History ArtificialStupidity / SportGames

* In ''Super Swing Golf VideoGame/PangYa'', lower-tier opponents will make the most blatantly idiotic shots.
* A discussion of the AI stupidity in ''VideoGame/MaddenNFL'' would take all night, but one that deserves mention is that the AI has serious trouble with quarterbacks doing rollouts. If the AI is tasked with guarding the receiver and the QB rolls to his side, the AI defender will often come up to play the QB and then get indecisive, leaving both the pass ''and'' the run wide open.
* In ''[[VideoGame/BackyardSports Backyard Baseball]]'', if there is a person on third base, the fielders automatically throw to home. Usually it is an outfielder that does this, and almost always a run is still scored.
* For some reason the AI in ''[[VideoGame/FIFASoccer FIFA 2000]]'' (and its spin-off, ''The FA Premier League Stars'') was ''totally'' incapable of dealing with set-pieces correctly. This meant that whenever you got a free kick, half of the time the computer team didn't even bother setting up a wall to try and block the goal, and when it did the wall tended to be completely out of position. Corner-kicks were even worse, as your own players weren't marked correctly and the opposing goalkeeper was far too slow to react, meaning that so long that you were able to get plenty of corners, you could ratchet up huge scorelines even on the hardest difficulty settings. And as the icing on the cake, the goalkeepers didn't always remember to face away from the goal whenever they were standing up from a ground-level save, meaning that they could end up holding the ball across the goal-line in the process of standing up, thus gifting your team a goal.
* Invoked in ''FIFA 95'' with the Stupid Team Cheat. Any team this was used on turned into the biggest bunch of halfwits ever to grace a football pitch. Most amusingly, goalkeepers would drop saved shots between their legs, allowing a player to tackle them to score a goal.
* ''Mario Hoops: 3-on-3''. You control one character at a time. Your two teammates do nothing while you desperately try to avoid getting the ball stolen. The ball falls right next to them? They ''still'' do nothing.
* In ''Pro Cycling Manager 2011'', when a breakaway occurs, a team start chasing a group containing their own riders like it was one of their worst rivals. Pack takes them back in. New breakaway, some different riders, one from before mentioned team is in. Same team takes up the chase and wins. New breakaway, same teams, minus the one chasing before takes part. The team chasing before has stopped, because they weren't destroying it for their own team anymore.
* In ''Pro Cycling Manager 2014'', and previous editions, the AI has a tendency to gang up on the player, refusing to do work whatsoever, even when it logically should. As an example, in real life, during a cobbled classic, if someone's on the break at the end, everyone takes part in chasing the person down, because they want to win. In the game, the AI leaves the chasing to the player-controlled rider, and decides to just suck wheel, even if there's a very slim chance that the player-controlled rider will ever chase down the guy on the break, and by that reducing their own winning chances to nearly zero — a chance that real cyclists would never take.
* ''Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2006'' gives excellent examples of this. The AI has a habit of making really poor shots (and almost always being unable to make a putt longer than 5 feet). This would range from always hitting the ball into the bunker to hitting the ball out of bounds. It gets worse during the December 11 event in RTE mode, when the opponent team, consisting of Jon Hozzle and John Dinkenbach, often makes really poor shots to the point of hilarity. The scores would range between Bogey to 5 over Par per hole. Your partner, Danny Wheeler, also falls victim to this, even if it is to a lesser extent. Even the PGA pros and legends can't avoid this trope, as the likes of Justin Rose and Arnold Palmer can hit the ball into the water hazard at times. It is because of this trope that some players of the game criticise it for not providing enough challenge.

* The SNES ''NHL Stanley Cup'' release had a goalie that would advance out of the crease (which was legal at the time the game was released in the real league) if a shooter performed a slap shot further from the net. Ordinarily, a solid tactic (to reach a wider angle of shot). However, if the slap shot was a high shot from just past the blue line from near the boards, it would sail over the goaltender's head as he advanced, and it was merely a question of whether the player overshot the goal or undershot it - if the latter, the puck would then slide in for an easy goal. Regardless of the difficulty level, the opposing goalie would ''always'' fall for this, making it comically easy to pull off double-digit wins even with shortened periods.

