People's Choice Ribs - Fark Q?

[Anchors Smokeshop]

I have never been in a competition and I'm not sure how the People's Choice Rib Cook-Off/ Fundraiser works. To me, it seems like it may be more of a popularity contest, then an actual rib contest. Here's how I see it:

Let's say Fark W. Griswald is the Pitmaster for "A Pig in a Poke Competition BBQ Team." Fark is a one man team, but his wife Ellen, son Rusty, daughter Audrey, Aunt Bethany and Cousin Eddie all come to show their support for Fark and his ribs.
Ellen says to Fark, "Farky, I ran into a beautiful blonde woman and she told me that she just sold her red Ferrari and bought 200K tickets and wants all of the votes to go to you." (Total Votes: 40k)
Audrey says to Fark, "Dad, my boyfriend Jack just lost to the Karate Kid but won $5k for coming in second and he wanted me to use the money to buy tickets for you." (Total Votes: 1k)
Rusty says to Fark, "Dad, when I was in Vegas, I put in a dollar and won a car, I put in a dollar and won a car, I put in a dollar and won a car, I put in a dollar and won a car. Since I'm only 16, I don't need 4 cars, so I sold them all and bought 500k worth of tickets for you." (Total votes: 100k)
Aunt Bethany, who is so sweet, but a little senile, says to Fark, "Fark, when Grace passed away 30 years ago, she left me her shares of Apple. I can't eat apples with these false teeth, so I sold them and bought you some tickets. Here's 10 million tickets. Is Rusty still in the Navy?" (Total Votes: 2m)
Cousin Eddie looks at Fark and says "Well Fark, I didn't have anything left to sell but the old RV, so here's $50 worth of tickets. With the remaining few dollars, I bought a couple of tall boys, hope ya don't mind." (Total Votes: 10)
So, at the end of the People's Choice event, Fark has 2,141,010 votes.
Fark clearly has the most votes and wins the People's Choice Cook-Off.
However, I forgot to mention, Fark's ribs tasted like crap and even though he had the most votes, he didn't sell any ribs because his ribs sucked.

Can something like this happen? Is there a cap on the amount of tickets one person can buy? Is there a cap on the amount of votes a team can get? Can a team get votes by having people buy tickets/votes, without really selling ribs? If your ribs stink, can you still win?
Please explain. I have no farkin clue how this works and I don't want to be beaten by Fark!

[Sawdustguy]

Originally Posted by Anchors Smokeshop

I have never been in a competition and I'm not sure how the People's Choice Rib Cook-Off/ Fundraiser works. To me, it seems like it may be more of a popularity contest, then an actual rib contest. Here's how I see it:

Let's say Fark W. Griswald is the Pitmaster for "A Pig in a Poke Competition BBQ Team." Fark is a one man team, but his wife Ellen, son Rusty, daughter Audrey, Aunt Bethany and Cousin Eddie all come to show their support for Fark and his ribs.
Ellen says to Fark, "Farky, I ran into a beautiful blonde woman and she told me that she just sold her red Ferrari and bought 200K tickets and wants all of the votes to go to you." (Total Votes: 40k)
Audrey says to Fark, "Dad, my boyfriend Jack just lost to the Karate Kid but won $5k for coming in second and he wanted me to use the money to buy tickets for you." (Total Votes: 1k)
Rusty says to Fark, "Dad, when I was in Vegas, I put in a dollar and won a car, I put in a dollar and won a car, I put in a dollar and won a car, I put in a dollar and won a car. Since I'm only 16, I don't need 4 cars, so I sold them all and bought 500k worth of tickets for you." (Total votes: 100k)
Aunt Bethany, who is so sweet, but a little senile, says to Fark, "Fark, when Grace passed away 30 years ago, she left me her shares of Apple. I can't eat apples with these false teeth, so I sold them and bought you some tickets. Here's 10 million tickets. Is Rusty still in the Navy?" (Total Votes: 2m)
Cousin Eddie looks at Fark and says "Well Fark, I didn't have anything left to sell but the old RV, so here's $50 worth of tickets. With the remaining few dollars, I bought a couple of tall boys, hope ya don't mind." (Total Votes: 10)
So, at the end of the People's Choice event, Fark has 2,141,010 votes.
Fark clearly has the most votes and wins the People's Choice Cook-Off.
However, I forgot to mention, Fark's ribs tasted like crap and even though he had the most votes, he didn't sell any ribs because his ribs sucked.

Can something like this happen? Is there a cap on the amount of tickets one person can buy? Is there a cap on the amount of votes a team can get? Can a team get votes by having people buy tickets/votes, without really selling ribs? If your ribs stink, can you still win?
Please explain. I have no farkin clue how this works and I don't want to be beaten by Fark!

