I've been fighting with this.
The theme of Victory/Defeat was clearly conveyed with the surfer images provided by dcstep. Almost classically, in fact.
However, I really liked the vividness of the pepper in Spanner1751's "defeat" image. It was a bright and detailed, and overall a great image. Problem was, I felt that the birds in the "victory" image were a bit dark in comparison. My mind kept telling me what it was (Birds, then eaten pepper), but my eyes were drawn to the vivid image of the half-eaten pepper.
And that's what got to me - I could not associate a vivid, bright image of the pepper, however half-eaten it may have been, as defeat, in my mind, next to the slightly darker image of the birds.
I know I'm new to this part of the forum but I hope to contribute on a more regular basis and would like to submit for the next one. It's nice to see some participation in these contests, so hopefully I can do my part to increase the participation part, with my own.