To MrToad45.
While there will most likely be a surge of applicants in August and the months following, I don't imagine the application process itself will be "cut throat".
Everyone I met during my (too short) experience of assessment days were, without exception, very nice, friendly, and helpful. And that's how it should be because there's nothing to gain from being "cut throat" and everything to lose.
I'm sure the assessments won't become harder and the interviewers won't be harsher, they'll stay the same.
The inevitable extra surge of successful applicants will just have to wait a really long time for their starting dates for training.
There's already been sign of this in this thread. Crazy Voyager mentioned that during his Stage 3 he was told a realistic start date was May 2012. Pretty much a whole year to wait, and this will probably get worse before it gets better.
So... to get back to my point. You should expect no cutting of any throats during the assessments.
The starting dates are where you'll see the only real competition.
Good luck.