Boards›Player Behavior

Bots n' Things

Hotarµ·11/23/2019, 1:23:45 AM·11 votes·9,655 views

Hey all, just wanted to give my input and address something that a lot of players have been complaining about since TT's removal. More specifically: bots and Riot's (supposed) lack of action against them.

##1 • Detecting bots is not the issue!

It's actually fairly easy for Riot to detect bots, be it through manual review or an automated system. The issue is not that the majority of them are flying under the radar, but rather that companies have to be mindful of bot developers reverse engineering their detection systems.

Going to keep it short and simple (because I'm a chef, not a software engineer. I don't understand all that fancy technical mumbo-jumbo you kids are on about.)

Here's an example where banning bots on the spot would be a detriment to Riot rather than a benefit.

Let's say there are 30 bots created in total.

  • Bots 1-10 use method A for leveling their accounts.
  • Bots 10-20 use method B for leveling their accounts.
  • And finally, bots 20-30 use method C for leveling their accounts.

A Riot software engineer has created a program that can consistently detect method A without fail.

Once the bots that use that method are created, they're banned on the spot. Now that those 10 bots have been removed, Riot can get to work on detecting the other 20.

However, now that the bot developer can see which variables got method A detected, he can continue to create new ones with slightly altered variables to lead Riot off the trail and make future accounts last longer. So while Riot is working on removing those other 20 accounts, three more slightly different methods have been released.

...and so on and so forth.

If bots are banned in waves (like they are now, something which all companies tend to do) the developers will have a much harder time pinpointing what got them flagged.

There is not a single solution to stopping all bots. There is only preventative action.

(Also just wanted to slip this in as it's something most people gloss over: League is a free-to-play game and the signup process is simple, it's very easy for someone to mass produce bots when their older ones do get flagged!)

##2 • There's a reason Twisted Treeline was so popular for botting; if it wasn't Twisted Treeline, it would just be a different queue.

Now I personally wasn't the biggest fan of TT. I'm a Rift-boi through and through, no hate towards the mode though.

But regardless of your opinion on Twisted Treeline or how much you played it:

1 - The mode was not popular (whatever the reason may have been, that's not the point!)

2 - The games were fast and in most if not all cases, the best way to level your account.

3 - The map, team sizes, item pool, and "mechanics of the map" were smaller.

** When creating a bot, developers are going to use the method that gives them the best consistent results and keeps their accounts online for as long as possible.** Now, with that being said, let's take a look back at some of the things I just listed.

1 - The mode was not popular (whatever the reason may have been, that's not the point!)

Because the game mode wasn't popular, there were much less people reporting you and there was a significantly higher chance that you'd... just be matched against other bots.

More bots and less people equals longer games which equals more experience and zero chance that you'd get flagged.

2 - The games were fast and in most if not all cases, the best way to level your account.

Because games were fast and offered decent-if-not-better experience rates compared to SR, it was a viable method for quick leveling. Even if the experience rates on SR were 25% higher than the ones on TT, it would still be beneficial for a bot to go there where the games are shorter and the developers have to do less work.

3 - The map, team sizes, item pool, and "mechanics of the map" were smaller.

Due to the smaller map, team size, item pool, and mechanics, bots were easier to create and had less of a chance of breaking (when a bot fails to complete it's assigned task and stops working altogether/makes a mistake before reverting back to a previous point)

If you put a bot on SR while the Mountainous Rift is active or bomb plants are going off left and right, there's a high chance that the program is going to break or they'll make a critical error like running right through a tower to return to lane which could potentially get them flagged faster.

Nobody (not even Riot) doubts the existence of bots. It was very apparent that TT was riddled with them and removing the queue wasn't going to just make them magically disappear. Leaving TT as a vacant, outdated, bot-infested gamemode isn't something they wanted to do and on some level I can understand that.

##3 • Closing: It's not just Riot.

Anyone who has ever played an MMO or other popular free-to-play game will know that bots are everywhere. No company has eradicated 100% of it's bots, they'll always be here regardless of how good your detection systems are. League is a popular game and it's free-to-play, unfortunately you're going to see way more bots here than anywhere else.

With all that being said: Bots... fucking suck. You have a right to be frustrated, everyone does.

But they're everywhere and I'm sure Riot is doing the best they can to remove them.

Have a great night, everyone.

