One thing I have noticed when getting into a pantheon game is that it picks 4 players and adds like 2-6 AI while the actual people are connecting.  This seems fine until one person gets kicked or leaves and you're left with an odd amount of players.  Then the game just sits there and twiddles its thumbs.  I don't know if it is trying to find a player to balance the teams or what, but it doesn't seem to be doing anything.

Proposed order:

Choose X Even # of players - Players connect - recheck # of players - attempt to find player to even number(have them connect)[if no player can be found, move to next step] - choose a random map - add AI to maximum slots for the map - recheck # of players and AI to make sure of even # - start match.