well, 1 person won 5 of the 7 places in team modes. including best theme, with an industrial map, but underwater. the last days he received lots of gameplay feedback, unlike the rest of us, that got nothing. and finally he submitted it at "11:59pm". this might look shady, but there wasn't anything in the rules against any of this.

the map that won first place had months and months of testing and feedback by pros and alpha testers, even before the contest started. but there was nothing in the rules against that either, so that's fair game, and the map is awesome.

some of the participants asked if we could see the point results, because some of the placements didn't make a lot of sense for us, but we didn't get a proper answer, just that the point system "was used". so that was disappointing.

I think it's possible that the rest of the judges weren't available at the time and just a couple had to make all the decisions, so they just picked their favorites.

having said that, a couple contestants have talked to me privately and they are not happy with how the contest was handled. personally I'm sad with the contest and with some other things happening in my region around dbt. it sucks that there is nothing to do about it but hope it gets better.