Was doing some testing, and found that for me and my mates, the EU1 with about 110 players increases the ping with about 20ms compared to EU3 with 14 players on it.
I remember the player-limit was finely adjusted for ping way back in the day, but I guess something happened server side with performance, or that the new patches requires more computing time, thus increasing the ping for everyone. (I know cpu load can increase ping for players, and I simply bluntly assume the same goes for a server. Might be much more complex though, i dunno)
I think it's time to adjust it again, either fiddling with the server settings, optimizing code, or simply lowering the limit.
20ms ping, I'm currently up to 73 from the old 48-53 really changes the game for me, and adds a new "feel" that contains more randomness, failed blocks, off timing etc etc. (This happens to 3 of my friends as well, so it's probably not my comp, but for everyone.)
New experiments with player limit and or server settings would be welcome!