DDoS attack on Blizzard servers causes connectivity issues for Overwatch and World of Warcraft

Keep your eye out when you hop on for some WoW Classic.

Image via Blizzard Entertainment

Sorry to anyone trying to grind in World of Warcraft Classic or play some competitive matches in Overwatch, but a DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack on Blizzard’s servers is resulting in connectivity issues for the two franchises. 

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These attacks mainly seem to be targeting WoW Classic servers, causing players to get booted from their instances while others aren’t even getting a chance to connect to the game. These issues have been ongoing since midday on Sept. 7 and are a very finicky problem that Blizzard is trying to fix. 

Reports of players getting booted from servers in WoW and games of Overwatch started coming in throughout the morning, but the major issues didn’t start happening until the afternoon. 

The DDoS didn’t seem to affect every server, but it did hit a majority of them, causing many players to reach out to Blizzard’s support account to see when these issues would be resolved. Blizzard has yet to give more details about the actual nature of the server attacks, but since they first acknowledged the issues, it seems some connection problems have been fixed. 

Moderators and support personnel on the WoW support forums are actively keeping details about the attacks private so they do not give the attacker or organization hitting the servers and publicity. This has become a common practice when companies are faced with virtual attacks such as today’s latest strike on Blizzard. 

Screengrab via Blizzard

After testing the Overwatch servers, it appears the problem has at least been mostly resolved and there has been no sign that games like Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, or any other titles were heavily affected. 

Screengrab via Blizzard

It should be safe to play all your Blizzard titles again, but Overwatch Support users are cautioning players to avoid competitive mode until it is confirmed that all issues are completely cleared. This will avoid any accidental disconnects caused by lingering problems from the DDoS attack.

Author
Image of Cale Michael
Cale Michael
Lead Staff Writer for Dota 2, the FGC, Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and more who has been writing for Dot Esports since 2018. Graduated with a degree in Journalism from Oklahoma Christian University and also previously covered the NBA. You can usually find him writing, reading, or watching an FGC tournament.