Yes, the programmer was the important piece of the solution. Note the careful wording the winner used in his advocacy: "Lisp doesn’t get in my way as much as other languages."
From the article's description of how far ahead Melis was (2nd paragraph), you could say Java was king of "a race for second place".
From the article's description of how far ahead Melis was (2nd paragraph), you could say Java was king of "a race for second place".