Back in the day, my college held an annual scavenger hunt, filled with engineering puzzles and racing around town looking for landmarks. There were "judges" in the path to check on progress. Bribing the judges (with alcohol) for answers was encouraged.

My friends and I took it to the next level. We had CB radios and multiple teams that would distribute the work and the bribes to give us an advantage.

Was that against the spirit of the rules? Maybe. But reasonable people might disagree.

In a hacking contest without explicitly spelled out rules with participants that were told to flex their muscles, it doesn't take a huge leap of logic to expect that one or more would flex their muscles at another entity.