What Are Fortnite Scrims?

If you’re new to gaming, or maybe just new to multiplayer or competitive gaming, you might occasionally hear phrases thrown around that aren’t clarified through official documentation or contextual clues that are bound to leave you in the lurch. You won’t see phrases like DKP, Scrims, or PUGs mentioned anywhere within a game’s menus, but you’re undoubtedly going to hear them from the more dedicated players. Knowing these terms will help you get the most out of your gaming experience. This is all about scrims – what they are, why they’re cool, and how you can get in on them.

What is a Scrim?

A scrim is traditionally a practice match or series of matches organized between competitive teams. These can be run for a number of reasons, ranging from practicing specific strategies and loadouts, to just finding an opponent that takes things a bit more seriously than traditional ranked matchmaking. More broadly, however, a scrim can refer to any match coordinated between teams outside of standard matchmaking lobbies. In nearly all cases, these matches are organized through a third party platform such as Discord or Guilded, and executed through the game’s Custom Matchmaking tools. Unfortunately, Fortnite is among those exceptions.

What are Fortnite Scrim Snipes?

Because Fortnite currently lacks traditional custom matchmaking tools, Fortnite Scrims are coordinated by competitive communities using a strategy called scrim sniping. Scrim snipes – or snipes – are essentially a massive coordinated effort to get as many participants as possible sorted into the same game by readying up in unison. This greatly increases the participants’ chances of being placed into the same lobby during the matchmaking process. It’s sometimes imprecise, but it’s currently the best option available to Fortnite’s most dedicated players.

What About Custom Matches?

You may have noticed in Fortnite’s Custom Options menu a field for a Custom Matchmaking Key. While Fortnite does support custom matches, these are currently reserved for official tournaments, special events, and sanctioned competitions. Permissions to generate Custom Matchmaking Keys have not yet been granted to the public, and Epic has not announced plans to make this feature available outside a select few.

Are Fortnite Scrims Different on PS4, Xbox One, and PC?

Because Fortnite is now fully cross-platform, any matches organized can be coordinated with players across all platforms. Some scrims may require participants configure their settings to exclude specific platforms or control inputs, but these are limitations and restrictions imposed by the organizers of the scrims, and not by Fortnite’s matchmaking tools. Just make sure to read the scrim participation requirements carefully when joining an event, so you aren’t accidentally getting yourself sorted out from the rest of the server.

Is It Worth The Trouble?

Organizing and participating in a Fortnite scrim is more work than it is for many other games, but it’s worth the effort, and it’s made easier by a number of dedicated Discord servers and teams to help make them happen. With a game as accessible and popular as Fortnite, it can be difficult to find a sufficient amount of worthy opponents in any given round of matchmaking, but participating in scrims can ensure that a greater percentage of the opponents you will face are ready to put up a fight and give you a match worth being proud of. Many Fortnite scrims leverage the individual players’ stats as a prerequisite for participation, so only players willing to put in the work are given a chance to compete. Finding a healthy team with dedicated Fortnite players is the key to joining solid scrims that put your skill to the test. Even if they're a bit harder to organize, there's nothing better to whet your skills than 99 other pros fighting their way to the top.