[EricH]

Originally Posted by lilstogi11

I was sort of disappointed by that a little. Although it was one of the best designs.

Engineering isn't always coming up with something new. It can just as easily be taking existing technology and putting it together in a new way (e.g. the Segway). Or adapting something to fit your needs. Or tweaking others' ideas to fit into your plan.

I'd say that's what many of those teams did. It also helped level the playing field by bringing the bottom up. (And, they had to reverse engineer it. Now that's a learning experience.)