Rare Overwatch bug is causing big SR drops, instant seasonal bans, Blizzard working on a fix

A major, if rare bug was recently discovered in Overwatch, and it affects Competitive Play.

The bug, discovered by a few Overwatch players by accident, caused them to get an instant seasonal ban in Competitive Play, and lost them plenty of SR points.

It's not exactly clear what causes this to happen, but a Reddit thread suggests that disconnecting while the next map is loading, sends players to a "waiting for players" state that keeps trying and failing, eventually losing them hundreds of points of SR, and earning them a ban.

That said, because of how very specific these conditions have to be, Blizzard has not yet implemented a fix. After news of the bug made to the Blizzard forums, game director Jeff Kaplan chimed to apologise to those affected.

"This bug is a high priority for our team, and we’re working on a fix to prevent further instances of it occurring as we speak," Kaplan said.

"In the meantime, we’ll be removing the seasonal ban for all players affected by this bug as well as restoring their skill rating. To date, this bug has impacted fewer than 200 accounts, but we’ll continue to monitor for additional occurrences and provide assistance until we can implement a permanent fix."

Kaplan wasn't able to provide an ETA for when this bug will be fixed, but it's definitely not good news for players serious about Overwatch. This week, Blizzard instated a new permanent ban policy for Competitive Play.

Through it, players who get three seasonal bans will automatically receive a permanent ban from Competitive Play. This is a problem, though, because seasonal bans do not reset, so it would really suck for someone to earn one of three bans because of this bug.