I am pretty active on another forum for poker/gambling, I am familiar with all the details for running a contest like this and escrowing. If people are not comfortable with me holding the money I would be fine with assisting a more trusted member. I tried to buy a piece for the real supercontest but it fell through at the last minute so this would be a cool substitute.
Ideas for escrow, I can accept chase quickpay or paypal and participants could send me the buy in. I would then send the lump sum to the agreed upon escrow and they would hold it until the completion of the contest and then the winner could coordinate how they wanted to be paid.