I've merged the topic with the earlier topic about balance. There isn't a need to start a seperate topic about it. We were already aware of the problem and seeking for solutions, but spamming topics about it won't help it get resolved faster.
Civs were never explicitely counted as attackers or defenders, but they did have an impact on the balancing. The main reason they have an impact on the balancing, is because we make assumptions on the division of both teams before anyone picks a class. So, each team would be open until over 25% of the total number of players were in it. We did this so everyone could reclass quickly at the beginning of the map, otherwise they'd have to reclass alternatingly (for example, the first player goes to the protecting team, which meant the protecting team now has 100% of the players, which meant someone had to go terro first before someone else could join the protecting side, and so on). Now, if a lot of people went to civ, this 25% of the total player count would be harder to reach, and the team would be open for a longer time, which could lead to imbalances.
Since last week, we've removed this requirement from the balancing. This means reclassing at the start of maps will be slower, but it should lead to more balanced teams. Of course, VIPs will still have an effect on this, and can still cause imbalanced teams to a certain extent as we've put a limit on it now.