The tl;dr is that even though the applying update error is on their side, they’re not gonna do anything to overturn my leaver penalties. 
So anyone else waiting to hear back or having this problem, know they’re not fixing the leaver penalty rank losses or anything.
Thank you for your patience while we looked into your issue for you. Tech Specialist [redacted], here. I wanted to leave some information on your issue with the “Applying Update” error, as well as the competitive leaver system. We’ve gotten a number of reports of this issue over the past day, and the developers were looking over it previously.
I get that it’s upsetting to be penalized when something feels like it’s out of your control, so I want to talk about how the penalty system works. When something like this happens, we aren’t able to remove a suspension or restore any lost skill rating, as it does affect the other players in the match. We also aren’t able to see the difference between an intentional disconnect and an unintentional one (it looks the same to the server), so we have to treat them all equally. Further, regardless of reason for failure to connect, it still affects your fellow players. For a bit more information on why the penalty system works the way it does, this post may be helpful.
Leaver Penalties and Technical Issues
Even so, we appreciate you taking time out of your day to let us know about this. It’s thanks to reports of players like you that we were able to get on this so quickly. It should be fixed now, so join a custom game for the time being to see if you get the problem again. This should allow you to download any further data and then get back into the grind. You may want to run a quick match in quickplay, but there shouldn’t be further problems at this time.
We understand that tech issues of any type feel like a setback. For that reason, the game assumes that you’re going to have occasional issues, so as long as you keep playing games all the way through, the leaver penalty system shouldn’t have long term consequences for you. You’ll be able to climb back to your previous rank and keep on trucking.
I sincerely hope that this experience with Blizzard Entertainment has been informative, if not helpful. If you need help with anything else, please feel free to reach out and let us know.
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This literally just happened to me upon logging in for the 2nd day in a row so now I have an hour ban and Im guessing another leaver deranking hitting my rank…maybe tomorrow I can log in and get me a nice 24hr ban or whatever comes next.
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That sucks, man. According to this ticket the applying update error “should be fixed now” but if you JUST got the applying update error then I guess it’s definitely not fixed…
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I dont know exactly what time they sent you that message but im exactly 20mins into my ban so unless they fixed it literally right after it happened to me…its sure not fixed. Because I pretty much came straight to the forums after it happened to see if there was talk about it.
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The issue clearly isn’t fixed if people are still posting about it here and on Reddit last few hours… Looks like Blizz CS finally confirmed the developers know about a game breaking feature and still haven’t addressed it yet. I don’t know what’s more upsetting, the fact they know about it and don’t warn community or that they ignore all affected players with large penalties and bans.
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yep, not fixed at all. just logged on and tried to queue, got stuck on entering game. tried to close app and reload fast hoping for that to work, but i don’t even get the chance to rejoin. same thing happened to my friend last night. wish they would make an official acknowledgment
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Checking out some replies from the Blizzard Customer Support Twitter and their responses to people asking for help with the ‘applying update’ bug – this response says fixing people’s unjust suspensions “isn’t something Support has any involvement with” 
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I want to call them out here - as Emongg has a video on youtube where he was put against a Widow that was clearly hacking. After he reported the user he got a fancy pop-up that I doubt any of us regular customers have seen. His SR was restored for the match. So, I call bs on their claim that they aren’t able to give SR back to customers. It’s just that we don’t matter as much, and that’s the reality.
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You are not alone in experiencing this bug. Here’s a link to my post in case you’d like to read more about this issue: The Competitive Bugs Megathread. I put your thread under: Competitive Match Disconnection And Ban. Please help in spreading the word about this megathread and other related threads regarding these issues.
Could you provide the link for that video? If that really is true, then it’s ridiculous that the Devs can’t implement that system capacity for the rest of us regular players too. We need to complain more on the forums and get them to implement that for everyone who was unfairly penalized for these system bugs.
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it is NOT FIXED, just happened to me now, suspended for 12 mins…FIX YOUR GAME BLIZZARD
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It was a couple years ago now, and when I brought it up during one of his live streams on Twitch he flamed me, asked me to provide proof (I did) then he kept flaming me, allowed his followers to flame me as well. So, not going to provide a link, because I don’t want to give him more views/engagements, and I just don’t feel like going through years worth of his YouTube videos looking for it. You, and others are welcome to look for it though. I get people aren’t going to believe me, and that’s fine.
(update with video)
Okay, it wasn’t so hard to find - Youtube >“the MOST BLATANT CHEATER in overwatch (BANNED LIVE ON STREAM)” @4:45 you see a pop-up that says “Your previous game has been cancelled and no win or loss will be recorded for either team” – he & his community argued with me in his chat over if he got SR back or not. If the game was essentially “deleted” after he lost due to a cheater, then SR was restored for him, no?
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I’m banned for 8 hours wtf !!! How is it my fault I got it twice in a row and once the next day. It shouldn’t be fair
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Stay off of comp for now your next ban will be for 20 hours and the one after a 2 month
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I mean the department is kind of a joke all together. In my mind it’s not that hard to put a halt on competitive matches as a whole for a few days as they fix the issue, not only that but directly lying to the player base saying it’s fixed when it clearly isn’t, that and saying basically “oh you’re suspended for our game-breaking mistake??? LOL make another account and buy all your skins again gg ez money.” Like as someone in the field of SWE and CS the bugs and faults im seeing are complete jokes.
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think it’s related to the issue of the start of the season. because yesterday i got a ranked update like you first login into ranked after the start of the season. then after that que’d for a ranked game and got the apply update and got a ban for 15 min . My other account is not affected so it isn’t the game itself.
edit: got it right now in QP so it isn’t just ranked
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Just a quick idea: has anyone had this happening after succesfully playing one match? I’ve always had it happen at the first game when I start overwatch.
So: play quickplay first, after that play comp.
Or is there someone that can disprove my theory?
Chances are if you’re here, then you’ve encountered this issue as well. I have had this happen twice within the past week. Seems to happen on the first match that I try to load into. (Unfortunately they were both comp games on my main.) Hoping this issue gets resolved soon, if anyone finds a fix for this in the meantime that would be fantastic!
Yeah, so I’m thinking: don’t let a comp match be your first match. Maybe that’s a workaround.
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Well, i see only 1 solution, create new account, and play on it. Cause your rank you will get fast with recent changes to ranked, game is “free”, and the only issue is your cosmetics. Ofc, there is one more solution, it’s just quitting playing game that gives you timeouts because of devs.
we need a REAL response from blizzard about this
and by response i mean a HOTFIX
something is broken!!!
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