I am writing to report a critical issue that is causing the game to crash and, in some cases, resulting in unwarranted bans for players. The problem occurs when watching replays of Overwatch matches.
The error message “Lost connection to game server by client request” appears repeatedly while viewing replays, regardless of internet connection stability or computer specifications. The issue is most frequent when navigating the timeline; it seems that something critical occurs during the loading process, causing the game to crash.
While the chance of a crash is significantly reduced by avoiding the timeline slider ( and < 20s / 20s > buttons ), crashes still occur. It’s possible to experience crashes up to 30 times during a single replay viewing, either every 60 seconds +/- or immediately upon moving through the timeline.
Some players are also encountering similar issues when simply logging into the game. I personally resolved this login problem by deleting the Battle.net folder (following forum suggestions). However, this workaround did not solve the replay crashing issue.
Most concerningly, a friend of mine received a permanent ban a week ago due to these “game crashes.” This is unacceptable, as the crashes are not the player’s fault.