* In ''VideoGame/MarioGolf: Advance Tour'', your doubles partner will always use a 3-wood for their second shot on par 5s, even if the green is less than 125 yards away.

* ''NASCAR '21: Ignition'' has a sometimes game-breaking case of this as [[ObviousBeta one of its signature bugs]]. Let's say a car stalls or crashes a full straightaway in front of the player car. Should be easy enough to dodge, right? One problem: the AI cars apparently weren't programmed to be able to dodge obstacles, so a car in the same lane as the stalled vehicle will pile in the moment they reach the obstruction. Then cars will pile into any lanes taken up by the cars that just crashed. Then more cars pile into those cars instead of stopping, as they were apparently also programmed to keep racing at speed no matter what was in front of them. Eventually, the player winds up staring at a track-clogging wad of wrecked AI cars by the time they get there - or get forced into the pile themselves if they get hit by an AI car in their lane.[[note]]or if the spotter was glitching and the wreck was out of sight halfway around a turn[[/note]] Oh, and the AI will sometimes forget how to back up, so non-player cars will just keep trying to drive through the pile or stall completely, making the wad completely unmovable. If the pile-up reaches that point, unless the track/apron is wide enough to make a total blockage impossible, the only choice is to restart the entire race and pray any crashers in the new session go well away from the racing surface. [[https://youtu.be/p3Mcvfjv-s4 This clip from a Bristol session]] is an example of this bug.

* ''NASCAR '21: Ignition'' has a sometimes game-breaking case of this as [[ObviousBeta one of its signature bugs]]. Let's say a car stalls or crashes a full straightaway in front of the player car. Should be easy enough to dodge, right?[[note]]at least if the spotter is working correctly instead of making a StupidStatementDanceMix due to another of those signature bugs[[/note]] One problem: the AI cars apparently weren't programmed to be able to dodge obstacles, so a car in the same lane as the stalled vehicle will pile in the moment they reach the obstruction. Then cars will pile into any lanes taken up by the cars that just crashed. Then more cars pile into those cars instead of stopping, as they were apparently also programmed to keep racing at speed no matter what was in front of them. Eventually, the player winds up staring at a track-clogging wad of wrecked AI cars by the time they get there - or get forced into the pile themselves if they get hit by an AI car in their lane.[[note]]or if the spotter was glitching and the wreck was out of sight halfway around a turn[[/note]] Oh, and the AI will sometimes forget how to back up, so non-player cars will just keep trying to drive through the pile or stall completely, making the wad completely unmovable. If the pile-up reaches that point, unless the track/apron is wide enough to make a total blockage impossible, the only choice is to restart the entire race and pray any crashers in the new session go well away from the racing surface. [[https://youtu.be/p3Mcvfjv-s4 This clip from a Bristol session]] is an example of this bug.

* ''NASCAR '21: Ignition'' has a sometimes game-breaking case of this as [[ObviousBeta one of its signature bugs]]. Let's say a car stalls or crashes a full straightaway in front of the player car. Should be easy enough to dodge, right?[[note]]at least if the spotter is working correctly instead of making a StupidStatementDanceMix due to another of those signature bugs[[/note]] One problem: the AI cars apparently weren't programmed to be able to dodge obstacles, so a car in the same lane as the stalled vehicle will pile in the moment they reach the obstruction. Then cars will pile into any lanes taken up by the cars that just crashed. Then more cars pile into those cars instead of stopping, as they were apparently also programmed to keep racing at speed no matter what was in front of them. Eventually, the player winds up staring at a track-clogging wad of wrecked AI cars by the time they get there - or get forced into the pile themselves if they get hit by an AI car in their lane.[[note]]or if the spotter was glitching and the wreck was out of sight halfway around a turn[[/note]] Oh, and the AI will sometimes forget how to back up, so non-player cars will just keep trying to drive through the pile or stall completely, making the wad completely unmovable. If the pile-up reaches that point, unless the track/apron is wide enough to make a total blockage impossible, the only choice is to restart the entire race and pray any crashers in the new session go well away from the racing surface. [[https://youtu.be/p3Mcvfjv-s4 This clip from a Bristol session]] is an example of this bug.

