[Main Thread] Game not loading after clicking Play

Toymaker-1980 · June 30, 2020, 10:03pm

Please find requested information below:
Region: EU (Serbia)
ISP: SBB
WinMTR:
| WinMTR statistics |

|------------------------------------------------|------|------|------|------|------|------|

| 192.168.0.1 - 0 | 412 | 412 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |

| 10.4.128.1 - 0 | 412 | 412 | 4 | 7 | 15 | 9 |

| bg-tp-m-10-be25.sbb.rs - 1 | 408 | 407 | 5 | 7 | 49 | 7 |

| bg-ne-m-0-be102.sbb.rs - 0 | 412 | 412 | 6 | 12 | 26 | 12 |

| de-fra-r-1-be1.sbb.rs - 0 | 412 | 412 | 28 | 30 | 42 | 31 |

| de-fra-r-1-be1.sbb.rs - 0 | 412 | 412 | 28 | 29 | 36 | 30 |

| pr01.eqfr5.blizzardonline. net - 1 | 408 | 407 | 28 | 33 | 119 | 29 |

| ae1-br01-eqfr5.as57976. net - 0 | 409 | 409 | 37 | 57 | 3480 | 40 |

| et-0-0-2-br01-eqam1.as57976. net - 3 | 379 | 371 | 0 | 55 | 2107 | 39 |

| et-0-0-35-pe02-eqam1.as57976. net - 0 | 412 | 412 | 36 | 41 | 154 | 38 |

| 185.60.112.157 - 0 | 412 | 412 | 36 | 38 | 47 | 37 |

| WinMTR statistics |

|------------------------------------------------|------|------|------|------|------|------|

| 192.168.0.1 - 0 | 517 | 517 | 0 | 0 | 35 | 0 |

| 10.4.128.1 - 0 | 517 | 517 | 5 | 8 | 46 | 11 |

| bg-ds-m-10-be16.sbb.rs - 0 | 517 | 517 | 5 | 8 | 50 | 12 |

| bg-ne-m-0-be104.sbb.rs - 0 | 517 | 517 | 6 | 12 | 51 | 8 |

| de-fra-r-1-be1.sbb.rs - 0 | 517 | 517 | 28 | 30 | 75 | 33 |

| de-fra-r-1-be1.sbb.rs - 0 | 517 | 517 | 28 | 30 | 78 | 30 |

| pr01.eqfr5.blizzardonline. net - 0 | 517 | 517 | 28 | 34 | 105 | 34 |

| ae1-br01-eqfr5.as57976. net - 0 | 517 | 517 | 37 | 48 | 654 | 64 |

| et-0-0-2-br01-eqam1.as57976. net - 0 | 516 | 516 | 36 | 60 | 1395 | 39 |

| 137.221.78.77 - 0 | 517 | 517 | 36 | 43 | 164 | 39 |

| 185.60.112.158 - 0 | 517 | 517 | 36 | 39 | 85 | 39 |

| WinMTR statistics |

|------------------------------------------------|------|------|------|------|------|------|

| 192.168.0.1 - 0 | 502 | 502 | 0 | 0 | 39 | 0 |

| 10.4.128.1 - 0 | 502 | 502 | 5 | 8 | 48 | 6 |

| bg-ds-m-10-be16.sbb.rs - 0 | 502 | 502 | 5 | 8 | 49 | 7 |

| bg-ne-m-0-be104.sbb.rs - 0 | 502 | 502 | 6 | 12 | 54 | 11 |

| de-fra-r-1-be1.sbb.rs - 0 | 502 | 502 | 26 | 29 | 66 | 27 |

| de-fra-r-1-be1.sbb.rs - 0 | 502 | 502 | 26 | 28 | 69 | 28 |

| pr01.eqfr5.blizzardonline. net - 0 | 502 | 502 | 26 | 33 | 107 | 27 |

| 137.221.80.35 - 0 | 502 | 502 | 41 | 45 | 115 | 43 |

| et-0-0-2-br01-eqpa4.as57976. net - 0 | 502 | 502 | 33 | 41 | 194 | 83 |

| be1-pe1-eqpa4.as57976. net - 0 | 502 | 502 | 41 | 44 | 80 | 41 |

| No response from host - 100 | 102 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |

Hopefully this will help. However, even without this, things are pretty clear. Problem started shortly after patch.
It got better several days later, but not resolved.
Clearly it affects mostly EU and Asia regions.
Clearly a network/server connectioon issue, as eth. adapter disconnect workaround helps.
It almost dissapeared for about a week, until maintenance last night.
Everything became even worse since this morning.

Friendly advice, do a rollback on whatever was done in the last maintenance, or, with all due respect, get someone competent to find the problem, as this lasts for nearly a month now.

Shodan-21381 · June 30, 2020, 10:25pm

For people who create arcade games in the editor, testing is almost impossible (it takes forever until SC2 client launches) Manually disconnecting my internet connection every now and then I want to run a test is seriously fu***** annoying…

Kamatoznik-2654 · June 30, 2020, 10:27pm

Same problem here. Please fix it asap

ZeroBlade-11568 · July 1, 2020, 3:55pm

Same here, started yesterday and I have to wait for 15 min for the game to load at all.

cestLaVie-2719 · July 1, 2020, 6:06pm

Same here (Europe Region) – kept getting better and better, but today it’s back at some minutes launching time.

