I have a really good shard. I'm not in the shard chat currently (discord problem) but I still abide by the unwritten rules that I've observed. We generally do the following:
1. only attacking during your payout hour
2. avoid each other in payout hour until the right at the end so you all get optimum payouts
3. avoid each other even out of payout hours (i.e. when using any left over battles just as a mark of respect)
The guys I contest with I actually want to get the top places as long as it's not at my expense! There's generally 4 of us and i'd much rather us get top 4 rather than someone being a douche and sniping 3rd from 7th.
The shard you describe sounds like a dictatorship. are you sure that's how it runs? pretty much everyone in my top 20 can beat each other so I don't see why someone in 20th would settle for that if he and likeminded others could get top 5 at payout. why would it matter to anyone to drop below 5th if it isn't their payout hour? it's not like you get paid out for every hour you're there. it just doesn't make sense. It may be you're being targeted for not sticking to some of the rules I've described above, especially if you're sniping out of your payout, intentionally or unintentionally.
@Al_Jogor I hope I've got that right! I've only recently picked all of this up so sorry if I was a little slow to catch on.
