But that's a good suggestion

I should. Idk though I literally just joined the server for the event that day so they may not trust me

Thr33-Dimension, You need to propose this idea to the developers.

Tbf some of the trouble is probably due to my hardware and not the server itself

you're right, the event isn't meant to be serious. After all, 255 idiots playing through a campaign together is always stupid funny and I'm not suggesting the devs should make Rebel Rush into anything it's not. But when you tell your participants that the server size will be 255, and then can't actually afford to raise the player limit above 175-195...yeah, that's a sign that you're missing a piece or just doing something wrong.

Next year's event should have either two or three servers running the same gamemode, with the same player limit in each. But there shouldn't be too many servers either since that will just make it even harder for the devs to manage.

Maybe so. But I don't think the event carries any seriousness. A couple of servers would really be useful, though.

And yet the devs insist on doing it all in one server...
I get the chaos and lag is part of the fun but borderline unplayability for many people is objectively not "fun".

Feels like a missed opportunity to simply split it up into two, smaller servers (150 and 150 perhaps). They'd effectively kill two birds with one stone that way since it will theoretically allow for a full 300 players participating in the event, but shouldn't be as taxing on performance as actually having that many people crammed into one server. It's not like you're gonna notice any real difference between 150 rebels running around and 300 rebels running around.
Source is absolutely not equipped to properly handle 255 players on one server without issues, so I understand that something like this isn't going to run perfectly...I just can't help but feel like the communication and planning could have been better.

Well, 127 players to 255 servers was biggest mistake for rebel rush.

I was able to log in six hours after the launch. I woke up at 4 a.m. to do so. The game ran relatively smoothly, but crashed while loading locations.

you're so lucky you even captured that footage, i couldn't even get in for long enough to get the achievement let alone actually enjoy the event because my game kept ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ crashing