DeepMind AI will play StarCraft II matches on competitive ladder

Google's DeepMind AI AlphaStar has already made waves in StarCraft II by beating several pros in the esports scene, and now Blizzard has revealed that it will soon be playing a small number of games on the competitive ladder in Europe, gathering more data as part of Google's research.

You can opt in to play against the AI on the in-game popup, and on the 1v1 Versus menu you can change that at any time. The AI will play anonymously though, so you won't tell if you face it, "to help ensure that all games are played under the same conditions". It'll also have restrictions as defined in conjunction with pro players, and winning or losing will affect your MMR as usual.

The FAQ also works to clear some things up regarding the AI, like whether it has an advantage in any way:

"Like human players, AlphaStar perceives the game using a camera-like view. This means that AlphaStar doesn't receive information about its opponent unless it is within the camera's field of view, and it can only move units to locations within its view. All limits on AlphaStar's performance were designed in consultation with pro players."

Would you like to try your luck against AI?