FYI. solution for this (for anyone else facing it): need to resync the chain on a 0.9.6 or 0.15.1.1 client (0.15.1.1 is the latest, might as well do it there since its faster)

The real chain as of this message has 2017059 blocks

Steps can be found here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/GameCreditsCrypto/comments/859rzk/guide_how_to_properly_upgrade_your_qt_wallet_to/