AI bot destroys top StarCraft pros after invading ladder and using absurd strategies

An AI bot has invaded the StarCraft: Brood War ranked ladder, defeating some of the game’s best players with bizarre strategies and superhuman unit control.

The bot, named Pluto, began competing through an account called “^333^” and quickly climbed to the top of the global StarCraft: Remastered ladder, according to members of the Brood War AI community. Replays shared online show it beating established pros including Larva, Iris, Ret and Paralyze.

Pluto is a 315 million parameter neural network created for the 2026 Computer Olympiad StarCraft AI competition. It won the tournament after defeating fellow bot PurpleWave 4-1 in the final.

Unlike a traditional scripted computer opponent, Pluto learned to play through reinforcement learning and self-play. Its creator says the same network handles every race, matchup, build and individual unit across an entire game.

However, Pluto was never supposed to be competing against unsuspecting players online. Members of the Brood War AI community say an unknown person took the bot, adapted it to run in Remastered and placed it on the official ladder without its creator’s permission.

They also claim the unauthorized version is using a maphack, removing any legitimacy from its results. Pluto was trained to play with normal fog of war, and developers believe the extra information may actually confuse it at times.

StarCraft caster Artosis analyzed one of Pluto’s wins over Protoss player Paralyze, where the bot ignored conventional Terran strategy and produced an unusual mixture of Marines, Medics, Tanks, Ghosts, a Wraith and even a lone Firebat.