Pokemon Unite is using your account name to hide bots in Ranked mode

Have you ever been in a Pokemon Unite Ranked match and some players on the team barely lift a finger? You’re not alone. While you might chalk it up to just bad matchmaking, sometimes there’s another reason for it entirely – bots.

A classic telltale sign of someone being a bot is that they do significantly worse than the rest of the team; think 10 points when everyone else gets over 100. It’s even more apparent in Ranked mode because why is someone doing that bad in Veteran or Master? It makes no sense at all.

And to add to the frustration, some players have figured out that Pokemon Unite is using the names of actual accounts to disguise bots as real people. While that makes sense in Standard, having it in competitive mode is rubbing fans the wrong way.

Pokemon Unite using real account names to disguise bots

On August 10, user u/Iago_Bra posted to the game’s subreddit with a claim that their friend had been in a match with them, with the fan playing as Snorlax. Sounds normal… Except the fan wasn’t even online at that point, nor do they own the Unite License for the Defender.

“A friend of mine played this morning and everything [was] fine. I didn’t play this morning and I don’t have the Snorlax license,” they wrote. “And this kept me thinking: Is Pokemon unite using our accounts as bots?”

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Alongside this, they posted screenshots of their name being used in a match when they were actually offline and proof that they don’t have the Kanto ‘mon in their roster.

“From my understanding of other players experiences, yes,” another user commented in answer to Iago_Bra’s question, “According to other posters (I have not experienced this) they do have their own bots and those are the ones you can’t click on post match, however when they use your account as a bot, you can click on them.”

Ever received a random friend request from someone you’ve never been in a match with? This could be exactly why, as bots using real account names are clickable, meaning other fans can send you invites – despite it not being you who’s playing.

“This has resulted in people getting random friend requests and seeing themselves play in random games with Pokémon they don’t own when they talk to the other player,” they continued.

Pokemon Unite players shouldn’t worry too much though, as outside of getting random requests, your account isn’t affected. So even if the bot using your name loses a match, it won’t alter your win/lose percentage at all.

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Still, there’s a debate to be had about disguising bots in Ranked play, especially in the higher tiers. Is it fair? Should those matches count? Only time will tell how this plays out.