Just how many bots are there in lower-level matchmaking?

GetMariahCarried·9/24/2015, 2:45:34 AM·1 votes·465 views

So, I started leveling a couple new accounts recently (because I decided it was absolutely necessary to have a duo account set named "Donkey" and "Kong", each used only for Soraka, and Wukong, respectively) and have discovered a rather disturbing trend in all the aram games I've played on these accounts.

So, first off, I'm ASSUMING matchmaking is designed to match players at similar levels. And that therefore, for the first time in eons, I'm being matched with lower level players. Possibly noobies. That's just fine, I don't care if I get into a game and Nasus doesn't even know what q-farming is. Everyone learns at their own pace.

But it seems that in EVERY aram, there's about 2-5 players (yes, THAT many), who move very little, seem to auto without ability use half the time, find a target and then stay on it regardless of their health levels, and, well, pretty much everyone goes, "yep, those are bots".

Which means about a THIRD of the pre-level-30 matchmaking pool consists of bots, probably hacker nerds auto-farming lvl 30 accounts. Heck, I just ran across a site selling lvl 30 accounts when I googled speed-leveling tricks for League. Really? Does Rito just let this run rampant?

I don't know about MOBAs, but in every MMO community I've seen, when bot farming becomes an issue, the devs break out the banhammer, and, very shortly, the issue evaporates. Why, in such a well-established game, is there such a ridiculous amount of bot farming?

WHAT'S GOING ON HERE PEOPLE! I DON'T UNDERSTAND!

Let me know your thoughts. Comments, objections, and insults are welcome.

P.S. No I don't actually own "Donkey" or "Kong". Those were, not surprisingly, taken. But I found a close enough compromise by adding a tag alluding to peanut butter jelly time. Almost as good, possibly better.

Double P.S. If you own either of these names, please give them to me now >:(

3 Comments

2000boxes9/24/2015, 3:08:36 AM1 votes

when i was climbing out of bronze i didn't get any bots in my games i got trolls but not bots

SmokedAlmonds9/24/2015, 3:11:54 AM1 votes

It is pretty crazy. Its even worse in dominion. If I queued dominion right now on my smurf the game would most likely be 9 other bots. Riot does do period ban waves for bots but it hasn't seemed to help. I always wonder how many games it would take to play through them till you get high enough MMR that bots cant get to.

GetMariahCarried9/24/2015, 8:05:29 AM1 votes

Ugh, my original assessment was too conservative. Here's the following postgame report I just gave on a half a dozen players in aram. I picked "griefing/assisting enemy team". Riot really needs a "potential bot" report category.

"I'm pretty sure there were SIX bots in this game. Karthus, Sej, Braum, Jayce, Karma, and Tryndamere. They all randomly walked into the enemy team, started autoing... possibly just autoing minions, until they died, repeatedly. Karthus even turned off his aoe during this, while at full mana. Only words from any of them were "Gj" (always with capital G, small j) on about every 5th kill, and "push" once, when half of us were dead, and the enemy team was all up... on aram... Rito, CRUSH THESE HACKERS."

Seriously, you can't program better con-chats? This makes me want to program a bot now. Give it an account named "Definitely Not A Bot", set it to only play blitzcrank and rocket grab 90 degrees away from enemy champs followed by posting "oops". Ya know, the same thing it will say every time it grabs monsters away from its own jungler at random intervals. Probably add a random "flash behind enemy under their turret and grab them when they're being ganked" subroutine. The rest of the time, it'll just spam Steven Wright jokes. Build order will probably be trinity force followed by 5 steraks... ya know for the e... that it only uses to steal farm and dive-gank turrets.

Victory rate with respect to regular bots under these subroutines: proooobably the same...

Time to get banned, even with Steven Wright jokes? ... will probably be an eyeblink in comparison to regular bots. There's no justice in this world...