I think the instruments blend really well together. This piece is catchy and has a great sense of flow and direction to it. I think you could've done more to prime the listener to your transitions. For example, there's a pretty dramatic change in the pace of the melody line at :37 without any sort of drum fill or crash to release the tension that was built up by the preceding section. Your drums in general were a little bland, especially before 1:12. I thought that, while I could hear all of the instruments pretty clearly, the bass was a little too loud throughout. I think you meant 1:44 to function as a breakdown, but I think it would've been more effective if you had stripped away the drums and bass, which otherwise play for essentially the entire piece. I liked the chord progression and dissonance at 1:44, though. During the 2nd refrain (2:44), I think you could've done more to expand on and vary the themes you introduced earlier in the piece. Perhaps some sort of modulation or more dynamic melody line would've helped. Overall, I think you can do a lot more with phrasing and dynamic contrast in this piece. That said, having listened to your tryout piece ("breaking protocol"), I'd say the mixing and mastering is much stronger here. Your melodies are still a bit bland, and come across more as repetitive house riffs than melodies tbh. I'd recommend checking out this post (http://johnfn.newgrounds.com/news/post/937050). Johnfn is the KING of melody composition. I think you probably would've fared better in the competition had you submitted this piece. Hopefully you have a better idea of the criteria of the judges now, and you can take this knowledge going into next year! Best of luck with your future tracks, man. ;)