I'm just a beginner, but when I zoom this in I can't imagine anything else than pixeling being in effect here, it's so detailed and carefully realized. This and your other works are really good and should be in the top part of hall of fame for sure. Not in the queue, that's just ridiculous!
You're right, it was a compo for various kinds of 2d graphics, so most entries were not pixeled. Not many demoscene graphicians stick to the good old pixel graphics anymore.
I've just been to the archives to see what beat you... I don't know what the rules are for their "pixeled graphics", but after looking at the top 5, I concluded that half of these weren't actually pixel art, so you should have been a lot higher.
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