[Phil^]

if you're committed to play hardcore, then you arent going to let something like family being over stop you from logging in and starting that res/const now would you :P
any intel you get before anyone is able to launch fleets is from those who dont care about their secrecy, or those who arent very good at it - so unlikely to catch many people in the upper echelon of alliances

Personally, i dont care about the date the round starts but they cant really change it now, given the dates have been fixed for a while and there was plenty of time for everyone to know them