This is not coming from a position of us versus them, since my posts have made it transparent to everyone (who doesn't analyze blockchain data), that I am using playing bots on my accounts.
To be honest, I was surprised to see how quickly bots started to play well at high levels.
Bots don't have a good name on the Hive blockchain, or rather in our old and dusty inheritance. And for good reason, they were involved in some bad practices back in the old days. Maybe that's one reason why the dominant public bot provider for Splinterlands gave them a less offensive name. Something with "automation". :)
So, people who are sensitive to this history may avoid them as much as possible.
Splinterlands is, however, filled with players who have no idea they are on the Hive blockchain nor do they care. What they care about is winning. Maybe having fun. Which is a strange turn blockchain games introduced into the gaming world. Putting winning/grinding above the pleasure of playing the game.
Splinterlands, among blockchain games, is a gem. I mean it looks good (some parts great) and it can be fun and exciting to play. Most blockchain games are not like that. Not yet, anyway.
Coming with this mindset, if a bot gives a player an edge advantage in any way, a player will likely want to use it, especially since they are permitted and more and more of the other players recourse to the same tactics.
The question is, do they offer the edge advantage?
When we consider this, we have to take into account both the pros and the cons.
On the pros side, the player has more free time which can be allocated for other tasks. As a subpoint of this benefit, if you have your ECR at 100% you are losing rewards. Even if the bot is taking a high fee, it's better than leaving the ECR at 100% because you earn something instead of nothing.
Another pro is IF the bot has better results than the player. Not all players are very skilled, so a great bot will play better than the majority of human players, at comparable card options.
The first con can be the fee structure. Exaggerated fees or a bad structure will deter many players to leave their playing deck "in the hands" of the bot.
Another con can be when enough bots of the same type and with identical configurations face each other in the same league and they end up selecting the same "best" lineup, resulting in a draw.
One thing is clear. Bots have been an integral part of the ranked battle system of Splinterlands for a long time. Recently they became more popular because a few of these services became paid public instead of closed.
And now we've come to the question in the title... Will bots eventually take over the ranked battles leagues completely? I know something like the land expansion and the new Equip step that will be added to battles will give them some trouble for a while. But for how long? And how long it took to develop land?
I had in my mind that this season I will play my account together with the bot. Looks like their fee structure makes it impossible for me to do it without being a foul at the same time (I'd end up working for the bot, instead of it working for me).
So, I'll give it another season by itself and see how much I'll regret those fees I'll pay.
However, I started to join some tournaments, something I haven't done in a very long time. Let's see if I win something to be worth my time there.
If bots take over ranked battles, will humans still have Brawls and Tournaments, or only Tournaments with KYC will be guaranteed for us?
I think it's only the latter. As soon as there's enough incentive bots will be created for any part of the game.
I'd reflect on this reply Matt gave to a direct question about bots:
