It wouldn't be for two people doing that though, it would be everyone doing anything in a custom game.

: They probably expect that people in custom games will, on average,
: be (a) closer geographically, (b) less demanding in performance and
: fairness of connection, and (c) more tolerant of others' poor connections.
: The bulk of the benefit comes from ameliorating the matchmaking
: environment, which has vastly more people with a much wider distribution
: of connection strengths, most of whom are there to win and don't afford
: strangers much tolerance when it comes to their ferret-powered internet.

: The people who have the most legitimate beef with this news are people who
: play custom games competitively, i.e. no one here.

I thought you were going to do that. I know I was-- not exclusively, there's going to be a lot of less competitive stuff mixed in, but still.

: Knockin' Zombs would not have been appreciably better on dedicated servers.

That's not the point. The point is they hyped up dedicated servers and people ran with it, and they didn't specify it's just for one game mode until now (and they still haven't, actually, they just said not custom games). It might not be realistic to have them for other modes but I doubt the majority of players know that.