Well this is embarrassing.
Earlier this week, Cloud9 Maelstrom and compLexity—two of the top teams in Heroes of the Storm’s nascent eSports scene—faced off as part of Blizzard’s ongoing “Road To Blizzcon” tournament. As The Daily Dot reported, compLexity was “hungry for a win” as they’d only just barely secured themselves a spot in the playoffs. Taking on the currently undefeated Cloud9 might not have seemed like the best opportunity to get an easy win. But then C9 John Paul “KingCaffeine” Lopez was disconnected from the game, leaving an A.I. bot version in his place. Things weren’t looking good for C9.
Bots in MOBAs are generally seen as glorified punching bags—things you use to maybe test out new abilities on, and little else. Not this bot.
The AI version of the super tanky, electric guitar-wielding Heroes character E.T.C. (short for Elite Tauren Chieftain) accomplished something many human players struggle with. The bot used E.T.C.’s ultimate ability “Moshpit”—a special move in which E.T.C. starts jamming on his guitar and forcing surrounding bad guys to start dancing, effectively stunning them for a few seconds—at the exact right moment, when all three of the opposing melee characters were diving in to kill the computer-controlled hero.
As the macabre dance party wound a close, a massacre ensued.
“RED TEAM HERO KILLED,” the game announced again, again, and...again.
Needless to say, compLexity lost the game. Lopez, for his part, swallowed his pride and admitted he’d be “shown up” by the bot version of E.T.C.:
GG, bots. WP.