Apparently, there's still bots in Splinterlands Modern Format? (The Unexpected Part 2)

_{Edited in Canva Pro.}

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I was excited when I got some good Gladiator cards so I decided to try it in a few games. I was not really looking for anything and just enjoying my games and on my first game, I got a battle that made me really curious.

In that regard, I spent three consecutive days checking this account. I want to make sure that it wasn't a fluke and what I am about to share you is 100% correct and reliable as I don't want to put the account owner on a bad light by providing inaccurate statements and research.

Below will be the result of the three day investigation that I did to prove about my findings. I also added some more information about the botting situation in Splinterlands in case some have missed it in the weekly Town Hall Meeting.

September 12, 2023

^{Photo from my Splinterlands Account.}

This is the battle that started me on this investigation:
https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_6a347a047d4aeb04a3a466bd32d14904&ref=konaqua122

Now, I hear you random reader saying,

As you can see, my opponent placed Imperial Knight, a melee monster with Void Armor ability, at the 2nd position while Herbalist, a range monster with no abilities, at the 1st position. This meant that both monsters cannot attack since Imperial Knight have no abilities like Sneak, Opportunity or Reach that would allow him to attack when not in 1st position. Herbalist cannot attack as well because he's a range monster in 1st position.

This lineup not only doesn't make sense but is destined only to lose.

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I hear you again, random person, in the background saying,

And yes, I agree. That was my first reaction too. So, I did a little more digging. I checked his match history and saw these games:

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I even got lucky enough to get a glance of some battles after mine and they were as much suspicious as my game:

^{Photo from Splinterlands.}

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Lastly, to end the first day of my investigation, I chose two other games in order to talk about it more closely. This is to show that the game I had wasn't a fluke and this account is either a bot or just playing with his eyes closed. Let's get to it.

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^{Battle Link: https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_3179078378e9ee6de1611d362f2bfec7&ref=konaqua122}

In this battle, Chimi-russ is using Tarsa as their summoner and Radiated Brute, Lava Spider and Scavo Chemist for his monsters.

The rules of combat are:

^{Photo from Splinterlands.}

Equalizer that increases all monster's max health and make it equal to the monster with the highest health on the board.

^{Photo from Splinterlands.}

Fog of War that disables all Sneak, Opportunity, and Snipe abilities for this battle.

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There's 3 problems in this game.

1st Problem: Positioning. You have a monster with Reach ability in first position. It doesn't make sense to put him in the first position if Radiated Brute can attack while in the second. The proper positioning would be:

1. Scavo Chemist. Used to block the attack.
2. Radiated Brute. Has Reach ability so he can still attack even on the second position
3. Lava Spider. Has range damage type so he can attack as long as he's not on first position.

^{Photo from Splinterlands.}

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2nd Problem: Fog of War Rule of Combat Using Lava Spider doesn't make sense since he has only 1 damage. I'd rather add Xenith Archer (2 mana) along with another 1 mana cost monster since there's Equalizer Rule of Combat. That way, I have a total of 10 health and 1 damage for that 3 mana cost total.

I checked his opponent, ianballantine, since his battle with chimi-russ is also suspicious in this game. Fortunately, I think he just missed that it was a Fog of War rule of combat. His other games are properly positioned and his build make sense unlike chimi-russ's other games.

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3rd Problem: Mana Cap. The total mana cap for this battle is 16. You can use any monsters as long as their mana costs total to 16. However, his team costs only 14 mana.

^{Photo from Peakmonster's Deck Builder Feature}

So, in this battle, he has an extra 2 mana. That's an extra Xenith Archer for an extra range damage per turn. A real human player will absolutely make use of every piece of mana left for this battle unless you're using Scarred Llama Mage.

Scarred Llama Mage is a legendary summoner from Earth Splinter that gives Last Stand ability to your monsters. Last Stand gives your last surviving monster a big stat boost so having less monster is better in order for you to reach that Last Stand buff as fast as possible.

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^{Battle Link: https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_2b96fefaa4f4e323deb8f77dd7d7d037&ref=konaqua122}

In this battle, chimi-russ is using Pyre as summoner with Charlok Minotaur, Antoid Platoon, and Septic Slime.

The rules of combat are:

^{Photo from Splinterlands.}

Broken Arrows. You cannot use any monsters with range damage type in this battle.

