So since so many people vote like degenerates to increase their chances of winning, I suggest the follow changes
The contest consists of 2 groups of 5.
If you q with a friend then you guys are in the same group
Each group votes for the top mog of the other group.
Then the two winners are voted on by the other 8 to be the grand prize winner.
Not a bad idea so long as the queues stay reasonable
It’s…Trial of Style. We aren’t talking about M+ or raiding here. Its a silly little contest to dress up and maybe get some more of the huge amount of mogs dropped into the game almost every week.
I don’t care if I don’t win and I don’t check to see if someone in a group is outvoting my stunning Gnome skimpy gear. I just put it down to having bad taste and move on. 
Mogging is serious business
Imagine for a moment if we had a leaderboards for the trial of style with balance patching, ptr testing, mmr and fomo transmogs on the line.
Only if it involved the ability to kill characters who got voted better than me!
The only change they need is to put new things to buy every time. It’s only around TWICE A YEAR
I just lost to a full set andy
This is what I’m talking about
Exactly. We’re talking about something much more important!
Looks at you askance.
Likes that word
We’re not voting on which set is the most special, we’re voting on which set is the best. Sorry your unique aesthetic vibe is worse than someone repping a premade set but that sounds like a you problem.
My favorite time of year… when people take Trial of Style so seriously that they’re bent out of shape over premades and/or “lazy/bad” transmogs.
Many years ago my Alliance guild threw a 5th anniversary party in Stormwind and part of it was a transmog contest that we didn’t take too seriously. We awarded a mount to the winner and someone was so upset that the winner wore basically a tier set with a few modifications that he messaged me three times over the next week demanding that we overturn our initial award. 
Bro, ToS is beyond casual. The average player that does it doesn’t care about the typical transmog contest rules that the community follows such as limiting yourself to no more than two pieces of a single set, or making sure you have a mount that matches.
I get it. It’s nice to show off. It’s fun to be creative. However, when folks are voting in line with the actual theme of that particular contest (ie: Faction Pride or a straight up free for all), if someone gets a chance to rock a full set, then don’t be surprised if you lose to a full set 
I mean…
Maybe the Full Set Andy just looked better than you lol
Seconding the people saying losing to a full set isn’t weird. People are voting on what looks best (hopefully within the theme) and that doesn’t always mean someone’s custom mishmash. It might. It might not. Being more unique is something I only use as a tiebreaker when I’m voting in there.
That said - OP is right. People vote like degenerates. Came out of one yesterday, no one from the same guild or server, 1st place wasn’t on theme, wasn’t any kind of cohesive set, and was like a half step away from being a full blown “mismatched mayhem” meme mog (no that wasn’t the category). People voted for it because it was bad because voting for the bad one generally increases your chances of winning by keeping your vote away from the ones that might actually beat you. There was general confusion in instance chat when people saw. They weren’t expecting other people to be doing the same thing (therefore actually giving them the win instead of just hurting others slightly).
This happens all the time and it’s frustrating, because it’s SUPPOSED to be a silly little fun thing, but people try to cheese it for their benefit instead of just having fun with it.
I’m not sure that any design change would be worth it. If OP’s idea doesn’t create monster queues, it might help. But sometimes people throw out ideas like “people should randomly be assigned as judges or contestants” and like, no, people will just leave if they get judge and it’d create a worse environment for everyone.
I can’t imagine being this upset over something like a beauty pageant. Even if you lost 50 in a row, you still have enough currency to get all the stuff you need from the vendor.
I’ve seen multiple topics about this but never experienced it. Sometimes the theme is just hard to design for or we don’t have the right pieces unlocked for it.
Yeah, occasionally you get someone who just gave up and equipped their heritage armor set or whatever.
I do not understand why we can’t just have fun with the silly dress up contest.
I mean, if people really wanted to prepare in advance, they could go look up the trial of style and figure out what all of the categories are and then have plenty of time outside of it to make the premade outfits for it. But I agree fully. It’s a little dress up content that’s meant to be a side distraction. Nobody should take this content seriously, or be bothered by it.
cant you hire admirers?