There is no way you would have been rotated for a crown. Your spam routine with James ensured that would never happen. Good players that fought well and acted with respect were accepted in, no hard feelings.
I think you guys were fooled by WG. He knowingly and willingly threw away the crown for his team just because his ego was too big, he then lied about it to anyone that would listen. He wanted LotR to be victors of the world, and he wanted the credit for getting them there. When it became clear that another alliance would get victor and he would not get credit for it, he stabbed friends in the back, lied to the world, and rolled the dice. His gamble failed, and it cost the majority of his team the crown.
As we said, we knew that the only other group seriously preparing for WW's was LotR. Our agreement was simple. We would not seek to disrupt each other, we would stay out of each others way. If LotR got 4/7 first then Parosi would have helped them get 7/7. If Parosi got 4/7 then LotR would help us get 7/7. Either way we would help each other defend our respective WW clusters and work together to break enemy WW's. He LOVED that agreement because Parosi was fighting on every side and had no way to get 4/7 first. As soon as we merged with Savage (which in no way violated any agreement we had with LotR) he knew that we were far more likely to get 4/7 first. His dream of being the triumphant leader that brought his team to victory despite all the odds was in jeopardy, and his ego would not allow that.
He was counting on JFL/ODIN fighting us, Hellas/Legion fighting us, Pigs fighting us, HH/Puns pacting with LotR, and Hellfyre fighting us. Hellas/Legion proved to be completely ineffective, JFL fell apart, ODIN did not wish to continue fighting us, and HH/Puns pacted with us instead of LotR. At that point his plan unraveled and it was too late to go back, so he just kept the lies and propaganda going. After we infiltrated LotR WW core for the second time, and we were consistently taking 3-4 cities a day on the front line he knew that there was no chance he could be the hero in this world, so he left. He may have talked a good game, he might have promised the world, and he could spin a tale that seemed plausible... but in the end he was a con-man.