Just for additional info on this:
Entering "spec_menu 0" in the console fixes this. The player should not have to do that manually though. Even issuing this command by default on every death has no negative side effects afaik.
Sort of related, Ctrl will bring up the spec menu, but it will not close it after it's open.
You have to either use the mouse and click options -> close on the menu itself, or do the above spec_menu 0 in console.
new release will fix the ctrl key not dismissing the menu
Nothing extracted yet.
As title say, when you die with Ctrl key (or whatever key is bound to +duck), you can't access spectator menu anymore and trying to change view or spectated player using keys/mouse has no effect.
May be you could just delay when keys are taken in account.