Brittany Alva 
G2 Esports is back at it, releasing its scrim results for the world from MSI 2024 and following its trend of sharing its results against other pro teams ahead of official games.
The general manager of G2 Esports’ League of Legends team, Romain “Romain” Bigeard, shared the results on X and discussed each match. Sharing scrim games isn’t common in esports, but Romain famously did so during Worlds 2023. He also regularly explains the G2 players’ schedules and training routines during scrims and the period of time leading up to them. According to Romain, jet lag actually does impact pro players quite a bit.
The decision to share scrim results is a controversial one, and there’s a lot of criticism around it from players and other teams. That hasn’t stopped the team from doing so, however.
What’s the controversy over G2 Esports at MSI 2024?
G2 Esports’ GM posted details regarding the team’s scrims before MSI 2024. The LEC squad finished in fourth place at the event.
The idea behind sharing scrim matches is that it offers transparency with fans about where the team is at. For G2 Esports fans, it shows how the team performs when they aren’t being watched from every angle on a stage, and it’s particularly great for G2 because they have a history of performing incredibly well during scrim games.
Additionally, Romain alluded to problems with teams routinely canceling scrims, which gave them an air of unfair secrecy going into actual matches. Publicly calling out abundant cancelations is one way to hold teams accountable.
G2 analyst Vsevolod “Click” Tikhomirov stated that scrim results matter because they give the players, fans, and even the entire Western League of Legends fanbase hope that major tournaments like Worlds don’t have to be dominated by Eastern teams. He suggests that this will mobilize fans to watch events at a time when Riot is struggling to generate excitement and revenue for LoL esports and dialing back its efforts for major events. MSI 2024 largely went according to fan expectations, which included G2 Esports’ performance.
Scrims have become an important component in the esports preparation routine before major events. They notably allow teams from separate regions to see how local playstyles perform against each other. Sharing details regarding in-game performance in scrims has historically been a contentious matter, as teams have shared information for the purpose of collusion in the past.
What’s the big deal about sharing scrim results?
G2 Esports’ sharing of scrim information has been criticized as a move to diminish the achievements of tournament winners, or to put an asterisk on the team’s losses.
The controversy around sharing scrim results mostly focuses on the idea that G2 is trying to show off because it doesn’t perform as well on the stage as it claims to in scrims. Some argue that scrim results don’t show anything, especially when players may not be taking the games seriously. In the case of MSI 2024, G2 Esports’ scrims included a winning record against second-place team Bilibili Gaming.
Some feel like these results give fans an unrealistic idea of the state of esports, instilling false hope about where their region or favorite team stands. Others feel like scrim results shouldn’t be shared without consent from all teams involved, especially when it happens in the middle of a tournament.
