Bots in Pokémon Unite

As of late, some matches in Pokémon Unite might have certain peculiarities going on. They might have had lopsided scoring patterns, or they might have had team Pokémon moving erratically to and fro. With these happenings, it may be valid to suspect that the Pokémon in a team might be controlled by bots, or automated computer players. The issue of bots in various games comes up from time to time, and for Pokémon Unite, the issue appears to be relevant as well.

In some matches with bots, they have a hard time scoring, which becomes evident at the end with 0 points for the Pokémon of concern. In other matches, notably with the recently introduced Catch 'Em battle arena, they have been seen to be stuck between two objectives, moving back and forth between them though never getting to either one. Besides scoring and movement, some bots may be able to be discerned by name, though this may not be a sure thing, as are their other behaviors. One may have to be not too hasty in reporting them if they're detected.

Some matches that I've been in may have been indicated to have the involvement of bots. In some Quick matches, I became the only one who scored any and all of the points in the match, effectively winning it for the team. While I'm glad to have been credited with a win for those matches, I've felt that there was something missing from them, aside from human involvement. In other matches, I've felt something was off somehow with the way my teammates have been battling and scoring, though I have a hard time telling if they are bots or not due to my attentiveness to other things, and I can't say much more than that.

With the game being intended for human play, the presence of bots is certainly questionable. They seem to be just afterthought fillers for some players - likely antisocial ones - who can't muster up a team by their efforts and had to resort to automation. Further, they don't seem to be all that helpful anyway based on the above, even for indirectly affected players like me. They also certainly won't fly for real team competitions, which absolutely require human players or else. The bots are still a novelty for what they can do... but perhaps not much more than that.

For as long as the bots are present, though, some matches in Pokémon Unite might remain somewhat peculiar. This includes whether they turn out as much-too-passive helpers or even not-so-active forces that tip a match to either end of winning and losing. In any case, human involvement is still much more lively and engaging, which has to be a main point of this game, rather than automated systems that apparently can't seem to be extensive in assistance as they should be. 

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