Boards›Gameplay

Scripted Bot Accounts: How to spot them and why Riot's own Co-Op bots are unhealthy for new players

Chalze·10/2/2019, 9:22:20 PM·4 votes·6,733 views

Ok, this may be quite a long post, but given my past and extensive experience with Co-Op games (either to grind out missions or level up snippets of XP), I'd say it's more than obvious when a bot account is indeed a bot account.

If you can't be arsed to read all this, I'll have a condensed tl;dr at the bottom for your convenience, though any details will still lie in the main post/thread.

So lemme start off with an anecdote that just happened now. Yes. I just finished a game just now and it is by far the most interesting Co-Op experience I've had in a while. For context, for some reason, I've legitimately been in Beginner Bot queues for up to 70 minutes without getting into games. Why? I'm not sure. So usually I just take on Intermediate Bots which only takes around a minute to enter a game. As a result, my theory is that, due to me being Lv.160+ Riot doesn't want me to be playing Beginner Bots and potentially sweeping games with actual beginners being baffled by this.

But here's the issue. The way that Riot programs their Intermediate Bot AI in tandem with these scripted bot accounts' programming is an absolute recipe for disaster. In fact, what I had just now wasn't just a 1v9 situation, but a 1v 4 feeder bots + 5 pitch perfect bots. Let's firstly run through the feeder bots I had in my team.

Across my 7 years of playing, I've come across many different kinds of bot scripts, but the most popular (and by theory perhaps the most ignored by Riot) is the kind of bot which satisfies these requirements:

  1. Summoner Name will include anything from 2 to 5 letters of anything (presumably ran through a character randomizer algorithm) followed by a real name (for instance, the ones I had today included 'Jared', 'Tobias', 'Verna' and 'Maurice' [technically this isn't naming and shaming as I have not included the jumbled/randomized letters before the account's name]).
  2. Summoner Spells are borderline exclusively Ghost + Heal (presumably since programming AI to change that up takes extra scripts to do).
  3. Will only use preset rune pages (presumably since programming AI to change that up also takes extra scripts to do).
  4. Won't ever communicate in any shape or form or even register other teammates' existence.
  5. Builds exactly the same full items sometimes with a slight change in build pathing although this may also be just building recommended items.
  6. Overall does not move or cast abilities like a human player.
  7. Will only and exclusively start with Boots of Speed and nothing else.

The second type of bot that's creeping up in popularity is what I call the "follower script". This kind of bot follows these requirements:

  1. Summoner Name is slightly more varied and thus a bit more deceptive, but often includes 3 words with no spaces or capitalization.
  2. Will prefer enchanter supports, the most common seems to be Soraka right now.
  3. If chosen an enchanter support, will EXCLUSIVELY start with nothing but a Spellthief's despite having enough gold for health potions.
  4. Every 2 to 3 minutes will change allies to follow. They will keep following until they are around (or exactly) 400 units away from you. This includes over walls.
  5. If following you, will endlessly follow or try to path around anything (I've tested their AI extensively using Kayn and shadowstepping back and forth inside and out of the enemy's base. They WILL keep running around into turrets even at level 1).

Bonus Points: Sometimes the bot will, as a defense mechanism against being reported for not communicating, actually say in champion select "no englesh im dutch pls". I'm not kidding. Why Dutch? I'm not entirely sure but as long as it allows real human players to think that's the reason why they don't communicate is enough.

Suffice to say, these bots are an issue since, well, they're deadweight at best, but at worst, actually work in tandem with the enemy bots. Of course, in beginner bots, none of these are really an issue since you can easily 1v9 Beginner Bots anyway, but that's a different story with Intermediate Bots.

Across my time playing in Intermediate Bots, I've picked up on some patterns and traits that they're programmed in. For the most part, there are a few fundamental things that are either unfair or unhealthy even as 'learning resources' for beginner players of the game:

  1. The bots vision lines tie into their reaction times to things being more akin to a coin toss than continuous reaction times. This will be elaborated in the two outcomes below.
  2. The bots reaction times are more akin to coin tosses than actual timed continuous reactions. If you chuck out a skillshot at them, either they have pinpoint 1 millisecond reaction times to dodging it or they don't dodge it at all. This means that by playing against these bots, you don't really learn to predict enemy movement so much as hope RNG is on your side.
  3. The bots casting times are also more akin to coin tosses than actual timed continuous button presses. I remember being against a Zyra bot who was able to fire all 4 of her abilities at once, seemingly without input or buffering delay upon 1 millisecond of me appearing in her line of sight.
  4. Since all bots have more or less the same programming, if they group together, they often also cast abilities together. I don't mean that in the sense where they're all firing abilities without input or buffering delay, but as in casting all abilities without input or buffering delay IN SYNC. This means, if they group as 3 to 5 and try push mid turret (which for those who don't know, Intermediate Bots are programmed to do this at times) and you try to solo defend it, you WILL suddenly out of the blue get nuked by all 3 to 5 of them at the same time out of nowhere. There is no warning, no baiting, no nothing, just 3 to 5 bots all with the same programming deciding to nuke you all at the exact same time.

So, overall, here's how these bot scripts actually work in tandem to/with Intermediate Bots.

