The project's bottleneck was the team synergy being a bit more on the troubling side. I wouldn't necessarily say that the time in a vacuum was the root cause, but rather us fumbling under the pressure and not adapting properly to the given circumstances.
I can vouch for my team mates being extremely talented, though the politics are something we failed to properly establish in a timely manner.
Viewing post in Fish out of Water jam comments
Having done a number of team jams by now, I can really relate to the struggle you're describing. I found what worked for me in the past is to try and establish some sort of baseline communication days or weeks before the actual jam happens. It could be a struggle at first and most people may not be that responsive either (since they only sign up to engage during the jam period, not before), but I think persistence is key. I hope you learned some things you can apply in your next jam!