I always wonder what if they never came into the picture. maybe they never met or their plans were limited to a small discussion and it never went anywhere.
If it wasn't them, then it
inevitably would have been somebody else. The thing Chris is too stupid to understand is his dependent nature - from what I recall about the idea guys is that they managed to get their hooks into Chris by simply playing along with his dumbass LARP. Ever desperate for SOME validation that he isn't pissing into the wind, just hearing somebody other than himself even talk about the possibility the Merge stupidity is in fact real with alternate dimensions is like giving a baby a hit of sugar for the first time.
A similar thing happened with the convention scene. He was out, people were talking with him, he felt like the center of attention...and then he pissed it all away to become excommunicated from any convention worth its salt. Even getting mocked by the fucking Bronies who displayed his angry email like an award certificate one year.
Ultimately, Chris is human and like all humans needs a degree of social interaction. However,
because he's Chris, his general idiocy, ego, and all-around main character syndrome isolate him. As such, when the opportunity arises to even
approach the kind of interaction he had way back in the rosy days of MHS with the 'gal pals' he'll happily go along with anything like a puppy.