Jorge's memory serves me better than mine. Nick was involved in a truly massive number of games and simply couldn't keep up.
With regard to Nick, the original Austrian leader, my understanding is that Charles did not ask him to leave. There's little doubt that a player not talking in a game based on talking whose position is in the center of the map is doing the overall game a disservice. I was certainly not happy with it, and neither were at least some of the other players. When Charles inquired to Nick about his unusual lack of engagement, Nick replied that RL had overwhelmed him and he was sticking with the game only out of minimal commitment. Charles then offered to replace him, and Nick accepted, with very graceful apologies to all.