Is Master x Master Using Bots To Populate Games?

A friend of mine shared a screenshot of his 5v5 PvP game in NCSoft's newest title - Master x Master. Something felt off. It looks like NCSoft is populating their games with bots to make the games feel more popular than it really is. Just look at this screenshot below:

[singlepic id=69881 w= h= float=center]

Firstly, this isn't a tutorial game. Just look at the underlined players names and their talent builds. No one distributes their talent points so evenly; it doesn't even make sense to do so. In addition, their behavior in-game was consistent with bots (poor mindless play and zero all chat communication). Perhaps NCSoft is doing this to reduce queue times? Even so, it feels unfair to players with bots in their team. Anyone else notice this kind of behavior?

Edit: Other users have noticed this as well and are discussing it on Reddit. An NCSoft rep has responded too:

This is not a bug, you are in a simulation match designed to prepare inexperienced players for Titan Ruins. Titan Ruins has multiple combat types, including Ranked play and Custom Match. In order to be eligible for standard Titan Ruins battles, players will have to go through simulation rounds.
For the first simulations round, players new to the system will be matched against simulated opponents; players who win this round will advance on to a challenge round against another player (effectively 1v1) and your simulated teams. The winner of this round advances from the simulator on to participate in standard play, the loser continues the simulation rounds until they win in a 1v1 match, or they complete eight consecutive matches.
Alternatively, players (especially those who are familiar with Titan Ruins) can avoid the simulation matches altogether by grouping with their friends in the lobby, queuing up for Titan Ruins, and enjoying challenging battles against others immediately.

This isn't necessarily a bad system, but players should be told they're playing against bots when queuing up. MxM isn't the only game to do this. Paladins used a similar system to introduce players to PvP matches.

Thanks Zeme for the tip!