Elderan spoke of a cycle, it was just slightly off.

[Gaanon03]

1) New guild shows up to Red99 (Azrael, RD, Heresy, Force, RD2.0, Classic) and now Hokuten.

2) Nihilum players that dedicate over 40 hrs per week get anxiety that their pixels may become contested and go full neckbeard grief which is what you'll see with Hokuten these coming weeks.

3) New guild looks for allies and help, usually Azrael players or others that haven't just joined the zerg and want multiple contesting guilds instead of a monopoly.

4) New guild + older players contest Nihilum, and have some success taking mobs, and people rejoice.

5) Nihilum goes full recruit, and older inactive players start showing up, scumbags on the outs that want back in for Velious are re-invited, and eventually it turns into who wants it more, which until now has always been the Nihilum neckbeard crew.

6) New guild breaks up, some go to Nihilum, some quit, a couple will join the group of older geared players that become inactive.

7) Uncontested static pixel farming.

1) New guild shows up to Red99.

Hardcoded simulated repops, or consistent weekly or bi-weekly repops are the only chance a smaller new guild can stay independent and have a shot at avoiding this cycle, otherwise it's back to the same old same old.

Last simulated repop after who knows how long, with no active competing guilds - managed to pull out enough people to do Sev/Inny/Fay - this is essential.