^{Photo from Splinterlands.}

Lost Legendaries. You cannot use any legendary monsters in this battle.

This battle has the same issues with the last and I'll just do a quick summary of it because the ideas are the same.

For the 1st problem, since all of them are melee monsters, they can only attack if they are in first position. There's no rules of combat like Super Sneak or Melee Mayhem that allows them to attack in other positions so unless Antoid Platoon and Septic Slime goes to the first position, they are on standby duty.

For the 2nd problem, Let's just say he really loves these monsters. The positioning is way off. Normally, a good player puts the one with the Shield ability in first and/or last position. The Shield on the first position is very straightforward. Putting a monster with Shield ability at the last position reduces the chance of your back line monsters getting demolished by Sneak monsters, which normally has melee damage, which is halved by Shield ability. In this battle, the one with Shield ability is in the middle, in which, "What's the point?"

For the 3rd problem, the total mana cost of this team is 23 and the mana cap is 24. Surely, you can add a Radiated Scorcher or Chaos Agent there somewhere. There's little to no disadvantage of doing so and has huge advantages.

^{Photo from Peakmonster's Deck Building Feature.}

Just for the curious folks like me, the advantage of adding a Chaos Agent or Radiated Scorcher in first or last position is they can act as a one time shield. It may still kill your monsters and you may lose but there are times that you need an extra turn to deliver the winning blow and these monsters make up for that.

For the disadvantage, your opponent may play monsters with Scavenger ability, that increases their max health for every monster that dies or a Bloodlust ability, that increases all their stats if they deal the final blow. Since both monsters have low health, they would act as a food for monsters with those abilities but you can never anticipate your opponent for playing monsters with those abilities.

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September 13, 2023

Just for transparency, all of these battles are from Tournament battles. Apparently, tournament battles are allowed to be botted. However, this can still strengthen my argument and proves that this account uses bots, which, at times, he uses on Modern Format like yesterday's battles.

^{Photo from Splinterlands.}

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^{Battle Link: https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sm_IA5eNWqcjuWr5xcQl59q&ref=konaqua122}

In this battle, chimi-russ is using Scarred Llama Mage as summoner with Venari Marksrat, Xenith Monk and Chaos Agent.

The rules of combat are:

^{Photo from Splinterlands.}

Rise of the Commons. Only monsters with common and rare rarities are allowed in this battle.

^{Photo from Splinterlands.}

Lost Magic. Monsters with magic damage cannot be used during this battle.

^{Photo from Splinterlands.}

Equaliser. The initial max health of all monsters will be the same as the one with the highest health on the board.

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While having a monster to block an opponent's Sneak attack is good, this strategy does not apply when you use Scarred Llama Mage unless you are on Super Sneak rules of combat. The last monster for Scarred Llama Mage is always the carry monster. The one at the last position is the one that has the highest chance to live in order to trigger Scarred Llama Mage's Last Stand ability.

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^{Battle Link: https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sm_fv2KHvkxfRqbRXHlCv3w&ref=konaqua122}

In this battle, chimi-russ is using Chanseus the Great as summoner with Time Meddler, Venari Marksrat, Xenith Monk, Venari Crystalsmith, Disintegrator and Stitch Leech.

The rules of combat are:

^{Photo from Splinterlands.}

Rise of the Commons. Only monsters with common and rare rarities are allowed in this battle.

^{Photo from Splinterlands.}

Melee Mayhem. Melee monsters can attack from any position targetting the monster in first position.

^{Photo from Splinterlands.}

Explosive Weaponry. All monsters on the board gain Blast ability that inflicts damage to monsters on its front and back. Damage done by blast is half the damage of the main target.

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While this lineup looks well thought, I don't think a human will play these monsters with this lineup. I feel like his idea is to use Venari Marksrat's ability to increase Time Meddler's stats, more so on his speed, to dodge the opponent's attacks.

Time Meddler at the front might work since his high speed and dodge ability would be able to avoid damage. However, like I said, normally, you wouldn't do this because Time Meddler does not have any defense stats except for that "possibility" to evade opponent's attacks.

If a human will play this, they would put Xenith Monk at the front and Time Meddler at the back.

More so, his team lineup costs 36 in total while there's 37 mana cap. Won't it be better to change Stitch Leech with Time Mage for that Slow ability since his focus is speed?

