Even the most popular multiplayer games sometimes need to implement AI-controlled "bot" characters. These can play a number of roles, including filling out extra spots to get more game lobbies running, or giving beginning players easier targets in the case of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds implementing bots on PC last year. Valve's Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has used bots to replace players who are dropped from a team, but as of today that is no longer the case.
A new CS:GO patch details the removal of bots that would otherwise replace players who are disconnected or kicked out of "classic competitive and wingman modes." Whenever an entire team leaves any given match, they will now be replaced by a single bot that idles in the team's original spawn location. However, they still appear in Warmup arenas, as patch notes posted to the official Counter-Strike Blog outline a fix to bot navigation in this part of the game.
There have been mixed responses to this change in the comments of a post by CS:GO's Twitter account, and on the r/csgo subreddit. Many decry the change for giving teams that inadvertently lose members from disconnects or those that kick potentially "toxic" individuals a more substantial disadvantage. Others suggest players have abused the bot system by kicking out other users they deem to be less useful on the battlefield, but even then many feel there was likely a better solution.
Another contentious change in the latest patch is the removal of the ability to highlight weapons during competitive matches using "pings." Twitter user unhappy_an suggests this alleviates a concern in which players could use discarded weapons to track when opponents are in a given locale, but at the same time it removes functionality for online matchmaking teams that want to tell allies where they can pick up supplies.
A number of other changes were made through the January 7, 2021 patch. For example, SWAT sleeves have been downsized on "all existing models," the Ancient map has been optimized, and Steam China users can now receive CS:GO Prime Account Status if they have a government identity verification. There are also a number of bug fixes and minor adjustments one might expect from an online game update, as seen in a recent Monster Hunter World: Iceborne patch.
While many have taken issue with the contents of this patch, it's unlikely to have a major effect on Valve's team-based shooter. CS:GO was one of the best-selling and most-played games on Steam in 2020, though given the title is free-to-play "most-downloaded" may be a better descriptor. Either way, it should remain popular, even if multiple live tournaments have reportedly been cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is available now on PC.
Sources: Counter-Strike Blog, Reddit