Last night, a DDoS attack occurred on the US servers of WoW Classic. Blizzard warned players that there could be difficulties. A group announced the attack beforehand on Twitter. It seems to be the same group that had previously attacked Wikipedia and Twitch. In Germany, WoW and Overwatch were affected, as reported by Blizzard.
The timeline was as follows: Yesterday evening, on Saturday, September 7th at 10:18 PM, Blizzard’s Customer Service reported that some online services were affected by a series of DDoS attacks. This would lead to high latency and disconnects.
This disruption would have a negative impact on some players. Blizzard thanked them for their patience.
The issues apparently occurred strongly with WoW Classic – players complained there that they could not play.
At 3:10 AM, Blizzard reported again that the WoW realms were now back online and stable. Further investigations were ongoing for the Rattlegore server – which were completed shortly afterwards.
However, it is said that players might still experience problems logging in.
What is behind this? About 30 minutes before the attack, a Twitter account tweeted that they would attack “all” US PVP servers in WoW. The tweet has since been deleted.
The group calls itself “UkDrillas”: they are also blamed for attacks on Wikipedia and Twitch in recent days. The attack on Twitch, however, does not seem to have been particularly successful.
Before these two attacks, the group was not known.
Some anger among players because nothing works during prime time
This is how players are reacting: They are discussing this attack on Twitter, reddit, and on the Blizzard forum, especially since some US players couldn’t play on Saturday night and had time to spare:
- They wonder what the intention behind such a DDoS attack is. What can one gain by preventing others from playing for a few hours, risking several years in prison for it?
- Overall, players were angry that they couldn’t play for a short time. Some immediately blamed Blizzard in their initial anger for not promptly preventing such attacks. These players also demanded compensation.
This is BS doesn’t blizzard have steps to prevent these types of attacks over an hour now trying to log in. Do we get free game time for the screwups.
— David (@David76683220) September 7, 2019
- Some criticize Blizzard’s communication. The attack had been ongoing for a while before Blizzard admitted the difficulties.
But Blizzard was able to resolve the problem relatively quickly.
Problems with WoW and Overwatch in Germany
Did we notice it in Germany? Blizzard reported that there were problems here in Germany. However, the effects seem to have occurred outside of prime time.
There were issues with WoW between midnight and 6 AM. Overwatch also experienced difficulties.
However, it does not seem to have reached the extent seen in the USA.