^{Photo from Splinterlands.}

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September 14, 2023

Honestly, I was surprised and never expected this. It looked like chimi-russ is not fully botting his account.

On the 3rd day of my investigation, it seemed like he only bots his account on some of the days but at some other days, he plays the game properly.

I have to say though that this is actually a good player. His line ups are on point and he has a good understanding of the monsters and their abilities.

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^{Battle Link: https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_8a6b8d4db2895f6ab225685ed078d717&ref=konaqua122}

In this battle, chimi-russ is using Byzantine Kitty as summoner with Djinn Chwala, Scavo Hireling, Darkest Mage and Chaos Agent.

The rules of combat are:

^{Photo from Splinterlands.}

Standard. No changes in the mechanics and rules of this game.

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Unlike the day before, he fully utilized every mana he have even adding Chaos Agent as a support at the back.

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^{Battle Link: https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_3cc1351c450834be958a7c24a92d1ebb&ref=konaqua122}

In this battle, chimi-russ is using Scarred Llama Mage as summoner with Venari Knifer, Fungus Flinger, Goblin Psychic and Kron the Undying.

The rules of combat are:

^{Photo from Splinterlands.}

Up to Eleven. All monsters on the board gain Amplify ability that increases the damage of Thorns, Magic Reflect, Return Fire by 1. This effect does not stack.

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Proper Scarred Llama Mage line up has their main carry as the last monster. It was unfortunately a loss but that's a Quora-Martyr combo. That's one of the best combos right now and it's really hard to win against that unless you have Affliction ability on your team.

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Proposal Against Bots in Brawl and Tourneys

I saw a lot of people using bots for tournaments and brawls. We even have a sample on this very post about that. But I hear some little whispers from you, my dear readers saying, "Is that bad? Isn't bots legal on brawls and tournaments?"

And I would answer that with a big, "YES!"

The problem is that the quality of game drops by a high margin. One big problem with bots is that when its program doesn't work, they shut down. And I hear you, my dear reader, again asking,

I recently started playing brawls after finding an active open guild. In my experience, I had games where my opponent normally put nonsense like the one that chimi-russ did on the second day of my investigation, and sometimes, it's just plain surrender.

While I enjoy the free wins, I think this is very unfair on tournaments. Tournaments in Splinterlands are unlike ranked games or brawls where you can get a few SPS and move on. Some tournaments, you can get this much:

^{Photo from Splinterlands.}

Using bots on tournament kind of feels like you enter a tournament and on that day, you sleep while someone plays for you while your opponent dedicatedly took his time to wake up and play in person. It is very unprofessional.

The good thing is that Hive account@davemccoy submitted a proposal to remove the use of bots for brawls and tournaments. If you want to learn more about that, I suggest checking this link below:
@davemccoy/sps-governance-proposal-update-terms-of-service-to-prohibit-bot-use-in-tourneys-and-brawls

The proposal already passed last August 01, 2023. This meant that it will be enforced in the future. When will that be is still up in the air.

I also learned something about botting on brawls. Apparently, you can still get the SPS on brawl rewards even at a loss as long as you input monsters. A special thanks to Hive account@overpower16 for explaining this in more detail

^{Photo from Splinterlands.}
I do hope that this would change. I hope that the people who get wins gets higher SPS share and the accounts that get losses reduces and it's not same whether you win or lose. This will decrease the rewards for botters and increase the ones for players who put effort and even rent cards just to win on brawls.

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Just like in my previous post, the aim of this post is not to attack or direct hatred to the person in question, chimi-russ. The aim of this post is directed more on the Splinterlands devs.

This is not to mock them but to show that while their program is definitely working, there's still a long way to go. I would like to simply show that their program still have holes that they need to fill up.

I hope that they won't stop working on their program of completely removing bots in Splinterlands Modern Format and I have mad respect for them for attempting to correct the wrong way they started about legalizing 3rd party bots in their games.

• This post is an entry for Splinterlands Social Media Contest.
• Other sources that I do not own are cited under their respective photos. Photos and drawings without cited sources are mine and made for this post.
• Animated Banners and Dividers are edited in Canva Pro.
• Some of the fonts used are from instafonts.io

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ℋ𝒶𝓋ℯ 𝒶 𝑔ℴℴ𝒹 𝒹𝒶𝓎!