Something quite unexpected was part of a recent Counter-Strike: Global Offensive update released by Valve. The game has ended up changing in a big way, even as the developers have put to halt to the spawning of bots when players exit or are kicked out. What this means is that if a player exits a game, the teams will get misbalanced as there will be no one to replace them in the middle of a match.
The system of bots appearing in order to restore balance made a lot of sense, which is why it has confused many as to why Valve has taken such a decision. One theory is that it has been done to prevent cheaters who would play aggressively knowing that they would have a back-up if they died. Another reason could be to prevent teams from kicking an underperforming player and relying on the bot instead.
But the truth remains that bots will no longer form part of classic competitive and wingman modes of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. So in if a player leaves in the middle of a match, their team will be a man down until they join back again. In case an entire team leaves, only one bot will appear at spawn, waiting to be shot dead.
CS:GO is a huge game for Valve and that explains why it was made free-to-play in December 2018. The online multiplayer game has been delighting fans since 2012 and has evolved by leaps and bounds over time. It carries the same genesis of the earlier Counter-Strike games, but with overhauled visuals, new game modes and more. When the game went free-play two years back, a battle royale mode called Danger Zone was also added to it.