I too have seen things that beg belief. and I cannot specifically answer your problem, but what I can tell you, which you probably know already anyway is, there all kinds of things at whatever level that you are at that can increase your influence, without upping palace level,but that's not to say its not a trick or that you are at odds with the opponent.
In fact this player would be disadvantaged if in possession of SH, that's a big burden for one player to carry as its potentially a big increase in league.Greetings!
We understand your concern, but we assure you that there are no hacks for the game. We constantly check for cheats available online and none of them work.
Influence is one of the main factors in the game and it defines your might. Influence points are the sum of the main game achievements such as:
1. Constructing and upgrading buildings.
2. Training troops.
3. Upgrading Knowledge.
4. Hero’s level.
5. Quests.
6. Active Shaman.
7. Aesir.
A player can gain a lot of Influence in short time period as a result of decreasing of time of the active processes in the Town by means of Speed-up items or Gold. Only the wisest Jarl with a well-weight strategy can gain true power. We hope you can find an optimal strategy which will bring you to success.
Have glorious victories!
This is why you need to rewrite your matching algorithm. Just add a simple bit of code that takes the mean average of the influence of the players in the clan, and add in their overall activity (to stop people just adding loads of level 1 players).