.

In VALORANT, it makes sense to enable cheats so teams can pause the match timer for technical issues. To give both teams time on both defence and attack, leave Play Out All Rounds enabled. This allows a full 12 rounds in each mode. 

Crucially, always enable Hide Match History. You don’t want to reveal anything to competitors who might be researching match histories for clues.

Tournament mode and Overtime aren’t needed for a scrim, so both can stay off.

In League of Legends, the scrim lobby setup is more straightforward. First, decide which side will host the scrim and, as such, have admin control over the lobby. 

Then set the map to Summoner’s Rift and select Tournament Draft as the game format. For the Spectators function, set it to ‘Lobby Only’ so that only coaches can watch the match. Set a password and share it with the opposing team via DM.

Note that in LOL, the side you choose in the lobby (blue or red) will determine how you enter the map. Agree with your opponent in advance which side you want to start playing from.

Regardless of the game, scrims have informal rules designed to keep things respectful and on track:

Every competitive esports category has its own scrims scene, but the widest range of options naturally cluster around the biggest games, such as VALORANT, League of Legends, CS:GO, PUBG, or Dota 2.

You can find or arrange scrims on specialized platforms like Gankster and Open Scrims, gaming subreddits, or use one of the Discord servers clustered around game communities and developers to post a scrim notice.

Standard format includes acronyms like LFS (looking for a scrim); preferred date, time and time zone; and length of the scrim expressed in the number of maps you want to cover.

To set up a VALORANT scrim, you might post something like this:

LFS / Ascendant+ / 05.09.25 18:00 PAC / 2 maps 

When planning a scrim, it makes sense to think about geography. Some regions might have a higher or lower concentration of pro teams or top players in your game of choice. 

On the technical side, latency needs to be considered. If a British esports team faces off against a California squad, lag might mess up the match. 

If you want to be the best, you need to play against the best. Practice matches between opposing squads can raise everyone’s game to a new level. 

Like physical scrimmages in basketball and football, the informality of the contest leaves ego at the door and space for identifying weaknesses. It’s another place where competitive spirit transcends both the on- and offline worlds of sport.