* ''Mario Basketball 3-on-3''. You control one character at a time. Your two teammates do nothing while you desparately try to avoid getting the ball stolen. The ball falls right next to them? They ''still'' do nothing.

* ''Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2006'' gives excellent examples of this. The AI has a habit of making really poor shots (and almost always being unable to make a putt longer than 5 feet). This would range from always hitting the ball into the bunker to hitting the ball out of bounds. The December 11 event in RTE mode plays this UpToEleven, when the opponent team, consisting of Jon Hozzle and John Dinkenbach, often makes really poor shots to the point of hilarity. The scores would range between Bogey to 5 over Par per hole. Your partner, Danny Wheeler, also falls victim to this, even if it is to a lesser extent. Even the PGA pros and legends can't avoid this trope, as the likes of Justin Rose and Arnold Palmer can hit the ball into the water hazard at times. It is because of this trope that some players of the game criticise it for not providing enough challenge.

** CPU batters can attempt bunts when they're trailing by a lot of runs. Gratuitous outs decrease the chance of scoring many runs in an inning. To make things worse, they can still do it when there's ''[[UpToEleven no one on base]]''.

* ''NASCAR '21: Ignition'' has a sometimes game-breaking case of this as [[ObviousBeta one of its signature bugs]]. Let's say a car stalls or crashes a full straightaway in front of the player car. Should be easy enough to dodge, right?[[note]]at least if the spotter is working correctly instead of making a StupidStatementDanceMix due to another of those signature bugs[[/note]] One problem: the AI cars apparently weren't programmed to be able to dodge obstacles, so a car in the same lane as the stalled vehicle will pile in the moment they reach the obstruction. Then cars will pile into any lanes taken up by the cars that just crashed. Then more cars pile into those cars instead of stopping, as they were apparently also programmed to keep racing at speed no matter what was in front of them. Eventually, the player winds up staring at a track-clogging wad of wrecked AI cars by the time they get there - or get forced into the pile themselves if they get hit by an AI car in their lane.[[note]]or if the spotter was glitching and the wreck was out of sight halfway around a turn[[/note]] Oh, and the AI will sometimes forget how to back up, so non-player cars will just keep trying to drive through the pile or stall completely, making the wad completely unmovable. If the pile-up reaches that point, unless the track/apron is wide enough to make a total blockage impossible, the only choice is to restart the entire race and pray any crashers in the new session go well away from the racing surface.

* ''NASCAR '21: Ignition'' has a game-breaking case of this as [[ObviousBeta one of its signature bugs]]. Let's say a car stalls or crashes a full straightaway in front of the player car. Should be easy enough to dodge, right?[[note]]at least if the spotter is working correctly instead of making a StupidStatementDanceMix due to another of those signature bugs[[/note]] One problem: the AI cars apparently weren't programmed to be able to dodge obstacles, so a car in the same lane as the stalled vehicle will pile in the moment they reach the obstruction. Then cars will pile into any lanes taken up by the cars that just crashed. Then more cars pile into those cars instead of stopping, as they were apparently also programmed to keep racing at speed no matter what was in front of them. Eventually, the player winds up staring at a track-clogging wad of wrecked AI cars by the time they get there - or get forced into the pile themselves if they get hit by an AI car in their lane.[[note]]or if the spotter was glitching and the wreck was out of sight halfway around a turn[[/note]] Oh, and no one can figure out how to back up, so AI cars will just keep trying to drive through the pile or stall completely, At that point, the only choice is to restart the entire race and pray any crashers in the new session go straight to the apron.

* In the NES baseball game ''Cyber Stadium Series—Base Wars'', the CPU can be goaded into hitting easily caught fly balls by simply shooting a slow ball right into the strike zone.

