And one of my best moments in the game happened last week. I was in a 10 people game which happened to have 7 newcomers for whatever reason. Then the game started, and one player autoresigned immediately, with two others getting eliminated quickly and me eliminating another. So we are 6 players left, and then even though I had peace with most people, everybody attacked me at once. Then it became clear that the 5 remaining players, which all were newcomers, were friends in real life and they were allied from the beginning. Seeing the impossibility of the situation of 1v5, I took a different approach. I went to public chat and said that I would surrender and retreat to my core 12 outposts, while all others would have 17-18. They accepted this move, and I continued to live. A day or two later I found a crack in the alliance and the game turned into a 3v3, eventually getting me a bronze which seemed impossible.
Imagine how stupid the average person is. Then realize that half of the people are even stupider than that.
-George Carlin