Excuse my ignorance. It's my first game jam and I don't know how this is handled normally. Shouldn't I have received a prize? Haven't found anything in my spam filter and I'm wondering if something went wrong.
So the fourth criteria is a random factor? (Or the time the project was created.)
Only other Bolt Jams with multiple entries for one rank were #1 and #2. Both outside of the winning placements. itch.io isn't telling how they sort the output for entries with the same score.
I looked at the ones in jam #1 and #2 and I can tell: It's not the name, it's not the age of the account. But unfortunately it isn't the time left in the jam. Rank 11 in jam #1 has two entries: the first one 11 minuted before deadline and the other about 5 hours. (The other duplicates were the other way around.)
It could be the internal ID of the game. It's visible in the source code. For rank 11 in jam #1 it is 289895 and 290618. The one with the lower ID was submitted later to the jam. My guess: The project was added earlier to itch.
Conclusion:
Participants in itch.io game jams need to create a project page very early on to beat others that may get the same score.
Suggestion for Bolt Jams:
Look at the time before deadline when multiple entries have the same rank. This is a valid fourth criteria for a jam. Worked out for this.
I'm not complaining. Just wanted to know.