* The SNES ''NHL Stanley Cup'' release had a goalie that would advance out of the crease (which was legal at the time the game was released in the real league) if a shooter performed a slap shot further from the net. Ordinarily, a solid tactic (to reach a wider angle of shot). However, if the slap shot was a high shot from just past the blue line from near the boards, it would sail over the goaltender's head as he advanced, and it was merely a question of whether the player overshot the goal or undershot it - if the latter, the puck would then slide in for an easy goal. Regardless of the difficulty level, the opposing goalie would ''always'' fall for this, making it comically easy to pull off double-digit wins even with shortened periods.

* For some reason the AI in ''[[VideoGame/FIFASoccer FIFA 2000]]'' (and its spin-off, ''The FA Premier League Stars'') was ''totally'' incapable of dealing with set-pieces correctly. This meant that whenever you got a free kick, half of the time the computer team didn't even bother setting up a wall to try and block the goal, and when it did the wall tended to be completely out of position. Corner-kicks were even worse, as your own players weren't marked correctly and the opposing goalkeeper was far too slow to react, meaning that so long that you were able to get plenty of corners, you could ratchet up huge scorelines even on the hardest difficulty settings.

* For some reason the AI in ''FIFA 2000'' (and its spin-off, ''The FA Premier League Stars'') was ''totally'' incapable of dealing with set-pieces correctly. This meant that whenever you got a free kick, half of the time the computer team didn't even bother setting up the wall, and when it did the wall tended to be completely out of position. Corner-kicks were even worse, as your own players weren't marked correctly and the opposing goalkeeper was far too slow to react, meaning that so long that you were able to get plenty of corners, you could ratchet up huge scorelines even on the hardest difficulty settings.

** Left fielders will consistently throw to first base after a hit even if there's a baserunner heading towards second base. They could get an out, but refuse to do so.

* Invoked in ''FIFA 95'' with the [[ClassicCheatCode Stupid Team Cheat]]. Any team this was used on turned into the biggest bunch of halfwits ever to grace a football pitch. Most amusingly, goalkeepers would drop saved shots between their legs, allowing a player to tackle them to score a goal.

* In ''Pro Cycling Manager 2014'', and previous editions, the AI has a tendency to gang up on the player, refusing to do work whatsoever, even when it logically should. As an example, in real life, during a cobbled classic, if someone's on the break at the end, everyone takes part in the chasing the person down, because they want to win. In the game, the AI leaves the chasing to the player controlled rider, and decides to just suck wheel, even if there's a very slim chance that the player controlled rider will ever chase down the guy on the break, and by that reducing their own winning chances to nearly zero - a chance that real cyclists would never take.
* ''Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2006'' gives excellent examples of this. The AI has a habit of making really poor shots (and almost always being unable to make a putt longer than 5 feet). This would range from always hitting the ball into the bunker to hitting the ball out of bounds. The December 11 event in RTE mode plays this UpToEleven, when the opponent team consisting of Jon Hozzle and John Dinkenbach, often makes really poor shots to the point of hilarity. The scores would range between Bogey to 5 over Par per hole. Your partner, Danny Wheeler, also falls victim to this, even if it is to a lesser extent. Even the PGA pros and legends can't avoid this trope, as the likes of Justin Rose and Arnold Palmer can hit the ball into the water hazard at times. It is because of this trope that some players of the game criticise it for not providing enough challenge.

** Man on third. Like in the first example, if you hit a grounder to the first baseman, he will throw to the catcher to try and tag out the runner coming home. The catcher sometimes will start running towards first base and then throw the ball ''to the backstop'', where there's nobody who can receive the throw. Maybe this was programmed in case the pitcher was covering the plate, but there's so little time that the pitcher can't get there soon enough.

** When you have a runner on base, he/she will sometimes try and steal the next base if the pitcher attempts a pickoff. Without you ordering him/her to do so. Good luck getting back to safety.

