Servers and regions: how distance to the server affects ping

Why distance comes first

A signal travels through fiber at close to the speed of light, and yet the trip to another continent and back takes noticeable time. Add that cables do not run in straight lines and that a packet passes through dozens of nodes, each spending a fraction of a millisecond on it — and you get the floor of your ping, below which no plan and no program will take it.

So the first question with high ping is where the server is and whether you can choose a closer one. The answer depends on how the game is organized: by matchmaking regions, by data centers or by servers run by the players themselves.

Three models: region, data center, community server

Matchmaking region

The game divides the world into regions and looks for a match inside the chosen one. PUBG on PC has its own matchmaking regions — in the map service report for update 43.1 the RU region is listed separately from Europe, though the city of its servers is not named. In Rocket League the region is chosen in Play → Regions, including a Recommended option. In Sea of Thieves every player has a home region, and the search may widen to neighboring ones if there are no opponents in yours. In Crossout the region selection window shows ping and loss to each region.^1,2,3,4

Data center

The game decides where to place the match but gives you levers. In Apex Legends the data center is chosen on the start screen before you press Continue. In CS2, according to Valve's help page, the Max Acceptable Matchmaking Ping setting narrows the set of data centers matchmaking can place you in.^5,6

Community server

In Rust, DayZ, Squad and Arma Reforger servers are run by players and license holders, and they can stand anywhere. The server browser shows the ping to each one: in DayZ, according to the wiki, there is a Ping column and a ping filter, and in Squad servers run under Offworld Industries licenses.^7,8

Example: Valve's network for CS2 and Dota 2

Valve publishes the open configuration of its Steam Datagram Relay network for every game. As of 6 October 2026 it has no relay locations in Russia — for CS2 or for Dota 2. The locations closest to the European part of Russia are Stockholm (two locations), Warsaw, Vienna, Frankfurt and Amsterdam.^9,10

These are locations of Valve's network, not a list of data centers with match servers: which one a particular match goes through, the configuration does not say. That is why we do not name server cities as fact.

FACEIT has its own server pool for CS2: the European one includes Moscow, but according to FACEIT's help page it is available only to players from Russia and has to be ticked manually in the lobby.¹¹

What you can choose yourself

1. Check the region in the game's settings: automatic selection does not always pick the closest one, especially after a long search.
2. Where the game shows ping per region or server, choose by the numbers, not by the country's name.
3. If the game offers a ping threshold, as CS2 does, set it sensibly: too low a threshold stretches the matchmaking search.
4. On community servers, sort the browser by ping and compare several servers with similar rules.
5. If there is no nearby region, accept the distance honestly: ping to another continent stays high with any settings.

Regions and servers by game: Counter-Strike 2 · Dota 2 · PUBG: Battlegrounds · Apex Legends · Rocket League · Sea of Thieves · Crossout · DayZ · Squad · Arma Reforger

Where the accelerator comes in

SLARP does not change the region or the server: whichever is chosen in the game is where it routes the traffic. Its part is the road to that server. If the server is far away, it will not cancel the distance. If the server is nearby but ping is high or spikes, the cause is often your ISP's route — and then SLARP routes the traffic through its own network, picks the route and optimizes ping and jitter for the whole match.

How to check: first choose the nearest region and play without the accelerator, writing down ping and loss. Then the same region with SLARP. The difference shows whether the route was the problem — numbers are more honest than any promise.