OpenAI and DotA (a moba)

[OraCLesofFire]

So I know a lot of the people here don't play DotA, but I thought this was a very intriguing topic that the entire Moba scene would find interesting.

 

OpenAI https://openai.com/ a non-profit AI research company recently built an intelligence which was capable of consistently beating the best DotA 2 professionals in a 1v1 mid situation. The AI was revealed at The International 7 DotA 2 Championships where it handily beat the best of the best in recent history. The rules of Mobas are extremely fluid, meaning the bot had to adapt to it's opponent's extremely diverse array of moves and possibilities in real time.

 

With the implications of this simple feat. OpenAI has released a blog post showing their intentions for the future of this AI, being able to compete in a full game of DotA (5v5), and how they expect to go about working towards that goal. I thought this was an incredible accomplishment, and figured that people who play other mobas league would find this very interesting.

 

https://blog.openai.com/more-on-dota-2/

[Pyon Pyon Kyuu!~]

It's interesting, but not very surprising. MOBAs have three main factors for success: 1. Decision making 2. Team work and 3. Execution. Execution will be pefect by default for an AI, and decision making just needs a complex enough decision tree for X situation. Team work will be perfect by default as well, but this AI didn't show it off because it was designed for 1v1. I'm interested in how it actually reacts to players and what they do but since an AI would have perfect reactions, anything it does isn't impressive. If it dodges a pudge hook, it's simply because the AI will always know where it can stand. It doesn't see a hook, it sees a hitbox and the path it will take. Competitive video games are always about the human aspect, so robots will always beat us at them. 

[OraCLesofFire]

"Actions accessible by the bot API, chosen at a frequency comparable to humans"

 

I believe they're saying that they've added in human reaction times with this statement, which is probably the biggest relief out there because it means abilities with an animation won't be completely useless outside of the laning phase. The bots obviously won't make mistakes that humans would make, like accidentally walking into a pudge hook.

 

I think the more interesting thing to look for is how the bot will react to some of the weird and crazy stuff than humans do, and how they'll learn to interact with each other and map movements. The number of ways you can play a full game is immeasurable, so I think that it will be very possible for humans to beat the bots by out-playing them on a teamwork and game plan level, and out drafting them. The best thing humans have against an AI is that we can act irrationally.