From your post, you didn't watch the last 3 GSL, the last 2 Blizzcups finals also. All of them had multiple "Waiting for server" and "Waiting for player" messages during their live broadcasts due to battle.net structure. Also, more recently this weekend, a whole tournament set to happen in Chicago had to be rescheduled, because despite filling the required for sc2 tournaments and arranging with blizzard employees, after half the players started logging in, the IP was blacklisted and all of the players that traveled from far away could not play and all of that was blizzard's fault. Here you can read about the tournament http://challonge.com/starcraftchicago http://www.starcraftchicago.com/EventsCalendar/tabid/81/ModuleID/428/ItemID/74/mctl/EventDetails/Default.aspx

Guess their error pages can't handle all these 404's

I would so much first post, but my usb 1.1 modem is not fast enough!

Gameplay and multiplayer features are on my top list, ever. Followed by re-playability and the existence of modding tools and patches to enhance the experience with the game. The plot and the elements that makes you re-play the game countless times differ from genre to genre, but all of them share at least one thing in common: good gameplay. Baldurs Gate, Diablo, Age of Empires, Starcraft, Warcraft, Half life, Counter-Strike, Quake, Unreal Tournament, Chronno Trigger, Final Fantasy, and the list goes on...

but I guess my browser wasn't that fast!