they can yeah but im sure the game would likely exhaust normal options first before giving you bots rather than cutting the search shorter than needed, so i dont think you’d see a difference unless you were constantly reaching the end of the search range.
Bots make a difference. I get real irritated having players leave early on, as pred it makes the match boring and as a FT its like a kick in the nuts, but now if i have bots as FT i have the potential for help and extra lives and as pred i can 1v1 a FT four times before the match ends