Sorry to see this game end so sadly, I rather enjoyed it while I was in in.
However I agree with Calahan about large scale games,
it's a little harsh not to allow anyone to join but having such large games where people drop out like here, like I did
, is very irresponsible and very easily tilts the balance of the game.
Only people who can commit to the game should be able to join, and don't bail when any little thing goes wrong.
I was in another damn large game with 400 provinces, and at one point we had more AI's than human players, and quite a lot more.
So, some sort of vouching system or alike is a must for larger games I feel.