Battlefield 1 has just received its fourth and final expansion in the form of Apocalypse, but it seems that this has come with some unwanted side effects, as some players have reported dips in performance when making progress towards awards, which seems to have been caused by the addition of new assignments and rewards, something EA and Dice have addressed in a new forum post.
The post says that adding these new assignments and rewards was "the straw that broke the camel's back, causing strain on the system and exposing the problem," and that Dice has reduced the demand on the rewards system by making changes to Service Assignments as part of an emergency update. Now you'll no longer need to complete five of the Staying Focused Assignments to begin working towards those in the Climbing The Ranks category, but to keep the same difficulty level, Assignments that unlock Afflictions have been moved under this Climbing The Ranks banner, which is now basically "a soft gate before gaining access to the Afflictions."
Any progress made towards Afflictions won't be lost though, as you'll already have those that you unlocked, and for more on the update check out the official patch notes below. Have you encountered this issue?
FIXED