This is like the Sun-Oracle deal, when a good company sells itself to pure evil.
Obviously you never did business with sun.
$100 says the press release was based on nothing more than a routine customs hold - know who customs is a part of? DHS. Know how often international shipments stall at customs for a few days? All the freaking time. Congrats on getting gamed for advertising yet again, slashdot.
Competition had 30 days to submit after the qualifying submission was presented. From your link: "After three (3) months have elapsed from the start of the Contest, when the RMSE of a submitted prediction set on the quiz subset improves beyond the qualifying RMSE an electronic announcement will inform all registered Participants that they have thirty (30) days to submit additional candidate prediction sets to be considered for judging."
Anyone can make an omelet with eggs. The trick is to make one with none.