I don't understand that list. I've spent two weeks working on my design: one for planning, and the other for formatting. Specific orders were given while I was still working on mine and I worked even harder than before! (That
was the first time I've drawn Doozers.
) I even witnessed a non Top-10 entry won an Invite by the host choice, but...I really did the best I've done, didn't I?
500+ entries and only 1 grand prize, 8 runner-ups, and 1 popular vote. The odds of winning anything was less than 2% and everyone was in the same boat. It all comes down to who the judges were and what they were looking for. If you look at all the winners(when officially announced), you'll notice a pattern of what they were after to promote the 30th Anniversary of Fraggle Rock. Everyone is a winner in my book, because they put their time, effort, and heart into a dream of possibly becoming a reality. Sadly, only a few can be chosen. So keep your chin up, you did a nice piece of art.
Also consider they even said in the rules, "The Jim Henson Company will select from all qualified submissions with special consideration for the top voted entries." One reason why I stated in an earlier post, they probably were mostly looking at the Top 50 most popular voted that the fans liked. If that's true, some 450+ drawings probably didn't get much consideration, hopefully they glanced at them all for one or two that might of caught their eye.
And like it has already been mentioned, there are other contests to enter with different judges and who knows, you might catch their eye, you might not. All depends on the direction the wind is blowing that day.