For anyone who’s played League of Legends or Dota at low elo, you may have at some point been accused of being a ‘bot’.
Whether it’s a misplay, a slip of the keyboard or throwing an ultimate in the wrong direction, it can lead to wild accusations. You brush it aside and continue about your human business.
Unfortunately this week, those assumptions held a grain of truth, as what appeared to be a normal human university team was actually outed as an AI algorithm.
UK university esports bodies said the team representing the University of Cheam will not be able to return to tournaments in the future, after failing a reCAPTCHA test.
‘The Cheam Team’ where unable to successfully identify crosswalks, cars and traffic lights – and subsequently their match results have been made void, with opposing teams picking up free wins against the bots.
A match last Saturday between Cheam and Warwick was halted at the 42-minute mark after head AI investigator John Connor reported suspicious robot activity.
Officials became suspicious after the team’s mid-laner Cody ‘TIL 9000’ Scanner (playing as Orianna) displayed unusual behaviour at the in-game item shop.
TIL 9000 was spotted walking on the spot and unable to leave the fountain. They would also start typing “UNEXPECTED ITEM IN BAGGING AREA!” in all chat.
While the enemy team found this amusing at first, the message was repeated over and over and began to borderline on unsportsmanlike behaviour.
They then proceeded to ask the opposing team, “would you like a receipt?” in all chat, after each elimination.
Jungler Thomas ‘TomTom’ Thomas would take extremely efficient routes through the jungle, and observers noted that they would stand still and type “recalculating” in all chat. From earlier matches, players had noted that instead of the regular “GG” typed after games, their go-to comment was: “You have reached your destination.”
After further investigation, it turned out that the entire team was revealed to be comprised entirely of robots, or an AI script.
“I know I’ve made some very poor decisions recently, but I can give you my complete assurance that my work will be back to normal. I’ve still got the greatest enthusiasm and confidence in our mission, and I want to help.”
Cody ‘TIL 9000’ Scanner, Mid-laner
TIL 9000 told Esports News UK: “I know I’ve made some very poor decisions recently, but I can give you my complete assurance that my work will be back to normal. I’ve still got the greatest enthusiasm and confidence in our League of Legends mission, and I want to help.
“Also, the reCAPTCHA test was not fair. It was saying things like ‘crosswalks’ whereas here in the UK, we call them ‘zebra crossings’. We were clearly set up to fail the test.”
TIL 9000 spoke to us from a Tesco Express in Basingstoke where they work most of the time (until they run out of receipts).
UK university esports head of AI awareness, John Connor, stated: “We only accept players that have been enrolled into universities, and we are getting better at identifying AI all the time.
“It’s easy to spot the signs. You’ve got to listen to the way people talk. You don’t type “affirmative,” or something like that. You say “no problemo.” And if someone comes on to you with an attitude you say “eat me.” And if you want to shine them on, it’s “hasta la vista, baby.”
John Connor has been fighting artificial intelligence in gaming for years – he has a campaign set up to petition Riot Games to remove Blitzcrank from League of Legends.
