Open Beta begins 10-16 and what does it mean.

Wow  ... I mean we all knew it was happening at some point. Everthing I had read indicated that it was happening on Oct 16th; however, all the people I talked to in voice chat were like "No way, NO WAY will they open beta in the next month or even by the end of the year".

Timeline:
September 21st: PC Gamer cover announced with in game mech skin and bobblehead
October 3rd: NDA dropped and "Take Your Best Shot" contest announced
October 9th: CryEngine upgrade and new trial mech rotation and Open Beta announcement
October 16th: Rest economy and open beta begins and new skins and bobbleheads available.

They have a lot planned ...in fact, too much; in my opinion ...essentially with a F2P game going to open beta is the same as live (with the exception of the knowledge that everything can and probably will be reset again for go live). This is huge news; this will open the gates to noobs and lots of them.

The game on average has about 2500 players with open beta I expect that to triple (between 7 and 10k) at least, at first. Unless MWO fixes in game lounge or chat - pugs will be steamrolled until they hate the game. I remember when many games withheld the population numbers making it seem like they were bigger than they were or maybe to pretend to be smaller. I know while I was playing Warhammer Online there were many statements that if they open too many servers to meet demands then close or merge some it would be a sign of a dying game ...and it did seem to indicate that.

So what do you think? Do you think this is too soon? Do you think this is a huge mistake or one they had to do to grasp the momentum they have been working on?

BTW: Check out my video that I submitted for the contest. It is dubstep so if you hate that then just mute it. I would like more feedback.