* In Pro Cycling Manager 2011, when a breakaway occurs, a team start chasing a group containing their own riders like it was one of their worst rivals. Pack takes them back in. New breakaway, some different riders, one from before mentioned team is in. Same team takes up the chase and wins. New breakaway, same teams, minus the one chasing before takes part. The team chasing before has stopped, because they weren't destroying it for their own team anymore.
* In Pro Cycling Manager 2014, and previous editions, the AI has a tendency to gang up on the player, refusing to do work whatsoever, even when it logically should. As an example, in real life, during a cobbled classic, if someone's on the break at the end, everyone takes part in the chasing the person down, because they want to win. In the game, the AI leaves the chasing to the player controlled rider, and decides to just suck wheel, even if there's a very slim chance that the player controlled rider will ever chase down the guy on the break, and by that reducing their own winning chances to nearly zero - a chance that real cyclists would never take.
* Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2006 gives excellent examples of this. The AI has a habit of making really poor shots (and almost always being unable to make a putt longer than 5 feet). This would range from always hitting the ball into the bunker to hitting the ball out of bounds. The December 11 event in RTE mode plays this UpToEleven, when the opponent team consisting of Jon Hozzle and John Dinkenbach, often makes really poor shots to the point of hilarity. The scores would range between Bogey to 5 over Par per hole. Your partner, Danny Wheeler, also falls victim to this, even if it is to a lesser extent. Even the PGA pros and legends can't avoid this trope, as the likes of Justin Rose and Arnold Palmer can hit the ball into the water hazard at times. It is because of this trope that some players of the game criticise it for not providing enough challenge.

** Invoked in ''FIFA 95'' with the [[ClassicCheatCode Stupid Team Cheat]]. Any team this was used on turned into the biggest bunch of halfwits ever to grace a football pitch. Most amusingly, goalkeepers would drop saved shots between their legs, allowing a player to tackle them to score a goal.

* Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2006 gives excellent examples of this. The AI has a habit of making really poor shots. This would range from always hitting the ball into the bunker to hitting the ball out of bounds. The December 11 event in RTE mode plays this UpToEleven, when the opponent team consisting of Jon Hozzle and John Dinkenbach, would often make really poor shots to the point of hilarity. The scores would range between Bogey to 5 over Par per hole. Your partner, Danny Wheeler, also falls victim to this, even if it is to a lesser extent. Even the PGA pros and legends can't avoid this trope, as the likes of Justin Rose and Arnold Palmer can hit the ball into the water hazard at times. It is because of this trope that some players of the game criticise it for not providing enough challenge.

* In ''Super Swing Golf PangYa'', lower-tier opponents will make the most blatantly idiotic shots.

* In ''[[BackyardSports Backyard Baseball]]'', if there is a person on third base, the fielders automatically throw to home. Usually it is an outfielder that does this, and almost always a run is still scored.

* Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2006 gives excellent examples of this. Sometimes, the AI has a habit of making really poor shots. This would range from always hitting the ball into the bunker to hitting the ball out of bounds. The December 11 event in RTE mode plays this UpToEleven, when the opponent team consisting of Jon Hozzle and John Dinkenbach, would often make really poor shots to the point of hilarity. The score would range between Bogey to 5 over Par per hole. Your partner, Danny Wheeler, also falls victim to this, even if it is to a lesser extent. Even the PGA pros and legends can't avoid this trope, as the likes of Justin Rose and Arnold Palmer can hit the ball into the water hazard at times. It is because of this trope that some players of the game criticise it for not providing enough challenge.

* Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2006 gives excellent examples of this. Sometimes, the AI has a habit of making really poor shots. This would range from always hitting the ball into the bunker to hitting the ball out of bounds. The December 11 event in RTE mode plays this UpToEleven, when the opponent team consisting of Jon Hozzle and John Dinkenbach, would often make really poor shots to the point of hilarity. The score would range between Bogey to 5 over Par. Your partner, Danny Wheeler, also falls victim to this, even if it is to a lesser extent. Even the PGA pros and legends can't avoid this trope, as the likes of Justin Rose and Arnold Palmer can hit the ball into the water hazard at times. It is because of this trope that some players of the game criticise it for not providing enough challenge.

* In Pro Cycling Manager 2011, when a breakaway occurs, a team start chasing a group containing their own riders like it was one of their worst rivals. Pack takes them back in. New breakaway, some different riders, one from before mentioned team is in. Same team takes up the chase and wins. New breakaway, same teams, minus the one chasing before takes part. The team chasing before has stopped, because they weren't destroying it for their own team anymore.