Kimba, having just viewed the conditions for the competition , all the entries and DDevils winning entry I can understand the problem.
In previous contests we have had the "prettiest city", which is 100% subjective but everyone pretty much understood that a normal functional city is unlikely to win and sure enough some very pretty non-functional city's were submitted and won.
In this contest you stated that you want to see some "
awe-inspiring, innovative or creative city pics. Submit an "e-Pic" of your Empire" and personally I would think this would mean a functional city, not one created 4 weeks ago just to look pretty. Worse is that its highly probable that the prose that came with the city influenced the win and perhaps it would be better to say players can put forward some logic for their design (ie 300 words max) so this is not an issue..
DDevils city is a pretty city and developed over a few weeks just for this event, but its not a functional city by any means. If the contest is to find a pretty city then lets say so, if not then can we please redefine what type of city you are after. Remember 99% of players will have functional citys and this has many issues to overcome when planning the layout.
So I have no issue with DDevil wining, good luck to you sir and use those diamonds wisely.
But, it may help to explain a little better if prose influences the competition and if we are after non functional 'pretty' cities or a functional one that is "awe-inspiring, innovative or creative" and if it needs to be an Empire. This may help the situation.
So all in all a nice competition, a little clarification on prose and the type of city required and it should be great.