Scrims & Pro Scrims

If you are following esports and competitive online gaming or is just watching professional streamers on Twitch and YouTube, you will probably have run into the term scrims or pro scrims a couple of times. For example, the popular Fortnite streamer and pro player for FaZe clan, Tfue, will often do scrims against other players and teams. In this article, we will explain what a scrim and pro scrim is and how you can do scrims yourself.

What is a scrim / what are scrims?

Scrim is short for “scrimmage” and is used as a term for an unranked practice match in online gaming between competitive gamers or professional esports teams. The word was mostly used between clans in online first-person shooters but has since become a popular term in many game genres with a competitive element.

Why do players and teams do scrims? Competitive and professional gamers will be doing scrims in order to practice against other very competitive players. In many games, the ranking system in place simply does not offer enough challenge for the most hardcore gamers out there.

Scrims are not limited to one game or one game genre and you will meet the term in popular games like Counter-Strike Global Offensive (CS:GO), Fortnite Battle Royale, PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS (PUBG), Overwatch, Rainbow 6, League of Legends (LOL Scrims), Dota 2, Rocke League, Call of Duty (CoD), Destiny 2 as well as many other games. We have made an article specifically about Fortnite Pro Scrims (covers solo scrims, duo scrims, squad scrims, and solo snipes) if you are interested in this specific game.

What are pro scrims?

Pro scrims are basically the same as scrims but indicate that it is between professional players or esports organizations. Clans and teams will often do scrims against other pro teams outside of tournaments and ranked ladder matches. They do this in order to improve their skill, since playing against randoms or the public does not offer the same level of challenge.

How is the term “scrim” used?

The terms scrim and pro scrim are used in many different ways. Here are some examples:

• “We are doing a scrim vs. FaZe clan tonight“
• “There is a scrim between NiP and Fnatic tomorrow“
• “Duo scrims with Ninja today“
• “I won 3 pro scrims today“
• “The team are constantly scrimming other teams“

How can I do a scrim or join pro scrims?

How scrims are carried out vary a lot from game to game. In some online games, it is very easy to set up a match against each other, while in Battle Royale type of games it is a little bit more difficult. In CS:GO, Overwatch and so on the teams will just join the same lobby and create a private game. In Fortnite and PUBG, on the other hand, it is more difficult as there is currently no way to create custom lobbies or private matches (custom matchmaking requires a custom matchmaking key in Fortnite for example). In Battle Royale games, one way of doing it is therefore by joining Pro Discords, Pro Scrim Discords or just Scrim Discords. People will then gather in these Discord servers and try to join a game at the same time (also called snipes, can be solo snipes, duo snipes or squad snipes). Usually, this will not put everyone in the same game, but a lot will end up in the same game by this method and it is considered the most effective until private matches are implemented in the future.

Pro Discords – Scrim Discords

There are many Pro Discords (Procords) and Scrim Discord servers out there. They can be found in forums for competitive players and on a public list of Discord servers. If you are interested in Fortnite Scrims and Fortnite Pro Scrims, we have made a list of Scrim Discords which is worth taking a look at.

We hope this guide helped to grow your understanding of scrims if you have any questions please contact us or leave a comment on this article and we will try to answer.