Why a standing scrim night works
Clans rarely die because of a bad loss. They die because nothing happens. Members drift to other servers when the only activity is a tournament every few weeks, and the people who stay stop knowing each other's play. A scrim night on the same day at the same time every week fixes that cheaply: it gives members a reason to log on, it gives captains a regular look at everyone's form, and it costs the organizer one setup and a few minutes a week.
Clutchat's scrims are built for exactly this. A scrim is an internal match between two squads drawn from the people who signed up that week. Registration opens on a schedule, players sign up, an organizer splits them into two squads, and the squads play a series of one or more matches. Results go to a separate scrims leaderboard and stats, so practice never affects anybody's tournament record.
1. Pick the slot
Choose the evening your clan is most likely to be online, and protect it. Look at when your members are actually active rather than when you would like them to be. Consistency matters more than the perfect time: "every Friday at 8pm" is something people plan around, while a different time every week is something they miss.
Note that scrim schedules are set in UTC. Work out what your local start time is in UTC before you create the schedule, and state the local time in your announcement.
2. Create the schedule
An organizer creates a recurring scrim with /scrim-admin schedule create. The useful settings are:
- Name. Include
{n}to number each week automatically, so "Friday Scrims #{n}" becomes Friday Scrims #1, #2 and so on. - Day and time. When registration opens each week.
- Registration hours. How long sign-ups stay open. Opening the day before and closing an hour before play gives people time to commit and you time to form squads.
- Start delay and play window. The gap between registration closing and the start, and how long each match has to be played.
- Squad size and overall cap. Set a cap per squad and extra signups go on a waiting list instead of being turned away.
- Matches and spacing. A scrim can be a series of up to seven matches between the same two squads. The gap between matches can be back-to-back in one session, two hours apart on the same day, the next day, two days apart, or a week apart.
- Channel and roles. Where the registration announcement is posted, which role is pinged when registration opens, and who is reminded to form the squads at the start time.
You can see every schedule with /scrim-admin schedule list, pause one over a holiday with /scrim-admin schedule pause, bring it back with /scrim-admin schedule resume, or remove it with /scrim-admin schedule delete. For a one-off session outside the schedule, /scrim-admin open opens registration immediately.
3. Fill it
When registration opens the bot posts an announcement and pings the role you chose. Players join with /scrim register and can drop out with /scrim withdraw while registration is open. Anyone can see everything about a scrim, including registrants and the waiting list, with /scrim view.
If sign-ups are slow, a ping role helps: set one on the schedule and it is pinged when registration opens. Do not ping the whole server every week; a dedicated "scrims" role that members opt into works better and annoys nobody.
4. Form the squads by hand
Clutchat does not form scrim squads automatically, on purpose. The organizer knows who plays which role and who is new, and a good split is the difference between a useful practice and a stomp. When registration closes (or early, with /scrim-admin close), use /scrim-admin manage to pick the two squads and start the match. If someone has signed up but disappeared, /scrim-admin drop removes them so a player from the waiting list can take the place.
Some ways to split fairly:
- Put your two strongest players on opposite squads, then alternate down the list.
- Balance roles first and skill second; two squads with no support player is no practice.
- Rotate captains so the same person is not always choosing.
- Mix new members with regulars so they learn the clan's calls.
5. Report the results
After each match, the two squad captains report with /scrim report. If both report the same outcome, the result is recorded. If they disagree, the match is marked disputed and an organizer settles it with /scrim-admin resolve, which can award the match to either squad or void it if it was not played. The same command handles no-shows.
Completed matches feed the scrims leaderboard (/scrim leaderboard) and each player's scrim stats (/scrim stats). This is a separate record from tournaments, which is the point: people can try new roles and strategies in scrims without worrying about their competitive standing.
6. Keep it going
The first few weeks are easy; the hard part is week eight. Some habits that help a scrim night last:
- Never skip silently. If you have to miss a week, pause the schedule and say so. A scrim that just does not happen teaches people not to turn up.
- Start on time even if a few people are late. Waiting rewards lateness.
- Share the work. Give more than one person the organizer role so the night does not depend on you.
- Talk about the games. A five-minute review after the last match is where most of the improvement actually happens.
- Link practice to competition. Use scrims to try line-ups before a clan fight or a tournament. See clans for clan fights and the Elo ladder.
/scrim list shows every scrim running in the server, and a server can run several at once, for example one per game. For more detail on every scrim setting, see scrims, and if your server has not set up the bot yet, start with setting up Clutchat.