tom90 wrote:how would the game even start if two people couldnt connect?
The connection could be inconsistent and drop out during the game. Also, the lobby ping may not reflect the in-game ping. Because an internet connection could suffer lag from data overload. Or latency - say from a Wi-Fi connection, rather than LAN cable. You can also get lag from a slow computer. In which case the issue has to do with the CPU or GPU of one of the players.
All of which are not indicated by the ping in lobby. The game forces a 500ms delay anyway, so if a ping is less than about 400ms, there will be no distinguishable effect on gameplay.
The ping which you see in the lobby does not reflect the capacity of that players internet connection, and is generally only an indication of distance. In Australia, I get 40ms pings to other Australians, 128ms pings to the US, and 300ms pings to EU. Russians are generally the worst, and can be around 450 or 500ms - which will effect gameplay.
Generally, you wont see a problem untill the yellow bar is 50%. Better advice on avoiding laggy games is to avoid players with unstable connections. If you see an unstable connection (a ping that jumps up and down a lot) this player needs to do something about their connection. Which means turning off firewall, setting up the game port, and using a cable connection to the router. They also need to ensure sufficient internet bandwidth (upload & download). A requirement which increases with more players. They also need to stop any parasitic internet usage - like data streaming updates and downloads from other applications. If you are playing FA, it needs 100% of your internet. Any other usage will result in latency and lag.
Players that do lag would serve the community by only playing 1v1 or 2v2 games. The best solution is really for players to show a bit of maturity, and not inconveniance others by joining games that are beyond their technical limitations.
I suspect the ping number was removed because it promoted discrimination, on the basis of something that usually doesn't effect gameplay anyway.