CQC Attrition - Populating with bots never starts game

So, when trying to play any of the CQC official modes, as soon as it tries to fill the server with bots, and a human player leaves or joins, the matchmaking never completes, just sits there with "!POPULATING WITH BOTS", until perhaps, we actually get 16 human players.  Unfortunately, most people will leave before this ever happens, as sitting for 10+ minutes never seems to get it done.