I can't tell if you're implying that there was some sort of favoritism being applied, or if the winning beers were simply better by virtue of the fact that they were brewed by people more active in the brewing community, and thus more likely to produce good beers. But in case it's the former, my understanding is that the judging is blind. That is, the judges would have no idea whose beer they were judging - yours, or their buddy's from their homebrew club - until after they'd already assigned a score and selected a winner.