Playing ECL on the Swedish (Europe North) server?

[Janikka]

This is an offshoot of my previous thread where I polled people about the problem with packet loss connecting to the Helsinki (Europe North East) servers on DNA, the Finnish ISP. Based on that poll, most players who are on DNA are indeed affected by the problem where their connection to the Finnish servers is weakened by packet loss hovering somewhere between 1 and 3 percent. I feel like the results warrant further steps, and the next obvious step is polling the community about their willingness to honor affected opponents' requests to play both games (home and away) on the Swedish server. This of course excludes the home games of Central European teams who have the right to play their home games on their nearest server. I feel confident that we have pinned the problem down to the North East servers and it does not appear on either the Europe North or Europe Central servers.

I understand some teams may have an affected player and still feel like the lower ping tilts the team's preference in favor of playing on the Finnish servers. For this reason, I'm including it as an option in the poll so those teams can also make themselves heard.

The packet loss problem is likely not getting fixed in the very near future, and speaking on behalf of everyone I contacted about the topic, we feel like reverting to the Swedish server would be the best workaround until the Finnish servers work smoothly for all players. Obviously, as someone affected by the problem myself, my perspective is perhaps narrow as to the pros and cons of this solution. I just don't see a better one for now unless the community as a whole demands that those affected tough it out and play at least a great number of their games on the Finnish server where they may always encounter the problem.

Note that in the poll, "is/is not affected" means whether your team has at least one player in your regular roster who gets frequent packet loss on the Helsinki/North East servers. If you have a player who has the problem but doesn't feel like it affects their game at all, that would still count toward "is affected" in the poll.

Edited November 17, 2023 by Janikka

[Miklu19]

I think there has to be an official ruling soon before the regular season starts. Either the Helsinki server is banned indefinitely while the problem exists, or it has to be fully usable and a team can't decline playing on that server, even if they have issues. 

Without an official decision, I feel there will be some unnecessary disputes and animosity between teams with different opinions on the matter.

Clear-cut ECL ban of the server would probably be the best choice for now. 

[Janikka]

20 minuuttia sitten, Miklu19 kirjoitti:

I think there has to be an official ruling soon before the regular season starts. Either the Helsinki server is banned indefinitely while the problem exists, or it has to be fully usable and a team can't decline playing on that server, even if they have issues. 

Without an official decision, I feel there will be some unnecessary disputes and animosity between teams with different opinions on the matter.

Clear-cut ECL ban of the server would probably be the best choice for now. 

I support this sentiment because I think you're right. Naturally, I would hope for a favorable decision as someone with the issue, but the opposite would still provide clarity on this and determine conclusively that it's up to each affected team to decide amongst themselves how they deal with the problem (whether through roster adjustments or something else) while being obligated to honor their opponent's home server selection.