Gearheads of War

I'm not that good of a player but I like to think I'm consistent.  And I've gotten kind of used to lagging.  It sucks but it's unavoidable.  Well, the other night I got to host my first GoW games (Thanks to my fellow Gearheads!) and I'm still stunned by some of the shots I pulled off.  I didn't know how big of an advantage host advantage could be but I'm a firm believer now.  I know I can't play that good, EVER!  But my biggest worry was that everyone else was lagging like crazy and that would not be fair.  I understand that there are a lot of factors involved which contribute to lag, such as the host's upload speed, distance to the host, home networks, etc., and the host advantage can be greater or smaller dependent on their upload speed as well.  (Inversely proportionate.)  But, my questions for you are; if you frequently host, what is your upload speed?  Do you think distance to the host can have a greater impact than host upload?  Or are both pretty minor and it all comes down to skill?  

(Please no whining or crying about lag, it's a fact of life.  And no preaching about client side hit detection!  And if you're unsure of how to check your upload speed, go to speakeasy.net/speedtest or dslreports.com.)