Stuck on an update screen, only to get booted out of a game? You aren’t alone.
Looking for a good excuse as to why your Competitive Mode rank has tanked this season? It might just be that you've been hit with a bug that's been popping up more and more in the last few weeks. The Overwatch 'Applying Update' bug going around has caused players to force-quit out of the game, sometimes losing Competitive points in the process. Multiple Reddit threads in the last two weeks are begging for some kind of answer.
Let's look at the problem and if there's anything on the player's side that can be done to avoid a Comp ban.
What is the Overwatch 'Applying Update' bug?
Have you loaded into a game and gotten stuck on a screen that says 'Applying Update', even before you could pick a Hero? If you have then you know there's currently no solution to this problem, short of hard closing the game client. The Overwatch 'Applying Update' bug is a server-side authentication issue that appears to hit players at random.
To the rest of the players in-game it simply looks like someone hasn't chosen a Hero. Eventually, it times the player out and they are removed from play. Even if it still looks like to them that they are still on this Applying Update screen.
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Unwarranted Competitive bans
A number of threads on Reddit out the topic have popped up in the last week or so. This appears to be an indication that the Overwatch 'Applying Update' bug is more than an isolated incident. One thread with over 600 comments shares the plight of one user who alleges they were banned for all of Season 4 due to the bug.
Anecdotally, this writer can attest to both seeing and experiencing the bug. In both instances the only fix was hard-crashing the Overwatch client and reopening the game. There's been no official word yet from Blizzard on the bug. However, it does seem similar to some of the authentication issues the game experienced upon its relaunch late last year.
If a solution or response from the publisher comes out we'll be the first to let you know. Until then, stay safe out there.
Stay tuned to esports.gg for esports news and Overwatch information.
