It is atrocious. I personally thought the essay on Death which won the whole thing is a slam dunk winner. That first sentence knocked me the F--- out. I was WOW - that is an amazing sentence. I entered Death so I was good with losing to that essay. And the winning pieces are all good pieces. It does not mean one’s piece wasn’t good; it just meant that the judges liked those pieces more than other pieces. I hit the tags and looked up some of the work. The judges who commented were corrected - there was a high level of writing. I bet they do this again with different tags in the future or something similar. Keep writing. It is like dance practice or batting practice. Hone your skill, your craft.