First...AR is becoming banned by host more and more often...
Second...TL is becoming more and more popular....
Thoughts?
Proof? 
Or is it just wishfull thinking of yours?
Seriously... when people ban AR you are basically down to TEC mirrors..... if you cant stand AR you cannot allow any Vasari, who are still OP.... yes even the Loyalist.
Phase Missiles + Orky + mobile feet = WIN - kill everything
Is it desperation are just lack of knowledge for choosing TEC Loyalist? Lets face reality.... very little they do better than TEC Rebels but many things that TEC Rebel do better than them.
I actually played a 1v1 recently where it seems TL is pretty competitive. Take half the map, exploit TL's better trade, double starbases (which leads to further trade income), and Novaliths to win the war of attrition. I was AR of course so it my opinion it was an irresitable force meets an immoveable object scenario. He would never beat my fully teched AR fleet with Lvl 6 titan, and while in that particular case I think my fleet advantage was high enough to eventually beat him, in theory with more support I would never be able to breach his defenses.
Obviously this doesn't translate to a 5v5, and perhaps the most likely result of this strategy is the other player rage quitting, but it's an interesting idea none the less.
I guess you havent saved a replay? Would be interesting to watch.
I cannot image TL doing better than TEC Rebels..... unless your enemy makes several fatal errors in a row.
1. Sorry.. better trade with TWIN Fortresses? Are you 
us? People complain that Induced Reverence takes ages to pay off..... building a starbase for trade is quite a bad idea... unless you can prolong your trade route. That is clearly not the case here, nor would a second starbase with trade module pay itself in any reasonable ammount of time. So TL have no better trade... quite the contrary actually. TR have better expansion and the same trade.
2. Novalith no doubt are annoying but they will rarely kill you. Not to mention that if he rushes them he wont have any money left to fortify his worlds..... so just sweep in and kill him.
If he manages to get both... well I am sorry... if you leave him alone for that long.... you would be dead against any other faction already.
He managed to get a Level 6 Ankylon? I assume you had at least a level 8 Eradica by then? If not you feeded him.... although it is beyond me how this can happen, considering the Ankylons average offensive value.
You can never balance the game with support from allies being an issue. With enough support I can bring out an Titan within 10 minutes of the game start. Which BTW is quite funny..... the look on the face of the poor guy being on the receiving end is probably awesome.... however it is not a good tactic, as all your team mates are bankrupt afterwards and while you can kill your closest foe the rest of your team dies... making it 4v1.....
Yes, annoying your enemies into quitting works remarkably well on same occasions.
Still, you say it yourself... you would have probably beaten him in the long term. And that is somewhat dissapointing. TL are supposed to be the premier defense faction.... on the same skill level they should be capable of holding the line for an infinite ammount of time.
None of the TEC Loyalists good techs come below 5 Labs.... before that they are just plain TEC without the early game power of the TEC Rebels.
Imho if he can hold the line with TEC Loyalist he can hold the line with TEC Rebels.... with the insignificant difference that TEC Rebels actually can launch an devastating counterattack.
