missing explosion sprites

[chilledsanity]

I was playing a game of dustbowl last night where action was going on all over the place and on multiple occasions when I blew my pipebombs as a demoman, the explosion obviously went off, but no sprites were shown whatsoever (even at close range).

I'm guessing the game was getting overwhelmed by the match somehow. Is there a way to change a variable so that I always see the explosions? (even if it does tax my system more)