Hi Cheater Hater, welcome aboard! Scooter and Caledorn were both Team Gillette members at one point or another, so this truly is a reunion. Now we just need to get Mackoti and SevenSpirits 
One thing, though. Caledorn isn't an unknown host!
He's hosted lots of games, most notably the current ISDG. Ok, ok, he's new to hosting on RB, but don't worry, he'll be reliable 
That's a really good point about Haram and Barteq that I had not considered. Now I'm really excited about playing against them, too! No, I've never heard of them. Barteq just has the one post on RB, and it looks like Haram is not yet registered on the site. Unless these are more of Caledorn's friends coming out of the woodworks, I imagine your hunch is correct
As for top 7 leaders, that's hard to say. I don't think any of the other traits have the same quality as Ind in that they get worse with more people picking them. I guess the more people who pick Fin, the more pressure there is to also pick it so we're not the one non-Fin team out there. But here's a list of some strong leaders that I would be happy to end up with, in no particular order.
Pacal (Exp, Fin)
Surry (Exp, Cre)
Willem (Fin, Cre)
Bismark (Exp, Ind)
Huayna (Fin, Ind)
Lizzy (Fin, Phi)
Joao (Exp, Imp)
Mehmed (Exp, Org) - if Emporer
Darius (Fin, Org) - if Emporer
If we pick close to the end of the snake pick, though, we should figure out how we can get the most synergy between leader and civ, so I imagine that will influence who we end up with.
One thing, though. Caledorn isn't an unknown host!
He's hosted lots of games, most notably the current ISDG. Ok, ok, he's new to hosting on RB, but don't worry, he'll be reliable That's a really good point about Haram and Barteq that I had not considered. Now I'm really excited about playing against them, too! No, I've never heard of them. Barteq just has the one post on RB, and it looks like Haram is not yet registered on the site. Unless these are more of Caledorn's friends coming out of the woodworks, I imagine your hunch is correct
As for top 7 leaders, that's hard to say. I don't think any of the other traits have the same quality as Ind in that they get worse with more people picking them. I guess the more people who pick Fin, the more pressure there is to also pick it so we're not the one non-Fin team out there. But here's a list of some strong leaders that I would be happy to end up with, in no particular order.
Pacal (Exp, Fin)
Surry (Exp, Cre)
Willem (Fin, Cre)
Bismark (Exp, Ind)
Huayna (Fin, Ind)
Lizzy (Fin, Phi)
Joao (Exp, Imp)
Mehmed (Exp, Org) - if Emporer
Darius (Fin, Org) - if Emporer
If we pick close to the end of the snake pick, though, we should figure out how we can get the most synergy between leader and civ, so I imagine that will influence who we end up with.