The latest Overwatch patch brought a host of new content, but it also seems to have had an unintended side-effect.
The update was a major one as far as Overwatch patches go. It added the Halloween Terror in-game event, bringing with it a collection of new cosmetic items as well as the return of Junkenstein’s Revenge, while also making some extensive hero changes.
Unfortunately, the update seems to have also introduced a game-breaking bug. Some players have been reporting an issue which results in the main menu UI being laid over the hero select UI when joining a game.
The bug prevents the player from controlling their character, eventually resulting in being kicked from the game for appearing to be AFK.
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For competitive players, the bug is particularly problematic. The Overwatch competitive ladder punishes those who leave games with a 50SR loss, but the system doesn’t differentiate between deliberate leavers and those who get kicked out of the game for reasons beyond their control.
The system makes sense in theory – a leaver is a leaver, regardless of intent, when you’re stuck on a team that’s now a player short. When it comes to patches, however, Overwatch has routinely had issues resulting in mass-disconnects that leave competitive players frustrated.
There have been several occasions previously when the arrival of a new update has forced vast numbers of players to disconnect, suffering the SR penalty as a result of Blizzard patching the game. Issues such as this latest bug add to the dangers of playing competitive around an update.