This happened on a fantasy 5 custom era 2 man per alliance due to the original top alliance lost all of their xtals to some random people attacking their colonies the rank 2 team ended up with them and ended rank 1 it was something like 500 xtals. Then due to the team who lost the xtals had huge armies compared to the rank 2 alliance so the alliance with all the xtals ended up just handing over the relics and even though they had the most score they didn't win the era the alliance with the relics did.