The judges right? It depends a lot on the judges (good or bad). Perhaps last year many of those 1s weren't deserved. Or maybe the opposite is true. I was recently at a (MS) contest and felt that the judges were VERY forgiving. THe point being that there is a lot of variation on what a "1" is even if there is a rubric and training and, and, and...
Usually though things will average out in the end. A 2 (or even a 3) here and there isn't the end of the world (most of time).