Hey - sorry to see you're having trouble!
Are you and your friends using the same connection?
Do you or any of your friends have a nickname more than 12 characters in length?
No and I don't believe our names are too long either. It was strange however because it would load for some of us and other times it would send us back to the server browser even though it loaded before. What happens when it gets in game is it says it's waiting for other players to join the game even though it booted them and sent them back to the server browser.
Edit: Just tried again by myself and it Seems like even when I try to start a game against an AI it does the same thing :/