Known Lag Problems
These problems are reported by real players. If your region or ISP is listed, a network optimizer is likely to help.
Southeast Asia
80–200ms to nearest server- SEA accounts were merged into the Americas region in June 2017 — SEA game servers still exist under Americas Preferred Game Server but population is very low
- ISP routing to Singapore/Americas Battle.net is often suboptimal across SEA carriers
- Philippines players (PLDT, Globe) often report 100–200ms to Americas server
South America
100–200ms to Americas server- Americas server is shared — Brazilian players may experience 100–150ms depending on routing
- No dedicated South American Battle.net server for SC2 (unlike some other Blizzard games)
- Latin American ISPs often have poor peering to Blizzard's US infrastructure
Middle East and Turkey
60–150ms to EU server- No dedicated Middle East SC2 server — players route to EU (Paris/Frankfurt)
- Turkish players often experience 60–120ms to EU server depending on ISP
- Turk Telekom and Vodafone TR have inconsistent routing to Blizzard EU infrastructure
How to Fix It
Try these first — they're free and solve the problem for most people.
01 Check your ping with the in-game connection indicator
1. Start any multiplayer match or join a custom game lobby 2. Look for the connection status indicator at the bottom of the HUD (colored bar: green/yellow/red) 3. Enable verbose connection info: Options > Gameplay > Show Connection Status 4. Note your ping value — this is your round-trip to Battle.net servers 5. If it's consistently above 80ms, there's a routing problem worth fixing
Diagnostic baseline — establishes whether you have a network problem before trying anything else.
02 Switch to wired Ethernet
1. Connect your PC directly to your router with an Ethernet cable 2. In Windows Settings > Network & Internet > WiFi, disconnect from WiFi 3. Confirm your PC shows the Ethernet connection as active 4. Launch SC2 and check ping in a custom game 5. In StarCraft II's lockstep model, even minor WiFi jitter (10–20ms spikes) creates visible game stutters for both you and your opponent
Eliminates wireless packet loss and WiFi jitter — the single most impactful change for WiFi users in lockstep games.
General network tips (not StarCraft II-specific)
03 Verify you are on the correct Battle.net region
1. Open Battle.net launcher 2. Next to StarCraft II, click the globe/region icon 3. Check your selected region — it should match your physical location 4. Americas = North America, South America, Oceania 5. Europe = EU, Eastern Europe, Russia, Africa, Middle East 6. Korea = South Korea, Taiwan (low population outside Korea) 7. If you are on the wrong region, switch and retest ping in a custom game
Players accidentally on wrong-region accounts can see 200–300ms improvement by switching to correct region.
04 Disable Battle.net background downloads during play
1. Open Battle.net launcher 2. Click the Blizzard logo (top-left) > Settings 3. Go to Downloads tab 4. Uncheck 'Allow downloads when playing a game' 5. Also check for any active game updates in the downloads queue and pause them 6. Restart StarCraft II and recheck ping
Prevents Battle.net updater from consuming bandwidth during matches — common cause of ping spikes.
05 Flush DNS and reset network stack
1. Open Command Prompt as Administrator 2. Run: ipconfig /flushdns 3. Run: netsh winsock reset 4. Run: netsh int ip reset 5. Restart your PC 6. Relaunch Battle.net and check SC2 ping
Resolves stale DNS cache or corrupted TCP/IP stack issues that can cause sudden ping increases or connection failures to Battle.net.
06 Set Quality of Service (QoS) on your router for UDP port 1119
Access router admin panel and create a QoS rule prioritizing UDP port 1119 (primary SC2 game port). This ensures SC2 commands are processed before streaming/download traffic during congested periods.
Prevents jitter during peak household bandwidth usage (evenings, shared connections)
Still lagging? The problem is likely your ISP's routing to the game servers.
PingAim detects StarCraft II automatically
No manual config. PingAim identifies StarCraft II by process name and routes it through your fastest connection using a kernel-level WFP driver.