When EA Atlantis was knocked out so early MA Atlantis had a safe base from which to clam, research and choose whom to attack. Combine that with a player as good as Zeldor and I don't think the result is surprising.
As far as the research failures of other nations keep in mind no one else had that safe base. I'm really not a fan of the implementation of water nations in D3 so I'm glad a water nation won since it means one less for CF II.
Combine that with no clams in CBM 1.6 and it should make for a good change.
But I think the rest of us failed in not all attacking MA Atlantis once the Nexus was cast. Zeldor's mastery of diplomacy wins out again.
BTW, Calahan, Meglobob gets the win the Tir/Machaka war. I could have dragged it out for a while but Machaka was gaining in power each turn while I was losing strength rapidly.
Meglobob, really nice work in destroying my economy. Zeldor's Armageddons finished it off but you had already done the majority of the work. No more Sidhe Lord thugs/anti-SCs for me.
