Controversial G2 scrim results spark integrity and importance debate
In sharing their scrim results, G2 esports has kicked off a debate on the strength of the signal of positive scrim results and the ethics behind sharing them during the on-going competition.
02nd Nov 2023 13:11
Image via Riot Games
Controversial G2 scrim results spark integrity and importance debate
In sharing their scrim results, G2 esports has kicked off a debate on the strength of the signal of positive scrim results and the ethics behind sharing them during the on-going competition.
02nd Nov 2023 13:11
Image via Riot Games
The League of Legends esports community is still divided over G2 Esports’ decision to reveal their full 2023 World Championship scrim results, despite their early exit from the tournament. Some argue that sharing such information compromises the competitive integrity of the game, while others question the relevance and accuracy of scrim results.
Competitive integrity and sharing scrim results
G2 Esports, one of the most successful and popular teams in Europe, intrigued the public by posting their scrim record on Twitter after they failed to advance from the group stage of Worlds 2023.
According to their tweet, the team showed a winning record against a wide array of teams including their direct opposition NRG and BLG, both teams whom they would later lose to in the Swiss stage and cause them to be sent home.
However, not everyone was impressed by G2’s transparency. Some criticized them for only revealing confidential information when their scrim results were telling a different picture of their eventual performances.
Former pro player and current streamer Christian “IWillDominate” Rivera tweeted “What is the point of leaking scrim results? I think it’s pretty convenient that G2 started this new policy when they were considered to be the best scrim team in European history.”
Arguably, the practice is not squeaky clean from a competitive integrity point of view as confidential information is shared with other competitors which may be able to get advantages out of reading between the lines.
As such, the scrim record against G2 may infer a particular style of play that the Europe's playstyle matches well against. Learning that before the match may prove beneficial.
“Not a fan of posting scrim results while Worlds is still going on. Would have appreciated, as a courtesy, a heads up. What about all the other teams still competing,” said Team Liquid Co-CEO Steve Arhancet, adding: “I get community/fans want to see this [though], but that doesn't make it right.”
However, others have argued that the direct implications of positive scrim results may not always infer an accurate picture of the relative performance level of all teams involved.
How important are scrim results?
Another point of contention among the LoL community is how much weight should be given to scrim results in evaluating a team’s performance and potential. Some argue that scrims are a reliable indicator of a team’s skill level and readiness for official matches, while others contend that scrims are not representative of the actual competitive environment and can be misleading or inaccurate.
Contextualising the results, IWillDominate argued that scrims were, first and foremost, practice. “The sole point of scrims is to improve. Teams will generally run ban strategies based on the opponents they have coming up and not the team they are scrimming,” the former player shared.
Connecting back to the actual tournament performance, he pointed his criticism at a potential failing of the way practice was executed for G2, tweeting: “If a team gets on stage and can ban Kalista/Draven/Ori every game which completely dismantles your team, then your scrim practice was ineffective.”
While not directly addressing IWillDominate, G2 analyst Vsevolod "Click" Tikhomirov responded to the notion that “Scrim’s don’t matter as long as you don’t perform on stage.”
Pointing at Worlds’ history in which European and North American teams have continuously kept the mentality of trying hard in scrims, none of the teams in LoL’s recent history boasted a similar track record according to Click.
“Everyone talks about how you can’t practice as hard as Asian teams, but that’s what we did. We tried as hard as we could, and gave a fight to everyone we met, including them,” he argued, pointing out that crucially if you could demonstrate to top-tier teams that you can play at a high level, they would increase their practice intensity as well and give you better practice.
Click remained positive, seeing a silver lining in G2’s Worlds run. “It shows that if we put our mind to it, we can be the best. Maybe even in the world.”
About The Author
Sascha Heinisch
Sascha "Yiska" Heinisch is a Senior Esports Journalist at GGRecon. He's been creating content in esports for over 10 years, starting with Warcraft 3.
