League of Legends ranked bots are easily the bane of most players’ existence. The MOBA‘s competitive sphere is certainly no walk in the park, and having a useless AI on your side isn’t exactly helpful when you’re grinding to get back to Platinum. Thankfully, however, Riot has confirmed that stricter ban waves are on the cards.
As players look ahead to the anonymous champion select that Riot is looking to add to its iconic MOBA, concerns have swirled around bots in ranked play. These are accounts that are AI controlled and contribute nothing to the actual gameplay, being carried through the lower ranks so that they can be sold on for easy money.
While Riot has noted that they shouldn’t really be there in the first place, clamping down on these robotic misfits isn’t easy – and anonymous champ select would make it even harder. Often bots can easily be distinguished by their name, or the way that they interact (or well, don’t interact) with other party members in chats. Hiding their identity behind a screen of anonymity looks like it, on paper, would actually benefit these accounts.
Anti-cheat specialist at Riot, Matt ‘K3o’ Paoletti was quick to respond to a Reddit thread discussing the matter, commenting “I do understand the concerns. There shouldn’t be bots in ranked games regardless. We’ve started to increase our efforts on getting these out.”
They go on to state “we’ve just started rolling out improved action waves,” urging players to “drop me some example bots you encounter in the upcoming days” in order to ensure “our systems will be hitting the mark.”
As someone who has player a fair share of ranked, I’m thankful that I’ve largely managed to avoid being placed in lobbies with bots – perhaps it’s just sheer dumb luck. The one time I can recall it happening, however, was an absolute nightmare, and I don’t envy anyone who has had to deal with it semi-frequently. Hopefully, if Riot do implement anonymous champ select, they’ll have stomped out these rulebreakers in advance.
If you’re looking to gear up for the next ranked season, be sure to check out our League of Legends preseason 2023 rundown for all of the upcoming changes, as well as our breakdown of League of Legends K’Sante, the new queer black top lane terror.