I've only been doing online strat since July of 2008 (and loving it!), so I don't have a long history with this online game. But my impression is that, for whatever reasons -
-they seem to have (or past tense, seemed to have had) some bugs in the cards, that they are (were) fixing - see the bulletin board post on beta-testing and some issues that were there in some of the cards, which the post says are now fixed;
-they have had some odd bugs arising in online strat in the past 4 months - some were publicized and acknowledged, and some were not;
-my impression is that the people running this online strat really, really want to get it right almost 100% of the time - as near to 100% as they can possibly get.
-therefore, my impression is that they are taking a few extra days right now to make absolutely sure they get it right. If that is true, it seems logical that they might even take the weekend to get rid of the final bugs, and maybe test the system.
-if that impression is true, then that suggests a Monday launch - maybe even Tuesday.
-By the way, as much as I have also been on tenterhooks waiting for this anxiously (like everyone else), I am happy if my theory is correct, and I would be happy if getting it right meant waiting till Monday or Tuesday.
-BTW - having the cards "leaked" is maybe not such a bad idea, from a big picture perspective - on a "beta" basis. (a) lets the fanatics - myself included - get started thinking about their first teams - always the most time consuming exercise (b) actually engages the fanatics in checking the accuracy of the cards (!!) (c) satisfies - partly - the appetite of the fanatics for a little while - LOL!
-BTW - re my comment re not publicized glitches - what I am referring to is an experience I had where some of my playoff games and stats had really, really weird descriptions for one of my teams. Since the games themselves seemed OK, I didnt care too much, but I did pass it on the the help people for their information. Other glitches have been publicized and acknowledged. Clearly there are still some bugs to clean up - what I appreciate is their dedication to cleaning them up!
:)
Geoff