A DDoS attack caused server crashes at Overwatch. The loss of skill rating was the result. The fans are angry.
On the morning of July 9, 2018, there were some server issues at Overwatch. Many players experienced sudden disconnections, which were counted as losses in their careers. Shortly thereafter, it became clear: it was a DDoS attack targeting Blizzard’s servers.
What happened? In a DDoS attack, a service or website is overwhelmed with thousands of requests until it becomes slower and then completely collapses. This was the case with Overwatch. Players initially suffered from high latency and lags, then they were kicked out of the game. Leaving a game early – even if all players are kicked out due to a DDoS attack – counts as a loss in Overwatch. All players in ranked mode lost skill rating. The frustration is especially high among players who were close to leveling up.
What frustrates the fans? The fans are disappointed that Blizzard counts a server crash as a “loss” – for everyone involved. Since this is not an ordinary disconnect but an overload of the Overwatch servers, Blizzard should be able to distinguish this. At least this is the view and wish of the fans. Players feel punished for a mistake they cannot control.
Due to the early timing of the DDoS attack, only a few European players are affected. Most of the angry players are from America, as the problem occurred in the evening hours there.
What is your opinion on this matter? Do you think that one should tolerate outages in an online game, especially when it is an attack? Or should it not be a problem for Blizzard to recognize when such things happen and spare players from losing skill rating?
