I recognize that this is a very old post (even if it is pretty much the last past made in W94).
At any rate, I would surmise that Vodka stole the win from NN. You weren't around to see it at the juncture you joined the world (as you have said), but NN was winning the world all game long until Vodka came on late (and brought the Nerd guys in of course). If those two events were not to happen, there shouldn't be any question that NN would have been the favorite to win all game long.
I suppose it shouldn't surprise if Rav and Jack could have found a way to win it with his crew, but they certainly would have not been the consensus favorite like NN was (Rav and Jack = Gnomeland Security account; late-game duke of Vodka and originally the guys in charge of the Vodka merge with Nerds -- from the Nerd end of things).