|
www.youtube.com I've created a short video explaining the issue.
I'm posting this here as I've opened a few tickets but I'm never getting a human response. I'm hoping the balance council or someone of relevance will see this post.
Last year in November I started experiencing an error message " A player you were matched with has left the game or disconnected from the service. "
Fast forward to now (about a year later) I've discovered that players are using a program called " SC2 Server Blocker " as a tool to prevent games from being started. You can refer to this thread on TL for further information https://tl.net/forum/starcraft-2/567332-server-blocker
Due to a UI failure on Blizzards side, when you set your server preference the function ceases to work once you get promoted to master league. Naturally this is going to create a lot of frustration for players when they sit down to play SC2 if they're < quite actually > being forced to play in 200 ~ 400 ping.
This all started with the Australia server being merged onto the NA server, were players (including myself) would start to experience super high ping and would go on for many hours during your sessions.
This problem was further exacerbated when Blizzard decided (for whatever reason) to add the Singapore server to the NA server. So now you have Brazil, Singapore, and Australia mucking up the NA ladders with super high ping.
This of course naturally lead to someone in the community to create a program that would allow not only the NA server players, but everyone in master+ to actually utilize the function that Blizzard already has in the game.
On the surface, this sounds like a really good tool. Unfortunately, like most things in life, good things eventually come to an end. While the tool is definitely being used by in large to improve the experience of players, it's also being used to troll streamers and players.
To get an idea of what is happening you first must understand how the program works. When you use the program there are outbound rules created in your firewall. Once you have blocked all servers you will be able to toggle which servers you want to block and unblock at will. What can happen sometimes for high level players is that you will very frequently run into other players who are also using the program and so when you get matched (because you're both blocking each others preferred server) the game simply cannot start.
However the tool is now being utilized maliciously especially for those who play high level team games. The reason for this is, is because at a high level of team games there are very few players who are playing at a high MMR. Because of this you will sit in queue for 6 minutes and 30 seconds every queue. This essentially makes it impossible to avoid someone who is queueing at or around the same MMR you're queuing at. So as a streamer when you have someone who doesn't like you, they're going to simply block all the games from starting and I experience this for at least 5 hours per stream out of a 10 hour stream. The only way I'm able to avoid this is by playing on an MMR that doesn't match with the player who's blocking my games. Obviously this isn't a good fix as smurfing in a much lower rank isn't fun or interesting, not to mention completely unfun for the lower ranked players.
Now you're asking how are they able to actually do this? Simply by utilizing the program I mentioned above and going into the outbound rules and blocking each of the servers that are available on the NA server. I've tested it multiple times and can confirm that if you block all the servers the program will essentially make the game 100% unplayable.
I've been experiencing this issue for over a year now, and after many failed attempts to get Blizzard to acknowledge the problem I've decided to post it here, in hopes that someone of relevance will see it, and hopefully address. Because the truth is, if this particular problem becomes wide spread, it's going to have some serious ramifications on the game as a whole.
Thanks for reading.
EDIT: I should also mention that this method is being used on both NA and KR. On EU (to my knowledge) there is no code to block EU servers as there is only one server. The creator clearly outlines this in his thread.
EDIT #2: There is a very big misunderstanding that a lof of posters have so let me clarify: You dont NOT need to be blocking servers in order for this program to work maliciously. I play primarily on KR/TW so there is no reason to be blocking servers, and in fact because the playerbase is so low on TW/KR for high level 2v2 I experience queue blocking the most on KR/TW
|
Did you lose your login data? Pretty sure the TL-Admins are not automated and can help you with that...
Though in seriousness: Glad you see that this isn't a dropcheat. Still wondering what exactly Blizzard is supposed to do?
|
On October 29 2024 10:18 Balnazza wrote:
Did you lose your login data? Pretty sure the TL-Admins are not automated and can help you with that...
Though in seriousness: Glad you see that this isn't a dropcheat. Still wondering what exactly Blizzard is supposed to do?
No I just decided to log in with twitch rather than my original.
As far as what they could do to fix the issue, many other games like CSGO and LoL have already implemented fixes to queue blocking so I guess it would just be a matter of them figuring out what they did, and doing the same. I'm not exactly sure but I think it has something to do with " low priority queues "
|
I totally agree that queue blocking with automated bots has become a serious issue in the game. When bots flood the matchmaking system, it not only makes the wait times longer for real players, but it also damages the overall gameplay experience when they enter matches.
|
On October 29 2024 10:52 Masrul Amri wrote:
I totally agree that queue blocking with automated bots has become a serious issue in the game. When bots flood the matchmaking system, it not only makes the wait times longer for real players, but it also damages the overall gameplay experience when they enter matches.
