I believe everyone is on Strict as a bug. I've verified what ports I would think need to be open as open. There are only few people i can play with but i have same settings as Rikuto who gets constant new competitors.
Yeah, I read your message on the Steam Discussion where you talked about this bug. The fact anyway is that if I didn't meet any player it's possible that it's really strict for me, I don't know.
By the way, if you say that you can can play with few people while Rikuto with many more and again you have the same settings, at this point I think that bugs could be involved even in the actual connection.
Sorry, for some reasons I continue to miss your notifications... My user name on STEAM is Kronin too (I created it few time ago), you can find me even on the Freestepdodge group. And of course feel free to add me =)