DDoS attacks slow, but don’t stop, Overwatch

You may have experienced some connection issues in your Overwatch games on Thursday, and for once, they weren't Blizzard's fault.Blizzard recently cracked down on poor sports: Anyone who leaves a competitive game now faces 10 minutes without competitive matchmaking. More punishingly, Blizzard has fanned the banhammer and permanently removed players using triggerbots, which fire the gun automatically when an opponent comes in front of their crosshair, and aimbots, which assist in locking on to opponents.

You may have experienced some connection issues in your Overwatch games on Thursday, and for once, they weren’t Blizzard’s fault.

Blizzard recently cracked down on poor sports: Anyone who leaves a competitive game now faces 10 minutes without competitive matchmaking. More punishingly, Blizzard has fanned the banhammer and permanently removed players using triggerbots, which fire the gun automatically when an opponent comes in front of their crosshair, and aimbots, which assist in locking on to opponents.

Reactions were petulant and hilarious. Some, however, took it upon themselves to emulate “anonymus” methodology and launch Directed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks on Blizzard’s servers, which essentially waste bandwith and hold up servers.

Servers didn’t buckle under the strain, but they definitely caused problems logging in and keeping games at peak performance. It appears the whole thing was sorted out in some 3 hours:

Blizzard has had a lot of experience with online communities lashing out; it hosts World of Warcraft, the largest MMORPG on earth. Blizzard has declared these attacks are “not a DDOS event”, and though a few servers may suffer for a bit, the problem will be resolved and largely is already.

Overwatch just released its summer update, and is available now.

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