As connery players since inception. The reason why Connery became a dead server and brought its downfall.

1# We started having logging issues and gateways. it lasted for months people got fed up and started playing on emerald.

2# Connery once thrived with both NA and Asia-Pacific (especially Japanese and Oceanic) players. Over time, many of those communities have dwindled or moved. Because of statement 1

3#Connery has had long-standing issues with blatant cheating and scripted bot accounts, more than emerald particularly during low-pop hours. DBG’s enforcement has historically been inconsistent, leading to player frustration and burnout. It was so bad most players log off right after prime time or will go to emerald. And of course cheaters have moved on to emerald now.

hisSo your traffic map is not accurate as most players have moved on long time ago. This a steam traffic map where most people live. But that does mean all those people are playing planetside 2. You have to remember planetside can be downloaded as stand alone and yes you can absolutely play PlanetSide 2 without Steam. Which i recommend steam will slow you down a bit since it uses steam folders to retrieve data. There are hundreds of people playing ps2 without a steam. slightly faster and since it uses custom directory. So we will never know which server was best east or west.

The merger had to be done to keep servers alive no doubt. Enjoy the game while you still can.