A cheating scenario

[Truthiness24]

I recently encountered a curious 9 handed game of 10/20 LO8 in which 2 players participated in absolutely every hand and raised PF about 80% of the time between them. This looks in every way like a juicy situation, but in this game I got my head handed to me in back-to-back sessions. (Obviously: I wouldn't be asking about it if it went the other way!) I got my money in good, and it just didn't seem to go my way.

Most curious was the fact that, in each session, the two maniacs left within 5 minutes of each other BOTH TIMES, and they sat next to each other each time. This seemed exceedingly suspicious to me.

It may be that I don't want to admit that I'm only a mediocre player, or that I just got unlucky against a couple of donks over a small number of hands, but the way it went really got me to thinking about whether I was had.

My question(s), in no particular order, are:
(1) Can two players who play every hand, and play them aggressively, expect to have +EV play in LO8 in spite of all the chips that they are splashing around? Is it possible to win by playing this way? Does the knowledge you get from playing together make up for the chips that you would spew?(What I'm really asking is, would it be worth someone's while to try this?)
(2) Would the maniacs require a third (or fourth) accomplice?
(3) Would people who attempt such a play get cut up against a table of solid players, or is it the solid players that they can best exploit?
(4) Besides leaving, what is optimal strategy against this sort of game?

I don't want to accuse anyone of anything, but I would like your thoughts as to whether I got whipsawed or whether I had a bad session or two.