[Bald & Bearded]

I work as a government contractor. Now that most proposals are submitted through web sites or email the government puts all kinds of notices in the RFPs that contractors need to submit early and that the government is not responsible for delays caused by technology.

That said, I have seen them waive or extend dealines when the technical issue was clearly on their side and something they could have addressed.

What this tells me is get a decent draft submitted early and update the submission often.

Although in this case, I think FIRST either needs to have 24x7 IT support for those servers (so the problems can be fixed quickly) or be prepared to extend what is in effect and artificial deadline.