Marvel Rivals Sparks Controversy Over Bot Lobby Infestations

Hero shooter Marvel Rivals has quickly become one of the most popular live service games available, pushing aside longtime stalwart Overwatch on its way to the top of the charts. However, the game has managed to draw plenty of criticism, such as its expensive cosmetic items that can cost as much as $20. Now, it seems as if it’s drawing the ire of some of its player base because of potentially having added in-game bots.

User ciaranxy took to the Marvel Rivals subreddit to share their experience in what they believe were matches setup with bots. These bot filled games only seem to appear when a player is participating in Quickplay and have a streak of two or more losses. The lobby will be comprised of a team with 4 human players and two bots, while the opposing team will be comprised of bots only. The bots will have an account level of 1 and have profiles set to “restricted access.”


The responses to this post have been split, with some unbothered by the presence of bots while other players are far more negative. One user posted, “Honestly, I just use the bot lobbies to farm Hero-related achievements, since those can't be done in vs. AI matches.” Meanwhile another user shared that, “Every time I'm doing really well a part of my brain says, ‘Probably just fighting bots.’ It's a real shame, as I can't enjoy the moment. It just plain sucks.”

Marvel Rivals isn’t alone in having bots playing a significant role during online matches. Earlier this year, Fortnite was caught doing the exact same thing in its newly implemented Fortnite OG game mode. The player base was less than pleased with the development, as the game is more for fun while engaging with other human players.

It seems inevitable that these online games deploy bots as a way to ease in new players, alongside getting current players out of a losing funk. Although game companies need to be more measured in how they implement this, as regular players will certainly notice when more bots are in matches.