Bots have been the bane of online video games for quite some time now, ruining public matchmaking scenes and acting as the welcome party for newcomers. But with the help of OpenAI, a startup founded and backed by Elon Musk, bots are looking to take over the professional gaming world as well. At The International 2017, the largest esports event in the industry, Open AI debuted their special Dota 2 bot and pitted it against some of the best solo players in the world under standard tournament rules.
The bot went toe to toe against professional mid-laners like Syed “Sumail” Hassan (a former International champion), and Artour “Arteezy” Babaev behind the scenes, trouncing them soundly. On the main stage, the Open AI team stepped up to the plate and delivered a never-before-seen performance against one of the most famous esports athletes of this generation, Danil “Dendi” Ishutin. The bot was capable of executing high-level plays and mechanics like baiting, animation-cancelling and item management to maintain its advantage over the human players. The supreme confidence of the bot in making these plays is what the humans found most interested when playing against it.
The Open AI bot was open to challenges from the crowd at Key Arena in Seattle during the event, where the first 50 winners received prizes. By the end of the day, all 50 prizes had been snatched up by various non-professional contestants, exploiting weaknesses in the bot’s programming. Regardless of the results though, it was breathtaking to see a bot play at the level of some of the best Dota 2 players in the world.
OpenAI first ever to defeat world's best players in competitive eSports. Vastly more complex than traditional board games like chess & Go.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 12, 2017
The next step for the team at Open AI is to form a 5 player team of bots to take on a human team, and to have them compete at the main stage of The International in 2018.
