OpenAI Five: Goals and Progress
As someone who was once semi-pro in dota (4400 MMR, get rekt), it's freaky watching these bots play. It's uncanny. Little things... Like, when the bots are taking a tower, one of them will stand in front of the tower and tank the creep wave, so that their creeps do more damage on the tower. They had to learn this.Insta-TPing right when an enemy wastes their stun and can't cancel their TP.Grouping up as 5 at the beginning of the game and pushing into the enemy jungle. Pubs never do this.The most interesting part is that OpenAI appears to be discovering new knowledge in the dota scene. For example, they always take the ranged barracks first, never the melee. This is exactly the opposite of what the pro scene does. Therefore, the smartest pro team should study what the bot is doing and trust that on average it's a better idea to always focus on the ranged barracks first. After all, if it was a bad idea, they probably wouldn't do that.The most hilarious part was when OpenAI paused the game, then resumed it. This illustrates that there is still some unexplainable randomness.Question for OpenAI: Is it more accurate to think of the bots as 5 separate minds, or a single mind controlling 5 heroes?EDIT: By the way, TI is going on right now! https://www.twitch.tv/dota2ti If you're new to the scene, take a peek. TI is always so high energy -- even if it's hard to follow what's going on, listening to Tobi (the shoutcaster) go nuts during the game is always a highlight.And of course, /r/dota2 has the best memes anywhere, hands-down. https://www.reddit.com/r/DotA2/