they have been consistently 3-1 at all league tournaments. They won UoP, and obviously did well here. As kozakura says, this speaks a little louder.
Part of the area 1 experience is, I think, that there's simply a very large emphasis on communicating with laypersons. Not to stereotype, but there's a difference between just reading your regular circuit affirmative at less wpm (ahem damien) and really structuring an accessible "story". For some, there's a difference between an argument being right, or even good, and it being attractive to vote for. Hopefully, it's all three of these.