In the original contest rules, there were only supposed to be two levels of prizes, a grand prize and then a bunch of first prizes. I guess there were enough entries that they decided to add another level and that's where I managed to slip in. To be honest, this was all so long ago that I didn't even remember exactly what the monster I created was supposed to do. I searched back through my email and here was the entry:
Encounter Name: Muck Monster
Each player targeted by Muck Monster gains a Muck Token. Any player
with a token takes damage equal to 10 points times the number of
rounds you've been battling the Muck Monster.
3: 160 (Mucks player #1) 4: 200 (Mucks player #1 and #2) 5: 240 (Mucks
player #1, #2, #3) 6: 280 (Mucks player #1, #2, #3, #4)
Looking at it now, I wonder if it's too tough and deals too much damage. Maybe I should have made the points multiple a 5x rather than 10x. That would give people some more leeway to collect muck tokens before they start getting whacked for obscene amounts of damage. Curt said they ended up playtesting all the various entries so maybe they noticed the same thing and self-adjusted it.
This'll be the first time my name has actually made it into print in any game. I sorta feel like I should frame it or pin it to the fridge when it finally gets printed. Maybe next time I'll come up with something better and snag a grand prize.