Update News 07.01.2021
On Thursday (07.01.2021) evening Valve released a new update with some minor bug fixes and surprisingly removes bots from the official game modes Matchmaking and Wingman. By the way, in the warmup areas the movement of the bots was updated, who until now mostly ran backwards towards the opponent.
Map updates took place on Ancient, Cache, Engage and Guard. There are no changes to the maps of the official map pool. While on Cache some "pixelgaps" have been reworked and removed, there are larger updates especially on Engage and Guard.
What are the implications for matchmaking and wingman?
For the two most popular game modes of the strategy shooter CS:GO, the update changes a system that has been integrated for years and is taken for granted. Until now, players who lost their connection to the server, quit the game or were kicked out of the lobby by their teammates were replaced by a bot. Now this has come to an end. Regardless of which of the above cases occurs, the team will not be replenished with system-controlled bots.
Advantages and disadvantages?
The most obvious drawback, due to which a large part of the community reacted with indignation to the update, are connection problems due to PC failures or Internet losses. Many players regularly have to deal with disconnects without being to blame. In these cases, their teammates will have to play outnumbered in the meantime until they reconnect or, in the worst case, the entire rest of the game.
However, the most likely reason why Valve released this update was definitely the problem of player kicks. Until now, it was unfortunately common practice to kick badly playing teammates out of matchmaking and take over the newly gained bot yourself. This often resulted in unfair conditions. Smurfers, but also cheaters could play again after their death.
Feedback from the community
The community reacted with incomprehension and obvious surprise to the new update. A post from Betway on Twitter, for example, pointed out the long-requested improvements to the bot control, which we will apparently no longer get. Instead, these have now been completely removed.
Personal opinion of the author
It has been quite a problem up to now that disconnects or kicks have led to a distortion of the game and the "disadvantaged" team could in the end gain an advantage by an extra life for their best player. All in all, a player ejection should definitely lead to a disadvantage and not be used advantageously.
On the other hand, it is of course a not insignificant disadvantage for all players, or rather their teammates, with unstable connections to have to continue playing in a 4 vs. 5. All in all, however, I think that being outnumbered should not result in an advantage. Whether it might not have been a better solution here to apply the new rule only to kicked players will be a topic of discussion for some time to come.
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