Scrimmages, or scrims, are set up as two-hour blocks between two teams. Scrimmages are a vast majority of the practice that professional teams engage in across every major esport. Playing against other competitive players looking to improve should bring out the best in your students, making scrims your best bet for getting a good practice.
Using resources like Discord and Pathway Esports, your school can find another school that plays the same game(s) as you to practice against. If your school has a big enough playerbase, your school can have internal scrims where players on separate teams compete against each other.
Generally, have a coach or manager contact the captain/coach/manager of another team you want to scrim against. If you’re looking for a specific scrim partner, try to schedule it at least a day before the scrim happens. Remember, you want to look for teams that are near your skill level, or else it’s hard to learn anything. In addition, if a team is significantly better or worse than yours, you don’t want them to think you’re wasting their time by scrimming them.
If you’re not looking for a specific team to practice against, most tournaments and leagues have official Discord servers with “Looking for Scrims” channels. A manager or coach can make an advertisement in these channels, providing information like skill level and time slot, and hopefully, find a partner. Make sure you check those Discord channels for teams that might be looking for you before your team makes an advertisement post.
Try to find and confirm scrimmages multiple days out. Finding a partner last-minute might not always be possible, and planning things out ahead of time is a good way to earn a second scrim block in the future.
Now that you know what scrims are and how to find them, here are some basic scrim guidelines. These are considered the “unwritten rules” of scrimmages, so most teams will adhere to these rules regardless of background.
Always play out a scrimmage for the full agreed-on duration. If a team pulls out of scrimmages early, it reflects poorly on that team, which will find it more difficult to find other scrim partners. Teams that regularly scrim against each other often develop strong community ties, and building a vibrant esports community is one of the main points to having esports at your school.
Don’t be BM, this one should be obvious. You don’t want to make a good practice partner upset by acting rude or wasting everyone’s time by trolling. Important to note: different teams have different sensitivities to some of these things. Make sure everyone is on the same page for sportsmanship and conduct before you get in-game.
Try to be conscious of everyone’s time. If your team needs a 2-5 minute bathroom break in between a match, that’s fine. Otherwise, though, keep the games moving as much as you can. The more games you can play in one scrim block, the more your team and your players can learn and grow.
Finally, don’t misrepresent your skill level; be honest and available. If either team is disingenuous with their advertised skill level, everyone’s time will most likely get wasted. Ideally, look for partners that are at or slightly above your skill level.
Sometimes you’ll want to have your team scrim a team slightly below them in skill level. This can instill a sense of confidence in your team, especially if they’ve had a difficult time with a losing streak, or if there’s a lot of stress and tension on the team. If the teams are close enough in skill level, you will also help your partners by potentially showing them what they’re doing well and what they need to improve on to get better as a team. If you’re respectful and gracious, and willing to help the other team, they can become consistent scrim partners for when you’re trying new things/want to give your players a morale boost.
Apart from these rules, try to make sure you have an observer or camera person in the game (if possible), and if not make sure at least one player is recording their POV (point-of-view). Scrims usually make for good VOD Reviews. Use scrims as an opportunity to try new things in a safe practice environment. Don’t get discouraged if a strategy isn’t working the first time you try it against live opponents, though whether you choose to deviate from that or stick to your plan is up to your coach.