If Megatron had died in Transformers Exodus, Starscream and Shockwave would've been fighting for leadership. Because unlike his FOC and TFP selves, Shockwave from the Aligned novels is very ambitious.
This is the scene that contradicts FOC. (See my previous post for more details)
P.S: At the end of the episode, Cliffjumper references the events of FOC by mentioning being lost in the Sea of Rust. Which means that this episode both ignores and references FOC.