Always a shame when some countries don't sign up :/
I think that there should be more pressure on them, because it is not clear at which date this event will start, and the start time becomes even different thanks to these delays.
Not at all. Tournaments such as these are expected to be handled this way. At the end of the day the tournaments go ahead when the required amount of teams sign up. So start dates is abit of a shit excuse when you
technically have up to 45 people from your nation, no way that you can't get 15 people to be available for a few weeks.
Same experience with EIC, I didn't mind postponing the closing of sign ups a week just to secure an extra team or two before announcing the start date. This is a community tournament after all, the more the merrier. Obviously it is abit frustrating when people in your team ask what the start date is, but at least we know its end of January-mid Febuary. Which is what Herishey and Bergen have said so thats good enough for me.