Anything can happen at a competition but what you describe is unlikely. Usually the best que wins. Don't worry about it. It's all for charity anyway. Chalk up your first competition to experience and most of all have fun! If you don't have fun, I bet you will never do another contest. If you win a catagory or get a walk it's a bonus. It took us 3 years before we got a RGC at the first Battle of the BBQ Brethren in Sayville, but then again we are Polocks.

[Lake Dogs]

You'll want to ask those questions of the organizer. However, yes, unless a peoples
choice is blind, then it's almost always a local team that wins and brings out the
support, ala. a local fire department or perhaps a team on behalf of a school, or
a team with a LARGE family and good local influence.

I stopped participating in crowd favorite / peoples choice years ago. We'd come in
2nd too many times with superior product only to realize that we were fighting a
no-win fight the whole time.

[Sawdustguy]

Originally Posted by Lake Dogs

You'll want to ask those questions of the organizer. However, yes, unless a peoples
choice is blind, then it's almost always a local team that wins and brings out the
support, ala. a local fire department or perhaps a team on behalf of a school, or
a team with a LARGE family and good local influence.

I stopped participating in crowd favorite / peoples choice years ago. We'd come in
2nd too many times with superior product only to realize that we were fighting a
no-win fight the whole time.

Would you feel the same way if the ribs were donated by a local market and the proceeds went to charity?

[Ron_L]

Originally Posted by Sawdustguy

Anything can happen at a competition but what you describe is unlikely. Usually the best que wins. Don't worry about it. It's all for charity anyway. Chalk up your first competition to experience and most of all have fun! If you don't have fun, I bet you will never do another contest. If you win a catagory or get a walk it's a bonus. It took us 3 years before we got a RGC at the first Battle of the BBQ Brethren in Sayville, but then again we are Polocks.

I respectfully disagree with my fellow polock These almost always turn out to be a popularity contest and the winner of these things is typically a local team in my experience. In one competition a couple of years ago we were given the meat to cook, and the proceeds went to a local organization, so we participated. 99% of the teams cooked the meat that was given. One local team not only cooked the meat that was given, but they also served an appetizer, side dish and dessert. In addition, they had girls in skimpy outfits serving the food and doing stripper moves on the legs of their EZ-ups.

Guess who won

Guess who was DAL (or close to it) in the KCBS competition the next day.

We still participate if the event doesn't distract us from the KCBS categories, but only if the proceeds are going to a worthy cause.

[Lake Dogs]

Possibly. If we were already at a sanctioned competition, and if we had free room
on the cooker, and if the hand-out didnt conflict with the other turn-ins, then yes,
I might. However, we already do 2 cooks each year for just charity (no competing,
just long overnight cooks), so honestly, thinking about it, no, I probably wouldn't.
I wouldn't want it to conflict with and/or take time away from the other categories.
People coming up, hand-out, etc. takes time and effort.

We do, however, compete in a Peoples Choice at a competition where it's completely
blind. They provide the pork butts and the foil tray for turn-in. The next morning,
an hour before any other turn-in, there's a turn-in for this. We return it filled with
pulled and sauced pork. They handle/manage the Peoples Choice and we dont have
to worry about the hand out, etc. Also, any team can win, as they're blind.

Peoples choice ribs? Isn't that going to be tough to administer? Thinking, how many
ribs (the actual rib) can you cook to give out enough samples for a judging? If I
cooked say 15 racks of ribs, with what, 8 ribs on each slab, that's 120 ribs for hand
out. So, you're looking at roughly enough meat for 120 *judges*, if they each sample
a rib from each team to determine which they liked best... I dont know... Also,
as this forum tends to be very KCBS centric, do the teams have nearly enough cook
space to cook 15 racks of ribs each? That would take a lot of free BGE's to cook
15 racks of ribs.

[theflints01]

I would like to do more peoples choice comps. I'm proud of my ribs (or chili, we do those also) and I'm not worried about where we finish in the end. These comps give us a great way to meet prospective clients while helping raise money for charity. If you go in with the attitude that a peoples choice comp should be fair, then it's probably better to use your resources elsewhere.

[Alexa RnQ]

People's choice is a true competition only when the tasting is completely blind -- we've done exactly one blind-judged people's choice.

When people's choice is not blind, it quickly degenerates into a sideshow atmosphere, and has nothing whatsoever to do with whether the product is particularly good. It makes great sense for locals trying to drum up business for catering.

It comes down to deciding what you're there for. If you're there to compete, why distract yourself with trying to be a carnie?

