I think they are setting up some new alliances etc. There are a number of active youtubers (Budman69, Yukimura) from that alliance so I don’t think it is just a merchant alliance. In fact, Yuki mentioned in his youtube war video against 7DH that this will be his last war in the current alliance.
they use their war flags and then leave resulting in a lower war score for the alliance but still count the points they scored this is happening very often when they leave the alliance they on during war that alliance war score gets lower and they will get matched with a lower alliance next war … their way of cheating SG needs to put an end to this!!! if a member leaves the alliance while in war the points made by those members should go with them and don’t count them !!!
Not sure how it’s cheating if a player has used all their war flags and leaves before the war has finished. They’ll miss out on the war loot, but the points earned, should still count.