Twitch chat-controlled bot wins third place in a PUBG solo match

There’s nothing like an internet community coming together.

Over the past few days, some Twitch users in the PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds fandom have come together to play the game in an interesting way—via Twitch chat.

TwitchPlaysBattlegrounds is a new channel on Twitch, which features a bot program that uses chat commands to fully control the player character in PUBG. By typing commands like W, A, S, and D to move around, and Z to go prone, the chat controls everything that the player character does.

On Sunday, the second day of the experiment, the chat worked together to make it all the way to third place in a Solo game. This top three finish was the highest placement that the bot has received yet, and it did so mostly by crawling in the grass into the final circle. The character was then sadly run over by a car.

“The vision behind this channel is one of curiosity, collaboration, and patience,” said the program’s creator, named Nuehado. “The command list is a living document, being updated frequently to improve quality of life for you all. If you have suggestions, don’t hesitate to get in contact with me. I am working on ways to reduce the latency between chat and stream, and make the user experience as smooth as possible. All with the ultimate goal in mind of sharing a chicken dinner with all of you. Please forgive the channels shortcomings in the near days as it is optimized and taken out of its “beta” stage.”

Chat-controlled gaming is nothing new on Twitch, as everything from Pokemon to Dark Souls has been programmed to be played via chat commands. A multiplay title, however, is an entirely different beast.

The project is still young, but with some good circle luck and poor performances from enemy players, a chicken dinner may be possible some day.