for me it looks totally great now. Good luck, hope they will accept it!

And I jizzed in my pants, great work as allways

Well I used some techniques that photoshop's color reducer is capable of
and I believe looking at color reduction is a great way to learn new pixel art possibilities and new ways to use colors
probably over dithered it..  but I guess I'll take it as a compliment? >  <,,

Thanks!
What do you think about it now?

Looks like color reduction.

I think those light-blue islands should be in another color
I'm not a professional, but the first thing that I saw that light blue doesn't fit here. at least for me. 
But anyway - awesome work