I've actually had this recently. Last night or the night before SEVERAL times. I thought my load on demand was on or something, and it wasnt.
And the only thing i had going in the background was, vent and crpg homepage.
STEAM WAS NOT ON.
NEVER had this issue before, until this last patch, but I AM NOT inferring a definitive relation between the 2, i just dont know.
I also, had really bad ping since the beginning of the new banner system, all the way up until the latest patch where they changed the spin.
Post changing the spin, my ping seems to have returned to a normal 73-84 rather than the 130-220 i was getting for the first couple weeks of the new banner patch.
Is any of this related to the patching? I have no idea - Ping isnt usually something related to anything other than ones own internetz connect, and the blackout is also something often related to connection or video,
BUT... They are rather specific coincidences that seem to coincide w/ the patches.
So to the devs, hope you see this, and hope my provided description is helpful, i'm well aware that the problem looks like it might be on my side, but the coincidence is pretty high, specially on the blackout thing.
On the blackout thing - something you possibly did that overloads the video load in 'high load' scenarios? - IE alot of people on screen - new area etc/something 'higher def' so to speak, that youve added to the environment recently?
Just weird stuff recently. never have any problems usually. Accept 70-80 being too high of a standard ping that is heh.