Scoring?

From the looks of it, you cooked a contest using the KCBS scoring system.

In KCBS, a perfect score for any category is 180 points. Each criteria (appearance, taste, tenderness) is given a different multiplier so that basically tenderness is worth twice as much as appearance and taste twice as much as tenderness. You can see the exact numbers used for weighting here: http://www.kcbs.us/pdf/KCBS-Rules-and-Regulations-2010.pdf

I have no idea what you are looking for with the "margin of victory" question. Contest scores vary with the judging pool, so that a score that takes GC at one contest might only be middle of the pack at another. We missed first place in pork at our last contest by .57 of a point. Didn't matter if it was 57 points, the other guys still beat us. There is a huge amount of variables and luck that determine final scores, much more than you can every quantify. You will drive yourself nuts trying to figure out why the stuff you turned in this week scored well and the exact same stuff last week tanked!

My advice is not to sweat the numbers to much. Cook your best product and have a good time. That's comp BBQ in a nutshell.

> My advice is not to sweat the numbers to much. Cook your best product and have a good time. That's comp BBQ in a nutshell.

Well stated. Watching/dwelling on numbers will indeed drive 'ya nuts.

Congrats Jason.

jasonjax said:

Thanks for the response.

With the whole margin question I was trying to determine if most contests are won and lost within tenths of a point versus whole number differences. I think you answered that question as well.

You are also most likely right in not worrying about the system and just cooking.

Thanks again.

Click to expand...

Just to expand on what Jason said above, contests often come down to thousanths of points. No need to sweat it, just cook your best.

When we first started, I used to study and study and study those scoresheets! LoL...Like everyone is saying, you will drive yourself crazy. You start putting scenarios together in your head like "if I would've placed inside the top 20 in this or that I would've ended up here or there". IMO crunching the numbers will make you feel worse than better the majority of the time.(unless of course you win:clap2 For example, the first time that we cooked the Best of the Best we chose to cook chicken,ribs and pork (you can only cook 3 categories). We got two calls in chicken and pork and finished 48 out of 53 teams in ribs:doh: (ironically some of the best I'd ever cooked:crazy. After crunching the numbers I realized that if we would've entered brisket instead of ribs, we could have finished DAL in the category and still would've won the contest. So, to reiterate what has been said...cook your best and hope for the rest. As a good bbq friend once said "somedays you're the windshield and somedays you're the bug". Congrats on the Win! You are hooked now! Just wait and see. :wink:

Congrats, we were there as well. Well done!

I'm gonna come up behind you with a wheel chair if you walk that slow next time. J/k