Who doesn't remember the bunneh lol.
At the end of the NWO-TC war, TC ended up as #1 alliance for a while, until mergers on the TP side pushed them over us. These were each 80 to 90 million point alliances, with many many players having 100+ cities. If Theta wasn't headed for a shut down, I'm pretty sure a war between TP and TC would've erupted. There was some tension building with JW+TBE on one side and TP on the other. Also, I don't believe after the TC-NWO war TC was properly/formally re-admitted into The Coalition. I know there were many bruised feelings towards The Coalition because TC saw NWO as the aggressor, so getting booted from The Coalition didn't sit well with TC leadership.
A war at that point would be pointless ... there were so many 10k+ cities ghosting everywhere that taking enemy cities was mainly symbolic.
However, in the end with the whole wonder thing, many were looking to join into a single alliance ... that's when the lines became blurred. In the end I don't recall whether it was TP or this new alliance that ended in the 1st spot. I know TC was #3 when the world shut down.