Has Apex Added bots to fill lobbies this season?

yall needa remove ts, its lame as hell

I killed a team in ranked the other night that had to be completely drunk or bots 

Frostburnttt​ 
Time of day and the particular server could definitely be a factor, especially if it's taking a bit longer to put a lobby together and matchmaking needs to widen the range of players.

In Bot Royale you'll notice the names are AwesomelyAlliterative and CreativelyConsistent in their naming patterns. That could be one indication, though I can't say for sure whether that's always going to be the case for bots used in those lower-skill unranked lobbies mentioned earlier - not to mention there are more than likely some actual players using that type of naming convention as well once you venture out into pubs. Definitely solid feedback as far as making that more apparent, however! 👍

Is there a good way to confirm the bot type, or could it be possible to add it? I've been suspiscious of a good number of players being intentional bots lately, espescially playing with friends on NA servers (only done ranked on local EU this season iirc). 

While I think we were above the skill level for them, the matchmaking window was VERY VERY wide when this happened, and it makes me wonder if it could be something with low/high level players queuing together or some other factor? 

This is a picture of an example distribution, I'm sure time of day could definitely play a factor in this too

Ofcourse I don't know behind the scenes, but they felt almost like the bot royale bots as opposed to more primative ones, but it feels really unsatisfying when expecting real people. 

My understanding was that you would only find actual bots in pubs and only in lobbies where the skill distribution was slammed up against the left extreme. And even then only bot squads, no bots on a real player's team.

Correct! This hasn't changed, as mentioned briefly in our most recent AMA over on Reddit.

The goal of these would be to help newer players ease into things a bit more smoothly, rather than filling lobbies faster at higher ranks.

If you're seeing this in higher-skill lobbies those are likely the other, reportable kind of bot. Happy to pass along that you've been seeing this on AU recently, thanks for the post!

Q: Is there any plan to make matchmaking more friendly to new players?

I have friends who I have tried to bribe into joining the apex grind, but after a game or two in pubs getting destroyed they have zero interest whatsoever, and after seeing some of their clips I’d have to agree with them.

RSPN_C4

Yes! We are working towards some additional matchmaking changes for pubs, as well as continuing to invest in Apex Bots in lower-skills Unranked lobbies, to help to better onboard players that are new to Apex.

My understanding was that you would only find actual bots in pubs and only in lobbies where the skill distribution was slammed up against the left extreme. And even then only bot squads, no bots on a real player's team.

Of course, with every new season's voluminous patch notes they could easily have changed that policy and buried it in a foot note no one ever even saw much less read. So who knows?