Started a mini in the process of resurrecting an old Droid.
The decline in the game is readily observable.
Tried the old way of posting on Rivals comments page to obtain Allies.
Invariably the previous comments were 200, 300 even 600 days old.
People are just walking away.
If you are new and have to think about what to do for 15 seconds the circle of death is triggered.
Tried the INVITE VIPs tab. Sometimes takes 24 hours before 3 people would have spent Gold to get Allies.

New people exposed to the lag just delete the game.
Why bother nursing a defective game along when there are so many other great game platforms.
Be surprised if new players last one week.