Scrim in Esports: What It Is and How to Find One

What is a scrim?

A scrim (short for scrimmage) is a practice match played between two teams outside any official competition. The result does not count towards any ranking: the point is to test strategies, settle a composition and work on communication under conditions close to a real match. Players say "a scrim" or "to run scrims" interchangeably.

Why teams run scrims

• Testing without risk: trying a new composition or strategy without losing ranking points.
• Working on communication: it is the only practice format that reproduces the pressure and noise of a real match.
• Playing at your level: regular matchmaking pits players against each other, not coordinated teams.
• Preparing for a tournament: teams stack scrims in the weeks before a competition.

Where to find scrims

• Community Discord servers: every game has dedicated servers with a scrim-finding channel, where teams post their level, time slot and format.
• Your network of other teams: the most reliable route over time. A team you had a good scrim with becomes a regular opponent.
• Multigaming organisations: they often have their own teams scrim against each other.
• Amateur leagues: many run practice phases alongside the competition itself.

Scrims game by game

• LoL scrims: on League of Legends a scrim is played in a 5v5 custom game. Teams agree in advance on the number of games and on side picks.
• Fortnite scrims: the term mostly covers private practice lobbies, often Zone Wars or a closed lobby to drill endgames.
• Valorant scrims: a 5v5 custom game, usually a best-of series on two or three maps picked beforehand.
• CS2 scrims: played on a private server, often with an agreed map rotation so the full pool gets practised.

What you need before you can scrim

A scrim puts two established teams against each other, so you need a roster before you can arrange one. That is the main reason a solo player never finds any — the step before is missing. If you do not have a team yet, browse the teams recruiting on Seek Team and filter by game, level, platform and region. Once the roster is in place, scrims follow naturally through the network of other teams.

A team that keeps up scrims and tournaments soon starts looking for partners to cover jerseys, entry fees or LAN travel: our guide on how to get esports sponsors explains how to go about it as an amateur team.