I did not enter it and I am not sure what the price is. I would not enter any competitions over $10-15 a bottle anymore. On the other hand competitions this big really do cost a small fortune to put on when you consider hotels and judges and it takes a lot of them. AWS judges go through a long three years of grueling classes and workshops along with a ton of home work which includes buying a ton of wines through out those years. I have a lot of respect for AWS certified judges. I have judged along side many of them and most of them do excel.
I thought about going through the program but I don't have the discipline for it. Judging home made wine with them, my results were very close to theirs most of the time. Their knowledge of wine over all well exceeds mine.