Vikkstar123 shocked by the number of bots in Fortnite Chapter 2

It seems like there are more AI players filling up lobbies than you might have expected, and they don’t put up much of a fight.

Vikram “Vikkstar123” Barn rose to YouTube fame as a member of UK collective, The Sidemen. He recently teamed up with Sven “Svennoss” Edelenbosch for some Duo matches to test out Fortnite Chapter 2.

The pair were trying to get a win using only Pistols, a challenge they expected to be difficult. However, it turned out that a lot of their opponents weren’t quite up to scratch. In multiple games, nearly half the enemies were not real players.

Towards the end of Season X, Epic Games released a blog post announcing that they would be adding ‘bots’ into Battle Royale mode. The article wasn’t very specific but explained that the bots were there to help newer players develop. It also suggested that they would work alongside the new skill-based matchmaking system, and be less prominent in higher skilled lobbies.

Although Fortnite isn’t Vikkstar’s main game, he still has a solid amount of experience and over 1000 total wins. Svennoss has won a good amount of money from pro events and would definitely be considered a highly skilled player. You would think therefore, that their matches would have very few bots if any, but this wasn’t the case.

By going into the game replay files, they were able to confirm that on average, their lobbies were made up of around 60% AI players. This was across multiple matches and not just a one off. This is a staggering statistic and a genuine cause for concern.

The Duo chose to leave a bot alive and watch how it behaved. Even when in close proximity the robot would ignore Svennoss and simply perform random actions. It seemed as though they were incapable of killing a real player. A bot that doesn’t fight back offers no form of practice to even the lowest skilled players and should by no means be in a lobby with Svennoss and Vikkstar.

Whether this is deliberate or the system is just not working properly is unclear, but Vikkstar thinks something needs to change. He says, “I’m not a fan of it” and that he doesn’t see how anyone would feel fulfilled after winning a game full of bots. Svennoss shared his thoughts on the issue in a post that you can read here.