Yeah, my shard chat is nothing like that. I started at 36 and got to 17 tonight with two battles left. Let the guys in chat know I would be locking with guys that already had their payout. I was told to go 13 then 8 to get maximum reward. I couldn't do it with the teams modded as they were. I was told to ask for help and the guys would pull mods to help me win the battles. I refused and said 17 was good enough for now.
So it sounds exactly the opposite of what the OP describes. Are there horrible shard chats out there? Absolutely. Is it the norm? Absolutely not.
I was initially against collusion until I joined my shard chat and found out what really goes on there. Great bunch of guys willing to help anyone in the chat. All you have to do is join it.
