I gotta say like everyone else, it is subjective. Is that fair? Hmmm... It is in the eye of the beholder.
For example, the most recent costume contest event on my primary server was a ton of fun. When it came to the four runner-ups, their costumes were fantastic! Completely original designs with great color compliments. But the winner? Holy cow, it looked like they hit the random button. Two primary colors selected for the palette. The costume made no sense to me, it was literally a costume that shows up when you hit random in the costume creator. I was more surprised that the costume winner beat out the other four awesome costumes than my own that didn't place. Heck the winning costumed character was created on the day of the event, Level 1, no badges. Meanwhile I spent months tweaking my costume on my character for this event after previously participating in other contests.
So yeah, its subjective. But that is okay!