I speculate with how much I experience the blocking on and off stream, it is in fact bots. Unfortunately there is no way to actually prove that because the game never starts, and so you are not able to see the profiles of the users who are using the method to prevent games from starting.
|
Your problem is self inflicted. Nothing Blizzard or the balance council can do about that type of problem.
|
On October 29 2024 12:18 Hefty-Leopard-5240 wrote:
Your problem is self inflicted. Nothing Blizzard or the balance council can do about that type of problem.
They can, just need to use the same technology that LoL and CSGO uses.
Self-inflicted is completely irrelevant, players should not be able to utilize these types of programs to block games.
|
You have blocked others from matching with you and are now experiencing being blocked from matches.
Welcome to the consequences of your own actions
|
On October 29 2024 13:58 ProTech1 wrote:Show nested quote +On October 29 2024 12:18 Hefty-Leopard-5240 wrote:
Your problem is self inflicted. Nothing Blizzard or the balance council can do about that type of problem. They can, just need to use the same technology that LoL and CSGO uses. Self-inflicted is completely irrelevant, players should not be able to utilize these types of programs to block games.
So you are not using this type or program in any shape or form?
|
On October 29 2024 14:28 Balnazza wrote:Show nested quote +On October 29 2024 13:58 ProTech1 wrote:On October 29 2024 12:18 Hefty-Leopard-5240 wrote:
Your problem is self inflicted. Nothing Blizzard or the balance council can do about that type of problem. They can, just need to use the same technology that LoL and CSGO uses. Self-inflicted is completely irrelevant, players should not be able to utilize these types of programs to block games. So you are not using this type or program in any shape or form?
I use this program to block Brazil, Central, and East servers. I live in Thailand so the games are too laggy. Between 5-900 MS. This leaves Singapore, Australia, and West as available server options. The people blocking games from starting are simply blocking all servers when they queue, resulting in the game being cancelled.
The creator of the program could patch it, to prevent players from being able to block every single server. That would also handle the blocking problem.
The main issue, is that when you are promoted to master league the " server preference " no longer works as an option. People on the balance council, or someone at blizzard could tweak things to ensure that the server preference actually works, and these tools would not be needed.
|
On October 29 2024 15:09 ProTech1 wrote:Show nested quote +On October 29 2024 14:28 Balnazza wrote:On October 29 2024 13:58 ProTech1 wrote:On October 29 2024 12:18 Hefty-Leopard-5240 wrote:
Your problem is self inflicted. Nothing Blizzard or the balance council can do about that type of problem. They can, just need to use the same technology that LoL and CSGO uses. Self-inflicted is completely irrelevant, players should not be able to utilize these types of programs to block games. So you are not using this type or program in any shape or form? I use this program to block Brazil, Central, and East servers. I live in Thailand so the games are too laggy. Between 5-900 MS. The creator of the program could patch it, to prevent players from being able to block every single server. That would also handle the blocking problem. The main issue, is that when you are promoted to master league the " server preference " no longer works as an option. People on the balance council, or someone at blizzard could tweak things to ensure that the server preference actually works, and these tools would not be needed.
You are blocking yourself from playing games and think someone else should fix it. Smh
|
So supermarket A is close to me but sells only Pepsi Cola. I really really really want Coca Cola though. Means I have to go to supermarket B which is far away! Now I told supermarket B to open a new branch near me but they won't do it. What a useless bunch
|
On October 29 2024 20:31 Harris1st wrote:
So supermarket A is close to me but sells only Pepsi Cola. I really really really want Coca Cola though. Means I have to go to supermarket B which is far away! Now I told supermarket B to open a new branch near me but they won't do it. What a useless bunch
It's a nice attempt, but I don't think even simple analogies will help him. He's too far gone to even realize what he sounds like much less what he is doing to himself.
|
On October 29 2024 19:34 Hefty-Leopard-5240 wrote:Show nested quote +On October 29 2024 15:09 ProTech1 wrote:On October 29 2024 14:28 Balnazza wrote:On October 29 2024 13:58 ProTech1 wrote:On October 29 2024 12:18 Hefty-Leopard-5240 wrote:
Your problem is self inflicted. Nothing Blizzard or the balance council can do about that type of problem. They can, just need to use the same technology that LoL and CSGO uses. Self-inflicted is completely irrelevant, players should not be able to utilize these types of programs to block games. So you are not using this type or program in any shape or form? I use this program to block Brazil, Central, and East servers. I live in Thailand so the games are too laggy. Between 5-900 MS. The creator of the program could patch it, to prevent players from being able to block every single server. That would also handle the blocking problem. The main issue, is that when you are promoted to master league the " server preference " no longer works as an option. People on the balance council, or someone at blizzard could tweak things to ensure that the server preference actually works, and these tools would not be needed. You are blocking yourself from playing games and think someone else should fix it. Smh
I would highly suggest re-reading the original post. It sounds to me like you either didn't understand anything you read, or you're simply de-railing the thread.
