[cadandcookies]

Thank you so much for all the responses so far!

I've always been an advocate of assuming best intentions, especially in situations like this where all the facts aren't known by one (or sometimes both) parties. Outside of this year, I've been on both sides of this situation-- both the one someone asked about something they thought was wrong in our essay and someone who reached out to another team with questions about their essay. I know that I appreciated being asked directly about our submission, and the opportunity to both clarify the events in question with the person who asked and to make our submission clearer in intent, which is why I personally would lean towards directly asking the team about whatever is in question.