"You missed the part where I pointed out that current major competitions don't accept arbitrary languages."
In this competition, if you wanted to use another language, you just needed to make a starter package (a stupid bot) and some instructions to get the compiler working on their end. So in this competition, arbitrary languages where accepted.
Oh, he talked about learning effects from other competitions. The fact that you could use other languages here doesn't interfere with the argument. (Though you are right, of course.)
In this competition, if you wanted to use another language, you just needed to make a starter package (a stupid bot) and some instructions to get the compiler working on their end. So in this competition, arbitrary languages where accepted.