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Well, I think the judges in most competitions want to see some originality. Something personal that isn't just "in a certain style", be that "the romantic idiom", Schönbergian dodecaphony, or a piece "in the style of Ligeti". I can't really say whether there's a bias towards atonal music, but I think the most important aspect is not whether it's tonal or atonal, but whether it's original, personal music, that is somehow different from the music others have written. Plus a certain degree of technical mastership. (In some competitions it seems to be almost only the latter though, which I find a pity.)
But of course judges in competitions have personal tastes, and sometimes you just may not meet those tastes (even though professional judges can to some degree go beyond "what they like", and appreciate originality and craftmanship even in music they don't like personally.) All, in all, I can't say whether you're "doomed to begin with" if you write tonal music (I don't think you are), but you're definitely better off writing a personal tonal music, than trying force yourself into atonality "in order to win". The results of such a self-mutiliation can be quite painful...
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