This is the last, and final repsonse you will recieve from me in this thread.
|
On October 29 2024 20:31 Harris1st wrote:
So supermarket A is close to me but sells only Pepsi Cola. I really really really want Coca Cola though. Means I have to go to supermarket B which is far away! Now I told supermarket B to open a new branch near me but they won't do it. What a useless bunch
Your analogy has nothing to do with players being able to utilize a program to block all the servers on NA or KR, resulting in games not being able to start. If you would like, I can make a short video explaining how this works and show you how they're doing it.
Please re-read the original post, and if you have any questions feel free to ask.
|
On October 29 2024 21:18 ProTech1 wrote:Show nested quote +On October 29 2024 19:34 Hefty-Leopard-5240 wrote:On October 29 2024 15:09 ProTech1 wrote:On October 29 2024 14:28 Balnazza wrote:On October 29 2024 13:58 ProTech1 wrote:On October 29 2024 12:18 Hefty-Leopard-5240 wrote:
Your problem is self inflicted. Nothing Blizzard or the balance council can do about that type of problem. They can, just need to use the same technology that LoL and CSGO uses. Self-inflicted is completely irrelevant, players should not be able to utilize these types of programs to block games. So you are not using this type or program in any shape or form? I use this program to block Brazil, Central, and East servers. I live in Thailand so the games are too laggy. Between 5-900 MS. The creator of the program could patch it, to prevent players from being able to block every single server. That would also handle the blocking problem. The main issue, is that when you are promoted to master league the " server preference " no longer works as an option. People on the balance council, or someone at blizzard could tweak things to ensure that the server preference actually works, and these tools would not be needed. You are blocking yourself from playing games and think someone else should fix it. Smh I would highly suggest re-reading the original post. It sounds to me like you either didn't understand anything you read, or you're simply de-railing the thread. This is the last, and final repsonse you will recieve from me in this thread.
I worked at Blizzard. Now I'm a dev for another company. I completely understand the situation. Your problem is you THINK you understand what's going on. You don't. People have told you what the problem is, but you don't listen. Good luck.
|
When people don't like me I sometimes let them win the game at the end. Usually, they end up liking me. If a few ladder points makes them happy... they can have them. I don't care about ladder points.. i just want some fun times. Also, It makes it far less likely that they will dodge me next time.
If I face the same opponent 4 games in a row and I won the first 3 I always give my opponent the 4th game at the end. I find I make a lot less ladder enemies that way.
|
Bisutopia19229 Posts
On October 29 2024 10:18 Balnazza wrote:
Did you lose your login data? Pretty sure the TL-Admins are not automated and can help you with that...
Though in seriousness: Glad you see that this isn't a dropcheat. Still wondering what exactly Blizzard is supposed to do?
Correct. I am a meat Popsicle.
|
On October 29 2024 21:55 BisuDagger wrote:Show nested quote +On October 29 2024 10:18 Balnazza wrote:
Did you lose your login data? Pretty sure the TL-Admins are not automated and can help you with that...
Though in seriousness: Glad you see that this isn't a dropcheat. Still wondering what exactly Blizzard is supposed to do? Correct. I am a meat Popsicle.
I've seen you before! you're pretty short.
Meat Popsicle
|
I mean I can save you the trouble if that helps:
1)Neither the Balance Council nor Blizzard will do anything about this. The Balance Council can't, Blizzard won't. They wouldn't even do it if they still were invested, because Blizzard has never "fixed" external programs. They either ban them or let them be.
2)I'm still not convinced that this is targeted. Could really just be that you run into the bigger playerbase of e.g. Brazil a lot, who has banned all the servers you want to play on.
3)You could probably save yourself the time to complain about this and just unblock all servers. Would immediately help you with the range of players you can get.
4)This is just me being a former forum administrator myself, but your Thread-name is horrible and has nothing to do with your actual problem.
|
|
|
|
|
|
EPT