  1. The first and most obvious would be bots feeding the Intermediate Bots who are programmed to buy better items with their gold leads compared to Beginner Bots. With better items and being spoonfed faster than you, a human player can get fed is obviously a recipe for disaster when put together with their lack of input or buffering delay and coin toss reaction times.
  2. The less appreciated would be a bot scripts' lack of macro play. I found myself in that last game implementing a very strange 'tactic' to delay the loss, and that was to: the Intermediate Bots were pushing mid as a group of 5 and nothing would stop them from splitting apart to other sides of the map. I'm assuming this is programmed in to 'force' beginner players to play the macro game such as encouraging new players to learn that laning phase isn't everything, but since the bot scripts have no concept of macro play, I was forced to actually stay mid solo against 5 Intermediate Bots, trying to clear the wave before our turret gets knocked down. I can't extend further than 400 units away from said turret or else I'll get nuked down by the synced up (and spoonfed) Intermediate Bots. The other bot scripts were blindly pushing top and bot but incredibly slowly since, well, they're scripted bots. I died 5 times doing this which is incredibly unheard of in any regular bot games.

If you've read up to here, I thank you for reading so much. I hope the paragraph separators made this wall of text a bit less onerous to read. Point of all this is, Riot really needs to implement more pattern-spotting AI to test out whether an account is a scripted account or not. These kinds of scripted bot accounts to me are just far too consistent, predictable and blatantly obvious to be seen as "human players just learning the game". Riot's mentality of "even if there's a 0.001% chance this player could be a human, we need to treat them like one" is far too lenient. Say what you want about inting or trolling, but scripted bot behavior really isn't all that deep or complicated once you actually take the time to notice said patterns. Besides, if anything, this further ruins the new player experience alongside smurfs who absolutely slam dunk on new players.

tl;dr: Essentially, scripted bot accounts are not just running rampant in Co-Ops, but the fact that they're so consistent with certain irrefutably 'AI' patterns (specific patterns are listed above) that it seems baffling to me that Riot aren't more strict about bot account detection. They work alongside Riot's own Co-Op AI to form an incredibly helpless environment (details above as well) for not just new players but even so called 'veterans' like me trying to grind out a few games for whatever reason.

Thank you so much for reading, and if you just read the tl;dr, I do encourage you briefly read the above if you happen to play Co-Op every now and then as it may inform you of how to spot a scripted bot account.

[slayer-jinx-catface]

10 Comments

Śhunpo10/2/2019, 11:48:51 PM2 votes

The technology for these bots is only getting better. A few days ago I had a Darius who quite literally mimicked my cursor movement to the point where I was getting blocked by him.

How and why Riot doesn't crack down on these is beyond me cough Tencent approves of Chinese farmers cough, and something needs to be done about them and the tech they use ASAP before we see another scripting epidemic.

Infernape10/3/2019, 12:50:12 AM2 votes

According to riot they ban bots in waves. But because of how easy account creation is in LoL, it's probably impossible to actually make a dent in their numbers without actually requiring some from of two step verification (like DotA does with mobile numbers and ranked), or being more harsh (which in theory could lead to genuine new players being banned). The problem is Riot like to err on the side of caution (this is probably why the game's int feeding system is overly lenient at times).

The intermediate bots are pretty much coded to cheat. They know where you are at all times and will dodge abilities the very moment you cast it. And at one time I do believe they earned accelerated GP/5.

Try this. Take a champion with long term stealth like Shaco or Eve push until the the rest of the bots group mid. When they're going to siege the turret (while the bots are also having a sizeable wave coming towards your turret), back off deep into the jungle then use your stealth, and walk towards the bots. Even though their wave is under it and isn't thinning, they will back off as if they have complete vision of you. Hell they can even tell the difference between Shaco and his clone without even needing to attack either one of them.

This is off topic but I lowkey wish Riot made an expert difficulty bot mode that was in the same vein as the Unfair bots or even the OpenAI Five in DotA. It would be fun if they genuinely posed a challenge to even the most hardened LoL veteran. But on the other hand, I don't because the BE farming bots would just ruin it.

Chalze10/2/2019, 9:24:00 PM1 votes

Speak of the devil. I just entered another Intermediate Bot game with 4 bot teammates as I published this. Here's to another unhealthy loss. [slayer-jinx-unamused]

Yuiwara10/2/2019, 9:52:42 PM1 votes

yeah the zyra bot can deal a hell lot of dmg in middle-botfight. i fought her with ashe as her adc in bot lane once and i just exploded out of nowhere. root, slow and massive dmg.

What i had several times against stun champs. I tried to towerdive them and their stun just had perfect timing so i would freeze directly in front of their tower (against lux for example) naturally while tower was shooting. Since Lux lp was low in hp i thought i could finish her but the stun timing was just so perfect. and she did that every time i tried to tower dive against her (2 times in that game). Thats one hell of a reaction time u wouldnt expect from a human.

But as far as i know i only seen 1 tristana bot in own team (and maybe a kled bot, but might have been a really bad player too) til now. In the amount of games played they doesnt matter much, only a small amount.

And as far as supporter goes: I normally only start with golditems and no potions too so i can get the items i need faster (just have to be more careful then). so that isnt really a bot only thing.

Chainman310/2/2019, 11:05:06 PM1 votes

I mean while I don’t think bot teammates are good, bot games are not necessarily hard even with bot teammates hell I used to practice with bots in custom games anytime I wanted to try builds out

Kidagarush1/2/2020, 9:10:23 AM1 votes

Nothing more tilting than watching the match crumble despite your best efforts, when you and one or two players are as good as sabotaged by the scripted bots. I was just paired with 3 bot team and one player that simply DC'd right from the get go. It was a 1 on 5 fight the whole way, and the only lane with any real progress was mine. There has to be some kind of check that Riot can institute to verify players. Maybe another interactive step after the match is over, something that requires human input, like recaptchas, or whatever those little widget-type systems are that help verify people's accounts for services like Paypal. Something really needs to be done, because the value of this game is deteriorating fast for new and inexperienced players.