It's definately not just ping otherwise I would play with a lot more French players from Quebec, but ping is definately one of the factors. If you know your AS network number you might get a better idea of why you are connecting to certain locations.

I know my traffic runs on AS 6453 because I used to work for the network company, Teleglobe, that my provider uses as their international provider. They have circuits that run down the east coast through New York, to the north west coast through Chicago and to the south west coast via New York. That's why I hear those southern accents a lot when I play. Now why I am so often connected to someone in Georgia or South Carolina instead of just the Montreal, Toronto, New York and Chicago areas must be some other factor than ping.

The MW3 match making is far better than BF3... as a lower level I always have levels like myself in one team, on the other team there are normally very experienced players who easily destroy us (I try to go for obectives but my teammates seem oblivious to them).

The large maps are a pain, I also dislike how almost every person goes recon.