Look at it this way, two fewer things to make awards ceremonies take so long.
I'll admit, the animation competition was one of the key things that got me involved on my team initially, until, of course, we realized that no one on our animation team had any idea how to use 3DsMax, and I got involved in other areas of the team.
Honestly though, the fact that there were only 50 teams that submitted animations in 2012 doesn't really surprise me.