Scrim Etiquette – Overwatch 2

Have you ever wanted to get involved in an Overwatch 2 scrim, but you aren’t too sure what the proper process is?

Kevin ‘Scorer’ Zimmermann, Former Team Captain of Singularity, gives a rundown of how you can go about setting up a scrim, as well as the correct etiquette you should follow. During his time as Captain, Kevin was finding high-rank scrims on a regular basis, as well as doing recruiting for the team also.

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Where do you start when looking for a scrim?

In order to get started looking for a scrim, you have to know the right places to look.
You can either:

• Look into the LFS (Looking for scrim) channel on the Champs discord server and see if someone has already posted a LFS post for the time and the level on which you are looking for a scrim. 
• Post a LFS yourself

Once you know where to look and post, you are ready to craft the message.

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How to write a LFS message:

Here are a few examples of LFS messages:

LFS | PC | 2.5 – 2.7k | 20-22 BST 

LFS | PC | Plat1 – Dia5 | 19h BST | 2hr

LFS | EU | PC | 18 BST | 4.1k | 4 maps 

LFS | Master 1-3 | 22 CEST Saturday | 1hr

Sticking to a consistent format helps others and yourself to find a scrim that is best suited to your team.

Important parts are:

• LFS – make sure you are looking for a scrim. 
• Skill level: can be according to OW1 SR rating (2.1-2.3k, 4.2k etc. ) or to OW2 SR rating (Gold 1-3,  Dia1-Master5 etc.). Make sure you find a scrim that is in the right skill level for your team. 
• Time: can be in BST or CET/CEST (if you are looking for a different day than on the day you are posting you should mentioned that here too). Make sure to include time zones to avoid confusion/misunderstandings. 
• Length: 2hr, 1hr, 4 maps, 6 maps – Make sure that the players of both teams know for how long the scrim will go.
• It’s not necessary to write ‘PC’ or ‘Console’ since OW2 works with cross play and everyone can scrim no matter the device , it’s just a habit some managers still have when looking for a scrim.

A few extra tips:

• The LFS post is just a notice to others that you are looking for a scrim, the details will be agreed upon in DMs, e.g. who is hosting, map pool etc. 
• If you have a map pool because of a tournament you are preparing for specifically you can write that in the LFS post but usually you mention it in DMs later. 
• For the skill level: please be as specific as possible – if you write 2-3k it’s hard to figure out for others if you are a good opponent.
• If you are unsure towards what level your team is at (maybe because it’s newly formed, or you have a ringer etc) just make your best guess in the post  but make sure to tell the opponent in DMs that you are not certain what level your team is at exactly).
• After you found a scrim partner it can be very helpful (for you and others) to cross out your LFS post – that way you won’t get messages after you already found a scrim and others know that they don’t have to DM you any longer. You can also delete the post but sometimes people look to scrim different partners and that way other people or you can look through old LFS posts to see if there are other teams at your skill level you might want to scrim against. 

One last thing which will help for LFS: You don’t have to ping the entire server every time you look for a scrim Only ping when it is really urgent (5 minutes before scrim, looking for a scrim cause your opponent cancelled).

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How to message someone when you are looking for a scrim:

When you have found an opponent, or an opponent has reached out to you, take the conversation into DMs in order to avoid bulking up the channel.

Here you make sure that the opponent gets the necessary information about your team (skill level, team name, map pool if you have one etc. Make sure to let them know that you saw the LFS post and that you would like to scrim against them if both teams agree to scrim each other.

As well as this, make sure to give the opponent your Battle.Net Tag so they can add you! (usually both Battle.Net Tags get exchanged).

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Before the scrim:

Here are some of the most important things to know or consider when starting the scrim.

• Every player should be ready at the agreed upon scrim time. That means they are in the lobby, ready to start the first game.

• If a team can not make it to the scrim the opponent should be messaged as soon as possible to be able to find another scrim. The same goes for if a player/team will be late for scrim – that way the opponent can either look for another scrim or is at least informed over the late start of the scrim.

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Scrim eqtiquette:

Now you have the scrim started, remember these things to ensure it all runs smoothly:

• Be aware that there are very likely delays that could happen at the start of the scrim (usually 5 minutes) although the delay should not be longer than 10 minutes. 
• There is an unspoken rule to scrims in Overwatch – if one team is not ready after 15 minutes the opposing team can look for another scrim. Even if a team is late, the opposing team should always let the other team know whether they are looking for another scrim. 

The following goes for when there is no map pool agreed upon before the scrim. The map rotation for scrims is:

1. Control/Push
2. Hybrid
3. Escort 
4. Push/Control (whichever was not played in 1) 
5. / 6. teams can decide what they want to play

If you would like to have a competitive match preset to play on, you can also use the workshop code ‘91X3S’ (which is used for the Student Champs) to have the correct settings in place to begin. It is worth noting that with this code, you must select individual maps between games to make sure you are playing on the correct map.

For more information on how to set up a lobby, check out this handy video:

The first map is chosen by the hosting team. Then the map choosing is alternating (the host asks the opponent what map they want to play after the end of the map/going back into the lobby).

After a map, the captain and/or manager writes ‘gr’ (good round) in match chat (which is both etiquette and reminds the host that the map is over). At the end of the scrim every player should write ‘gg’ (good game) in match chat, be aware to not write ‘gg’ after a map because it’s usually the sign that the scrim is over!  

In general the match chat is not used during a match, especially players should refrain to make any comments about the gameplay, and in general avoid toxicity – you only use match chat to ask for breaks or if there are organisational questions.

Staggering:
Unless agreed upon before the scrim, players/teams should avoid purposely staggering an enemy player (usually Mercy’s or D.Va’s after her mech got destroyed). This means that they should not leave a player alive that is not able to reset by themselves after a fight. If a player is the last team member alive and they have no way to escape they should run at or into the enemy team making it as easy as possible to be eliminated.

Breaks/Pauses:
There can always be a situation where a player/team needs to pause the game (hardware issues, IRL issues etc).

• If it cannot wait until the end of the map a player/team writes ‘pp’ (pause please) in match chat 
• Before the game continues a ready check should be done by the host to see if both teams are ready. This is usually done by typing ‘r?’ or ‘ready?’.

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Are you a student or teacher and want to get involved in more Overwatch 2 action against other schools and colleges? Registrations for the Spring Season of the British Esports Student Champs are now open, with applications open until 11th January 2023. 

You can also check out our other scrim etiquette guide for Valorant, or learn about Overwatch game terminology here.