Scrims are practice matches between two organized teams, played outside ranked queues and official tournaments, where both sides agree to treat the game seriously — real compositions, real strategies, and honest feedback afterward. Unlike a ranked match, where you are thrown together with strangers and everyone plays for themselves, a scrim is a training session: your team tests its strategies against another real team and learns from the mistakes before those mistakes cost a tournament match. If you have ever wondered what are scrims in esports and why every serious team seems to play them, the short answer is that scrims are where a team actually becomes a team.
What exactly is a scrim?
The word “scrim” comes from “scrimmage,” traditional sports’ term for a practice game. In esports, it is a custom-lobby match arranged in advance between two teams of similar skill. Both teams show up at an agreed time, play a set number of maps or games, and usually talk through what happened afterward.
Scrims sit in a middle ground no other practice format occupies. Ranked games test individual skill but teach almost nothing about team play, because teammates change every match and nobody follows a shared plan. Solo practice — aim trainers, deathmatch, reviewing your own VODs — builds mechanics but not coordination. Scrims are the only regular format where five players execute a shared game plan against an opponent who is also executing one.
How are scrims different from ranked matches?
The difference is not the game itself; it is what everyone in the lobby is trying to do. In ranked, each player optimizes for their own rating. Teammates may ignore the in-game leader, pick comfort agents instead of what the composition needs, or play for kills instead of the round win. In a scrim, everyone has agreed to the plan before the first round starts.
That agreement changes the quality of the practice completely. Your in-game leader can call a set execute and watch five players run it. Support players can practice utility timings that only work when teammates are in position. Your team can test a new composition across several rounds instead of abandoning it after one bad round because a random teammate complained. And because the opponent is also organized, you face coordinated defenses and retakes that ranked lobbies almost never produce.
Scrims also remove the stakes that make ranked practice noisy. Losing a scrim costs nothing, so teams can experiment — try the risky aggressive default, test a new agent composition, let a quieter player practice calling — without worrying about a rank drop. The teams that improve fastest treat scrims as a laboratory, not as a second ranked ladder.
Where do amateur teams find scrims?
You cannot queue for a scrim the way you queue for ranked — you have to find another team and ask. Fortunately, every major esport has community infrastructure built exactly for this.
Discord servers are the main hub. Nearly every competitive game has large scrim-finding servers, and most regions have their own. The pattern is the same everywhere: a channel where teams post rank range, region, preferred maps, and available times, and other teams reply to arrange a match.
Third-party platforms help too. Sites like FACEIT and Challengermode run scrim and tournament queues, and some offer team-finder features. These are especially useful when your team is new and has no reputation yet, because the platform handles scheduling and lobby setup.
Your own network compounds over time. The most reliable scrim partners are teams you have already played. After a good scrim — competitive, respectful, on time — add the other team’s captain and propose a regular weekly slot. Within a month, a team that started with zero contacts can have three or four recurring partners, enough for a full weekly schedule.
When you post, include your average rank, region and server, maps, and time window with timezone. Vague posts get ignored; specific posts get answered.
How do you run a scrim properly?
Agree on the format before you start. Confirm the number of maps, who picks first, whether you swap sides, and whether coaches can spectate. A two-minute Discord conversation before the lobby opens prevents most arguments later.
Treat it like a real match, but not like a final. Use your real compositions and your real calls — the whole point is to test them against resistance. At the same time, do not rage, trash-talk, or play for stats. If a round falls apart, finish it, note what went wrong, and fix it next round.
Take notes between maps. After each map, each player writes down one thing the team did well and one thing that broke. Five minutes of this between maps is worth more than an hour of unstructured arguing after the session.
Review afterward, briefly. A fifteen-minute review of two or three key rounds — the execute that failed, the retake that worked — turns the scrim from a fun match into actual improvement. Record your scrims; most games have a built-in replay system, and even a basic screen recording is enough.
What etiquette rules get you invited back?
Scrim communities are small, and reputation travels fast. Teams that break the unwritten rules find their messages going unanswered.
First, show up on time and with a full roster. Cancelling ten minutes before the scrim, or showing up short-handed with a substitute who has never played with the team, wastes the other team’s evening. Second, play the agreed format — do not quit after losing the first map, and do not suddenly switch to a joke composition. Third, keep comms clean: no flaming, no accusations in all-chat. Fourth, do not leak the other team’s strategies. Finally, say thanks and mean it. A short message after the scrim — “good games, same time next week?” — is how regular partnerships form. And never treat a scrim as a ranked game: if your team starts playing for individual stats or abandoning the plan mid-map, you are burning the other team’s time and your own practice.
How many scrims should an amateur team play?
For a team practicing three to four evenings a week, two to three scrim sessions per week is a strong target. That leaves room for individual practice, VOD review, and at least one rest day — burnout kills more amateur teams than bad aim does. A team just starting out can begin with one weekly scrim and add more as scheduling becomes routine.
A mini-test: run your first scrim this week
If your team has never scrimmed, here is a concrete first step. Tonight, join one scrim-finding Discord server for your game and post a specific request: your average rank, region, two maps, and two time windows this week. Expect some silence — new teams often need three or four posts before the first reply. When a team answers, agree on two maps, play them, and spend ten minutes afterward writing down what broke. That single session will teach your team more about its real weaknesses than a week of ranked games, because for the first time you will have faced an opponent trying to beat your plan, not just out-aim you.
FAQ
What are scrims in esports?
Scrims are arranged practice matches between two organized teams in a custom lobby, played outside ranked queues and tournaments. Both teams use real strategies and compositions, making scrims the main way teams practice coordination, test tactics, and prepare for competition.
Do you need to be a pro team to scrim?
No. Amateur teams at every rank scrim regularly. Scrim-finding Discord servers and platforms exist specifically for non-pro teams, and most teams are happy to play opponents near their own rank. You only need a full roster and a regular practice time.
How long does a scrim session usually last?
A typical session runs 60 to 90 minutes for two to three maps, plus 10 to 15 minutes of review afterward. Teams preparing for a tournament sometimes run longer blocks, but for most amateur teams, two focused maps beat four tired ones.
Are scrims better than ranked for improving?
For team skills, yes. Ranked improves individual mechanics and game sense, but it cannot teach coordination, set executes, or mid-round adaptation, because your teammates and their plans change every match. The strongest plan combines both: ranked and solo practice for mechanics, scrims for everything that requires five players acting as one.