[Scottie]

I like the PC contests, where we submit our meat (like pork loin) in a half pan and take it to a tent. Folks then walk around and sample food and they don't know who they are voting for. The old Dubuque contest used to do it this way and it's the most fair.

[boogiesnap]

i'm doing PC for the first time. i figured,
proceeds go to charity, good.
checkin is like 8AM on saturday, sooo, we'll have a few hours to kill B4 gametime.
a bit of BBQ warm-up and practice always good!
don't know the structure of the contest yet or if my thoughts are totally off, but we'll see!

[Crash]

Originally Posted by DivaHerself

People's choice is a true competition only when the tasting is completely blind -- we've done exactly one blind-judged people's choice.

When people's choice is not blind, it quickly degenerates into a sideshow atmosphere, and has nothing whatsoever to do with whether the product is particularly good. It makes great sense for locals trying to drum up business for catering.

It comes down to deciding what you're there for. If you're there to compete, why distract yourself with trying to be a carnie?

I 100% agree with Alexa. Local teams and the Carnie type atmosphere make the $ in a PC event...at least out here in AZ. It's not a true competition out here but, as stated above, truly a sideshow.

I'm actually proud to admit that we are Carnies during the PC portion of a BBQ contest. We bring out all of our stupid-a$$ trophies (which I absolutely hate) and attempt to sell as much product to the public as we can. It is unbelievably amazing how the public will gather to see stupid, shiny, cheap-ass trophies.....like ferrets to foil.

We are there to compete, but we are also there to support and raise money for our charity. That being said, we have a slightly different agenda than a vast majority of teams. When we lose sight of one or the other without balancing them equally....we'll probably quit.

[Vince RnQ]

Originally Posted by Crash

I 100% agree with Alexa. Local teams and the Carnie type atmosphere make the $ in a PC event...at least out here in AZ. It's not a true competition out here but, as stated above, truly a sideshow.

I'm actually proud to admit that we are Carnies during the PC portion of a BBQ contest. We bring out all of our stupid-a$$ trophies (which I absolutely hate) and attempt to sell as much product to the public as we can. It is unbelievably amazing how the public will gather to see stupid, shiny, cheap-ass trophies.....like ferrets to foil.

We are there to compete, but we are also there to support and raise money for our charity. That being said, we have a slightly different agenda than a vast majority of teams. When we lose sight of one or the other without balancing them equally....we'll probably quit.

One really great thing about competition barbeque is that it meets you wherever you choose to be. If you want to be a hard core competition team, you can do it. If you want to use the event as a reason to just have a good time, you can do it. If you want to be somewhere in between, you can do it.

Wow, competition barbeque is like Visa: It's everywhere you want to be!

[Crash]

Originally Posted by Anchors Smokeshop

Can something like this happen? Is there a cap on the amount of tickets one person can buy? Is there a cap on the amount of votes a team can get? Can a team get votes by having people buy tickets/votes, without really selling ribs? If your ribs stink, can you still win?
Please explain. I have no farkin clue how this works and I don't want to be beaten by Fark!

Something like this can easily happen. We did a competition in Small Town, USA in Februaury and watched it happen. I talked to a buddy of mine on the local team and told him that he would be winning the PC 1st prize. He said there was no chance of him winning as he didnt have enough food or a ton of support.

Long story short, his team won even though there were many more teams there with a lot more firepower, and more product.

I'll still stick with the local teams win PC theory.

[Crash]

Originally Posted by VisionQuest220

One really great thing about competition barbeque is that it meets you wherever you choose to be. If you want to be a hard core competition team, you can do it. If you want to use the event as a reason to just have a good time, you can do it. If you want to be somewhere in between, you can do it.

Wow, competition barbeque is like Visa: It's everywhere you want to be!

Amen brother...well stated.

[SmokinOkie]

People's choice are funny. When I do them, I don't consider them part of the contest, it's something I do to help the public.

The public comes to these event to taste good BBQ, and if People's Choice isn't there, then what do they eat? Something a vendor cooks? We've all been to events where a Q vendor is there, but he's not competing.

Know going in that some teams are there JUST to win people's choice. Maybe they do it because they're a local restaurant and they want to be able to advertise. Maybe they're just a big group of partiers that want to party.

Just decide, before you do it, why you're doing it.

It can be VERY hard to compete against a team that wants to go all out, they're local and they DO bring in a hundred friends and family. Ask anyone in the Tulsa contest, a couple of teams used to go all out just to win, they were even giving away goody bags just to get votes. They did change the rules.

I do it to help the public, not necessarily trying to "win" that one.

But we've won a couple because we had a pretty level playing field.

Russ