I had a beer last year win the category, then win BOS overall. I entered it into the next big event and it didn't place. Don't get down on that, I rarely enter the same beer/batch into more than 1 event, in fact that was the first time I did it and it was an experiment to see what would happen.
The truth is, it takes a bit of luck to win these things. If you're a good brewer and submit a few styles to each event, you'll probably place for at least 1 style, but don't expect the same beer to have the same results at each event, it just won't happen.
edit - the beer in question was a Helles, so if anything it probably only got better/crisper/cleaner with the additional 2 months of cold-conditioning between the events.