From my experience in scans, usually the group who wants to pick up a series asks for the permission of the original group to continue on. If there's no response or activity from the group, then I'd say that's a green light, but Zephyr has been active within the past month.
Both Zephyr and l1v claimed the series at the same time 3 months ago (August 22nd 2024), so it's pretty fair for them both to be translating. That scenario would be a "competition," not sniping.
As for this series, l1v did not start on the first chapter; they simply just took over on Chapter 17. Additionally, I don't believe Zephyr has ever sniped/taken over a series where a Scanlation group was in the middle of working on it. I would sympathise a little more if it were Scylla who had "sniped" this series, as they also started from Chapter 1 two years ago.
I apologize, that was a misconception on my end. It appears this series is the first time they have done something of the sort.
Just to be clear, I am defending neither party. Just chipping in my two cents as a Scanlator.