The values I posted are the settings on your servers, not the settings in my autoexec. If it were my settings causing the problem, I would choke no matter what server I join. Besides, I have adjusted all of my settings to see if it's me and I assure you it is not.
I know of the ticrate limitation. Rate, however, is not limited by ticrate. Ticrate is limited by rate, though. A ticrate of 66 is 66 updates per second. Rate sets a limit to the size of the update and 66 small updates will always be less than 66 big updates.
The default value of sv_maxrate is 0 (unlimited). This is the setting on each of your west coast servers, where there is basically no choke. Setting this to 0 allows players to take full advantage of their broadband Internet connections. However, limiting this to 25000 (a mere 25 KB/s) is essentially choking all of the players. They may as well be playing on dial up. This is basically what the Chicago slayboxes are doing.
This article (
http://www.jason35.com/netcode.htm), however poorly written grammar wise, does a good job of explaining the settings I am discussing as well as how you can test your settings in game.
Again, I just want to help. I truly mean no disrespect to anyone.
Off topic, are you a drummer, Fail Horse?