I wouldn't even mind if they pick some winners of their own as long as those winners didn't earn an obscene amount of money.

I mean, sure, have writing challenges and pick a winner and let them earn something awesome like 2000, 3000, 4000, or even 5000 dollars. But c'mon, they're planning to hand out $50,000 to ONE writer for a SINGLE story.

That's money that could have made over 100 fellow writers very happy. But, alas, it's just going to make one writer happy.