In what was essentially the equivalent of posting training camp highlights after losing the Super Bowl, G2 Esports General Manager Romain Bigeard spent yesterday revealing the League of Legends team’s 2023 full scrim results on Twitter, just days after they were emphatically eliminated from the World Championship.
Understandably, the LoL community at large is widely split over this decision, with one team owner, Liquid’s Steve Arhancet, admitting he’s “not a fan” of the move to make scrim results public, regardless of how engaged the community might be with them.
“Not a fan of posting scrim results while Worlds is still going on,” Arhancet said in a tweet.
“Would have appreciated, as a courtesy, a heads up. What about all the other teams still competing? I get community [and] fans want to see this [though], but that doesn’t make it right.”
Traditionally, scrim results have been an extremely hush-hush topic within the LoL community, with teams often keeping their results under wraps, especially against international opponents. For a high-ranking member of a team like Bigeard to post the scrim results from not just the international portion of the schedule, but the entirety of the 2023 season, is a practically unprecedented move.
It’s understandable that certain teams would want to keep their scrim results private, especially with the biggest tournament of the year still ongoing. Team Liquid, in particular, lost seven of the 10 scrim matches played against G2, according to Bigeard’s reveal.
Regardless, it’s evident that scrim results didn’t have too much of an impact on G2’s performance at the tournament. The team was unquestionably dominant in scrims, posting a dominant winning percentage in practice matches, but on the main stage, they blew three consecutive best-of-three series, failing to capitalize on a chance to qualify for the knockout stage on all three occasions. What’s most poignant is that G2 had a winning record in scrims against NRG Esports and Bilibili Gaming, as well as an even record against Gen.G. Those three teams ultimately were the ones that showed G2 the door at Worlds.
“What is the point of leaking scrim results?” LoL streamer IWillDominate rhetorically asked on Twitter. “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.”
Even former G2 head coach GrabbZ chimed in, effectively calling scrim results an unreliable metric. When his G2 squad reached the world finals in 2019, DAMWON Gaming was the strongest scrim performer in the world that year, but G2 rolled over them 3-1 in the quarterfinal round.
“I don’t understand this sudden fascination with the scrim results,” he said in a tweet.
G2’s decision to make all of their scrim results public could provoke more teams to show off their results in the future, although it’s unlikely. This move by Bigeard (and representatively, G2) feels unsubstantial, especially considering his team was bounced from the tournament in an uninspiring manner after knocking on the doorstep of the quarterfinals not once, not twice, but three times. Furthermore, the mixed reaction from the community will most likely deter other teams from sharing their own results, as it’s evidently still considered a bit taboo to do so. Posting your results from scrimmages just days after a historically poor on-stage shortcoming is a difficult choice to back up no matter which angle of the debate you stand on.
Worlds kicks up again tomorrow, Nov. 2, with NRG and Weibo Gaming playing the first match of the quarterfinal round.
Published: Nov 1, 2023 11:26 am