8 am pst is 3 PM GMT, not AM. I have no idea why you are talking about EU servers, that graph is from a US server.
You keep mentioning these graphs and how empty the servers appeared to be, yet this wasn't even an issue. Anyone who played daily on the server had literally zero problems with playing with a full amount of players, coping with just as many queues back then as there are now.
we force lerp because idiots install mastercomfig which sets their lerp to 0, and then they complain that our servers lag. The lerp settings we have now are default and its been argued that lower lerp is not superior.
Oh okay so it's the player's fault for finding ways to deal with tf2's troublesome optimisation, using a widely renowned and accessible custom config that was never an issue prior to the server changes.
The problem with this, as I explained before, is that only people who have something to complain about will bother participating.
Very convenient excuse to deflect any and all valid criticism coming your way. "People who complain only complain for sake of complaining, so i shall disregard it all." Should every individual loudmouth be taken at face value? Absolutely not, but when there is a cumulative and undeniable resentment for how things are, then maybe there is actually something going wrong??
You talk like I did not try to discuss this with the players. Look at how long this thread is.
Literally just a long line of excuses and denial.
I switched a server back to 32 slots, offered statistics and reasoning. I could have just said nothing and not bothered to switch a server back.
It's wrong to even pretend that you gave it a fair chance. Due to your complete lack of support it could barely get off the ground.
You hosted clearly labelled BOTS which is discouraging to any player joining during low pop times, while preferring to use the 'fake players' system that have arbitrary ping values on EU Payload 1. Which are at least semi-convincing to the average tf2 player.
It's also simple player psychology that when two servers are empty, they will naturally join whichever appears first in their list or has at least one other real person in it. Because at that point, you're not comparing 32 vs 40, you're comparing 1 player count vs 3. Only at peak times when the actual imporant defining factor comes into play: gameplay. With an almost unanimous agreement that a full 32 experience is far better and more tempting to spend money on that a spam lagfest 40 one.
You also didn't advertise it at all, and it wasn't only until sheer luck that skial regulars noticed it.
You did however, mute a player who advertised your own EU Payload 2 server when we tried to populate it (Even though now you have no qualms with spamming 'join our US server for extra credits!' as regular chat messages.
If you really want to consider when the time to do nothing was, it was a few months ago before you even made any of the changes. If you left well enough alone, you wouldn't be dealing with the shitshow of drama and controversy.
Deny, deflect, and gaslight all you want but none of this happened for zero reason, and the fire has only been stoked by the horrendous mismanagement of it all. The only win that any of us can take from this shitfest is that in your panic to draw people back, you're finally adding some map variety beyond 1 every year or so.