@Ubi-TheBerry I have captured this indeed, for example here:

Main COTD: https://streamable.com/jkulbm: (https://streamable.com/jkulbm) & https://streamable.com/yr3b2a: (https://streamable.com/yr3b2a)
COTD rerun: https://streamable.com/5x5wy3: (https://streamable.com/5x5wy3)
Custom live server: https://streamable.com/s2e92z: (https://streamable.com/s2e92z)

To help see what exactly is happening in the videos, I'm using a plugin called "Download Indicator".
For example in the last video (on the map Aeropipes), there's this image in the top right, where it can be seen that 33 skins are waiting to be applied (bottom row)

at 0:11 into the video I unfocussed the game, causing the downloaded assets to be loaded into my game, and the game freezes for a second (after which the map also changes appearance, from the mod that was downloaded).
Then after the countdown for the next round, the problem occurs where the game freezes for a couple seconds.

In Royal you drive with the car skin of the team you're put in, and with the recent addition of the Prestige skins, it would be great if you could use the Prestige skins in the Royal games, instead of the default car skin from that team, to show off what you've achieved with the team you're playing for.

This would either be the "best" Prestige you unlocked for this team, or the Prestige skin viewer in your garage could have a selector for which you'd like to use during a Royal game, for each team.

@Ubi-TheBerry I opened a case on the help site.

I did find the cause of the issue, being the many player skins applying to the game at once (which happens after pressing Esc or opening the settings menu, after they are downloaded in the background).
It only happens once per COTD because the player skins are only downloaded once.

In the screenshots below, from the Track of the Day Live server.
Screenshot 1: In top right "TIME LIMIT 15:00" and no leaderboard on the left. (after COTD ended)
Screenshot 2: In top right "TIME LIMIT 30:00" and a leaderboard on the left showing the records.

@Ubi-Thrupney I did those steps and the problem is still occuring every time. This also happens on other servers outside of COTD with lots of players, or when loading mods/skins after pressing Esc.

(I was unable to reply earlier because it kept getting blocked by the spam filter for some reason)

@Ubi-Perseids Hi! I can show some screenshots, because that will show the issue more clearly than a video can do. Also this seems to only occur after the 19:00 Cup of the Day, not after one of the reruns at 3:00 or 11:00

For example using my trophy history from trackmania.io: https://trackmania.io/#/player/e8f35258-b507-487d-b470-52587d1445a6/trophies: (https://trackmania.io/#/player/e8f35258-b507-487d-b470-52587d1445a6/trophies)

• White: COTD Time attack (server + results)
• Red: TOTD Live server, with a limit of 15 minutes
• Green: TOTD Live server, with a limit of 30 minutes as intended

To explain a bit further: You can see I joined the live server after getting knocked out of COTD, joined a live server, then COTD officially ended (and trophies were given out), and then twice after, the server kept going in this "COTD mode" of 15 minutes and without a leaderboard. Then at least an hour after COTD started, we got moved to the 30-minute server.

After the time attack phase for Cup of the Day ends, and players are moved to their divisions, the "Track of the Day" Live server stays in this COTD mode with a timer of 15 minutes (instead of the regular 30) and without the records on the left side of the screen.
Usually this fixes itself in 30 minutes, but I've also seen it still being in this mode past 20:00, an hour after COTD started.

This means that the players (with Club Access) who want to play this map after COTD need to go into solo mode instead of live mode if they want to race against other ghosts

@Ubi-Deta I'm 99% sure it's not one of those common causes, many other players experience the same issue as well.

I will still give those steps a try.

During Cup of the Day, when opening settings, there's a chance the game freezes for a few seconds at the start of the next round.
Usually this happens to me once every COTD (because the game sometimes changes itself into windowed borderless from fullscreen, or to switch audio device), and this freeze would last up to 10 seconds for me.

For example in this video, I opened settings during the previous round, causing the freeze at the start of the round for around 3 seconds: https://streamable.com/5x5wy3: (https://streamable.com/5x5wy3)

@Ubi-Havoc I verified my game files and the ESC key still does not work on the menus for Ranked, Royal, and in the continent selection in "Change Region".

However I did notice this weird behaviour, where the ESC key works in Change Region while hovering over the "Back" button and pressing the ESC key, while this doesn't work in the Ranked and Royal menus.

I can't seem to find how to bind another key to "back", so I can't test this.