28 Comments

UrukabaarsShadow11/23/2019, 3:58:42 AM7 votes

Theres a difference. those other games purge bots all the time and can consistently get rid of them u may run into a bot once a week or month. Ive yet to play a game between level 1-24 that didnt a have a fucking bot in it riot needs to get their shit together and start IP banning botters as we know they can

ToyStoi11/23/2019, 4:21:02 AM6 votes

The reason "said" game mode wasn't or inst popular is because of the amount of bots that are in that game mode. You cant have fun in a game mode where either your teammates are bots, or the enemy is bots. I don't see the joy in that. You play League of Legends to have competition. And you cant get that in a game mode full of bots. That is why most times It becomes unpopular.

a werepanda11/23/2019, 10:20:39 AM3 votes

I just left a game (Intermediate bots) that had 4 bots in it instead of other players and I'm being punished for leaving. WTF This is your problem, Riot. Fix it.

Hachira11/23/2019, 1:19:28 PM3 votes

I always play a bot game at the start of my day to pop my first win mission. Queue up for my first game, notice during loading screen they're all using Ghost and Heal. Bots, I report them and queue for another. All bots again! They really need to purge these accounts.

LordPickleton11/23/2019, 11:43:05 PM2 votes

So I was doing some bot games to get used to the new items and dragons and such, and had a bot in my first game. "No big deal, there's usually one or two when you're doing a bot game." Second game: two bots. Third game: four bots.

I think it's just something about right after a season change or patch, but it really brings out a ton of bots. The REAL 9v1

Edit: Pointing out that I picked Darius because of his 1v5 faceroll potential. The new naming scheme of the bots seems to be some irl name followed by a few random letters, like "JacobEsg" or "TimothyLva", with ghost/heal (probably because low level). They then buy boots first item and stand at inner turret until something gets near and then they follow that (minions, champs). I figured it out after 2 games, so at least I realized what I was getting into. Unfortunately, I couldn't /remake. On the plus side: I dragged out the game to 45 minutes so i could get 4 dragons (after I thought about it).

Jennifer1711/24/2019, 12:22:06 PM2 votes

every time the same...

just the fact that bots play literally 24/7 without a single break should be pretty obvious to detect.

never changing summoner spells, always using the automatic runes, always the same behavior, always a kda around 0 30 0...

you guys keep pretending like every bot plays more different that humans do, while in reality a blind person could spot a bot.

Yin Yang Taoist11/23/2019, 6:21:46 AM1 votes

I think that Riot needs to address this issue at its root. There needs to be community awareness to not buy level 30 accounts for ranked or face dire consequences for doing so. The root of the problem is not only the botters but also the demand for these level 30 accounts to do ranked on. What Riot needs to do is put a msg. across that if you buy a botted account. You will not only lose that but also be punished on other accounts associated with that bought account, i.e the same owner will be punished on all his accounts.

As for the punishment, I really don't know how it should be handled. Because it depends on the statistic of how many players have bought accounts. What % of Riot's customers have invested heavily on bought accounts? Too many and I don't see Riot taking any preventive measures. Its like a disease that's already spread over to most of the Tree's roots and now you can't fix it unless you cut some of them.

Steam flags an account and highlights what its been punished for before in red. I think that putting that as an option next to someone's profile would be an idea. You click on their Profile name in the search bar or hover onto their names on your friends list and maybe there's an option which shows everything that they have been punished for before. People in today's society put a lot of value to their image even if its in a game. I think that this would discourage some of them if not all from getting punished.

Personally, wth TT gone, I don't think it matters all that much for someone like me who mainly used it to do my daily wins. When I do AI SR, even if I have 2-3 bots on my team, I'll still finish the game around 15-16 mins. roughly. So while most of the player base feels bamboozled by the bots, I'm still feeling the same. And, I sympathize with Riot removing TT before finding a fix for this problem. If you had found a solution and then removed TT, you wouldn't be getting as many complaints because as you've stated. TT wasn't that popular to begin with so there was only a minor part of the community who was dealing with the bot issues.

Anyway! Good luck fixing this, Riot.

[sg-ahri-2]

Never Curse Dave11/25/2019, 7:52:18 AM1 votes

i play bot games cause i don't really like people in pvp games(even in norms they get so toxic). the people who play bot games are nice and don't mind working together even when there are just 2 of us humans trying to overcome the feeding of the other 3 in bots.

i report every bot i see and there are still 1-4 in every game.

if i were a new player i wouldn't get to the point that i liked the game before i gave up, and these people want to grow?

i don't mind the bots in game as much cause it makes games hard without making them pvp toxic, but if your model is new players they are really going about it the wrong way.

hhaavviikk11/23/2019, 7:34:04 AM1 votes

Basically it's an arms race, it's the same with cheats in other game, cheats no longer work or get detected? wait like a day and lo and behold new undetected working cheats are up.

People also spend money on buying cheats/bots so it's not like riot is dealing with people who makes bot as a hobby once a month, no these are people who's JOB it is to make cheats/bots because they make allot of money from it so you can be damned sure the moment a cheat/bot doesn't work anymore they start working on a new one right away