I've been the underdog pretty much my whole mcoc life, but my skill earned me spots in high tier alliances with my lower prestige. I have a skilled friend not in an alliance for prestige reasons. Just spoke to someone insisting on 15k prestige, and dismissing without talk of skill. Is a bigger account with lower skill more important? A 15k+ player with average skill can get in to many alliances easy purely off roster, but a skilled 14.5k player still has to prove something.

Even after asking for a chance until cyber weekend or latest Eop to get prestige to 15k+