Yeah, if you check out the previous posts by @originalworks it's exactly the same... I thought initially that they just voted on the quickest comments, but in their last contest a 'no value nothing' comment got a big upvote even ignoring earlier comments.

It's definitely very strange... and yeah, can't help but wonder if there is some weird circle-jerking happening here.

That said... 2 contests ago it looks like people who won didn't get paid... but in their previous contest it looks like everyone got their winnings. At the end of the day though, I'm pretty happy that originalworks is bringing business to the Steem blockchain... even if some of the goings-on are a little strange.

I'm pretty sure the actual contest is managed via their contestbot rather than the upvotes on their post comments.