[Beth Sweet]

This argument, I believe, has been discussed before. Many teams have taken actions to solve this issue, especially those who felt similarly to the way that you feel. Getting more sponsorship in order to go to more regional competitions has been one solution. Another has been to select a competition to attend where you feel that your animation has the best opportunity to be a competitor. As to the student judging, I think it's actually quite a good system. While some probably are biased, chances are if you make a fantastic animation, no matter what their bias, they'll vote for yours because it's fantastic. This is another situation under which "gracious professionalism" comes into play! Hope that you are able to use these suggestions to excel in the coming years!