Talv-2620 · July 2, 2020, 12:11am

This problem is all kinds of weird… out of curiosity, I took a closer look on this with a Wireshark. And here’s a list of my observations:

SC2 client appears to repetitively (while cycling between all available hosts) request the same resource - some config from the CDN:

https://i.imgur.com/VK7yWkA.png
(It has made about 70 requests in total - probably reached some sort of cap?)

However, it actually gets the response from the CDN at first request, and every other it has made. Yet, it’s stuck in this weird loop.

https://i.imgur.com/qRAfcMb.png

Admittedly, the first host responded a little bit too late. It actually seems SC2 has closed the socket before it received the response? Even if, it looks like some problem on the application side, because the packet physically arrived.

Anyway, the vast majority of other requests goes without any timeouts. Like this one:

https://i.imgur.com/7SHrzpQ.png

Thus it really looks like a bug on SC2 client side, that simply gets amplified whenever CDNs don’t work at a full capacity, which results in long loading times - due to constant number of requests SC2 attempts to make before giving up.

Now, what I find extremely odd, is that SC2 client hasn’t actually stored that http://level3.blizzard.com/tpr/sc2/config/3b/93/3b938eed7536396b1d7a000ca9b2cd39 file after all of this. My understanding is, it should be put inside the StarCraft II/SC2Data/config as it seem to happen with all other TACT related configs.

I gave it a try and downloaded the file manually, placed in correct location… and… it solved problem straight away. (Although I had to manually correct line endings from CRLF to LF, as CRLF is served from CDN, while LF is what SC2 expects on the filesystem). Result: SC2 is no longer attempting to request missing resource every time it is launched, and starts the game instantly.

Furthermore I’ve noticed that my old SC2 installation (from 2018/2019), wasn’t affected by this bug. While the one installed somewhat recently (few months ago?) was affected. I’ve inspected the files in, and it obviously turned out that old SC2 installation had essential TACT related configs stored locally, including the one mentioned previously.

Anyway, to ultimately confirm my theory I’d like if someone had tested my solution. I’ve simplified the process:

Navigate to SC2 installation directory / SC2Data
You should have 3 folders here. Rename config to config_bak to prevent accidental data loss.
Download https://mega.nz/file/Iv40HQhA#HxU1dltcjLKhf5iyapPkfIdZEDhvKzuQkQ9ONpb-hS4 (config.zip) - it contains all essential TACT configs from my old SC2 installation.
Extract downloaded zip to SC2Data so that it’ll replace your older config folder.
Notice: The config files I’ve zipped might only be compatible with SC2 installed in enUS.

Thyge-11774 · July 2, 2020, 3:33pm

Hi, ur conclusion is right. And I have tested which file you need to copy into the config folder. After you have downloaded the config file --> go search “3b” and copy that folder to your own “config” folder under SC2 installation directory / SC2Data. The “3b” folder was the key to get the fast load.

PoweR-2593 · July 2, 2020, 4:38pm

I tried what Talv recommended and it works fine for me.

The config files I’ve zipped might only be compatible with SC2 installed in enUS

Im in frFR and it works

LazeR-2453 · August 5, 2020, 8:07am

Download https://mega.nz/file/Iv40HQhA#HxU1dltcjLKhf5iyapPkfIdZEDhvKzuQkQ9ONpb-hS4 (config.zip) - it contains all essential TACT configs from my old SC2 installation.

Extract downloaded zip to SC2Data so that it’ll replace your older config folder.

This worked!!! Thank you so much. No idea how did you come up with it but it really works.

nane-2809 · August 5, 2020, 10:03am

Hi guys I had this loading bar for some time now and game would start after few secs… last night I played without any problems. And now i can’t lounch game, loading goes in definitely and game is not starting and then I must End Program (Starcraft2) in Task Manager so I can do it again. So any fixes I didn’t saw that does not include altering files cos I know that was “Banable” 5 or so years ago
Thanks…
Btw EU Region…

Griffin-2183 · August 5, 2020, 10:16am

Never experienced the issue back in June/July, but now it suddenly popped up for me.

Mellow-2144 · August 5, 2020, 10:16am

Same Problem here! German location, please fix this Blizz! Can’t spend my money on your stuff, when I can’t log in you know…make it a priority…

Kanan-21312 · August 5, 2020, 10:42am

yea it’s happening again, i had this issue in June and now it’s back

DREVO-2949 · August 5, 2020, 10:55am

confirming that solution posted above: [Main Thread] Game not loading after clicking Play - #167 by Talv-2620 works

Buborék-2372 · August 5, 2020, 3:14pm

This also worked for me (on ubuntu/wine)

Jock-2432 · August 5, 2020, 3:22pm

For win10, clearning arp cache somehow fixed the issue for me.
You can “arp.exe -d *” as a last hope

PapaToss-2320 · August 5, 2020, 3:43pm

Brilliant work, Talv. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to work for us EU skrubs - at least not for me

arch-2804 · August 5, 2020, 4:53pm

Hello, I have the same issue with the infinite loading.
Same happens when trying to launch the sc2 editor.

I can not enter the beta client version to test but problem still exists for me.

Punkkk-2983 · August 5, 2020, 5:12pm

Same here. Yesterday i was replaying the most amazing strategy compaing in the whole world today i cant even start the game… Fix this please! I evene bought your cartooned version of SC1 so i hope you have money to fix this problem asap. My evening is ruined bcs i cant complete Char missions today

M3rl1n-21340 · August 5, 2020, 6:36pm

Same Issue has been like this for 1+months.
Shame on you blizzard!!!

Temporary fix:
Disable network card
Start game
Enable network card
Login and play

Blizzard you are incompetent!!!