Aussiebits, there's a leaderboard. It's stacked with 30 people who all have pre-existing YouTube channels. The leaderboard is not going to automatically be the 30 finalists, but I'm sure a lot of them will move on. Last place currently has 518 votes; first place has 1854: http://www.geekandsundry.com/vlogs/

It's going to come down to variety. Geek and Sundry has a cosplay vlogger, a creative writing vlogger, a makeup vlogger, a DIY vlogger, a gay geek vlogger (no really, that's their topic), and a comics vlogger. No one else covering those topics is going to get picked up for the network. Quite a few of the Top 30 are doing those topics. There's no way they're going to move on.

The vote and comments are focus testing for a premium YouTube channel. They'll pick up a few people with a built-in YouTube audience to boost their own numbers. Otherwise, they want to pick up "unknown" talent to play into all the advertising they did for the contest.