Is it possible for other players to crash the zone we're in?

[Wakanda]

I'm prob being a paranoid schizo boomer, but I type /who every 2 seconds in game because I have PTSD from playing on Sullon Zek "back in the day" and tonight I was a little shocked to see an entire group in a zone I normally solo in without seeing other players.

TL;DR the zone kept crashing and then stopped after this guild group evac'd to the entrance and started congratulating each other in /say before a Druid from their guild appeared out of no where and teleported them out.

Like was this just a weird coincidence that my zone kept crashing while they were in it and it stopped as soon as they left or did these people literally hack me and if so, can I be reimbursed for the 6% exp I lost after dying from these shenanigans? Or is this just classic? To randomly die through no fault of your own? I feel like it's classic personally.

But I'm still pissed if this group of individuals hacked the game like that and it got me killed. I spent 20 minutes just breaking that camp. Several platinums worth of Jasper just gone, not to mention the stress and heart ache I went through etc.