When will things go back to normal?
An Apex Legends patch, which was supposed to fix the game's numerous disconnect issues, apparently made things worse.
The patch was released around 12:00 pm CT yesterday, but Respawn didn't share the full patch notes until about an hour later. The patch promised to fix some bugs that caused the game's server issues, as well as crashes that came with certain animated banner poses.
Within an hour, there were multiple reports of players being kicked out of matches once again or unable to connect to the game client. Publisher Holiwhirl downloaded the patch and was unable to disconnect from the first game played. After finally exiting the match, he was unable to reconnect to the servers.
At least initially, it appears that the patch undoes all the stability fixes introduced as of Monday, September 20. Apex's servers have been in disarray since the release of Patch 10.1, titled Evolution. Players were unable to connect to matches, especially battle royale matches, and in some cases faced crashes and afk penalties due to disconnections that were not their fault. On September 20, Respawn posted a fix that temporarily made things more stable, and promised a larger patch within the week that would fix bugs and issues.
Respawn said it's aware of the ongoing slow-motion lobbies, but has yet to acknowledge a resurgence of connectivity and server issues.
Update Sept. 22 at 14:45 pm CT: Respawn says it's now "forcing some server-side changes that should fix issues with slow-moving servers and poor performance."