Is winning enough?

[juslearning]

My goal is to win!!!!!!! I want to win at everything I do. I am very competitive and expect to do well at everything I do. I don't always win or do well at everything I do, but I still expect it. Hearing your name is always exciting. It is kinda like a double edged sword though. You want to hear your name and they start calling out the winners and they 10th place pork (or whatever) and you are like "hell yes" but then you think, "damnit, I wanted to win 1st place!!!!" but then you forget that and are just happy with a call.

 

[CBQ]

OH NO!!!! Winning without having the fun of cue's your daddy conversations or sheep jokes from Blazing butts or a hug from Julie at Swamp pit or any of the hundred other things that occur personally at a comp is a hollow win. Fun to win, no doubt, more fun to be there and compete. Just my two cents....

There is also the dreaded hug from Skip when Swamp Pit gets an RGC. :heh:

We love the atmosphere and the friends, but we aren't doing 15 contests a year just for that. We do want a GC and a trip to the Jack. We are in that "knocking on the door" phase with a lot of top ten finishes, but haven't quite closed the deal yet. It took us four years to get to this point, so I am always surprised at the "we got a GC in our first contest" stories. It doesn't happen often here in the northeast, as every contest always has a few top teams. (not to mention the lowest scoring judges in the country)

It wouldn't be fun if it was easy, though.

 

[nukenight]

Heck yes!

is winning enough? In one word, YES! In two words, heck yes! When they called my team name at a sanctioned contest of 20 cookers I was speechless. It really didn't hit me and my wife until the results were posted on the net. It didn't matter if it was not a Jack Draw. We can always and forever more be known as a winner on that one day. God willing, I will get more. But it is very worth it!

 

[swamprb]

My 15 minutes are up.

Whats next?

 

[Crash]

I agree with a lot of the others. Making my $ back, making $ for our charity and having a good time with friends is awesome. When we don't make our $ back and only make a small amount for charity, that's OK to. We still had fun with our friends.

For us, we prefer sanctioned events and don't really care if it's a Jack qualifier. That being said, we would really like to have an opportunity to cook the Jack someday, but it isn't a requirement for a competition.

Electricity, we can work around that.

Teams, the more there are the happier we are. We prefer competing in large fields to see where we stack up. Do there have to have be "Big Name Teams", no but we also prefer the best competition available. There's something magical about a small local team taking down the 3 best teams in the country, even if it is only in one category.

As for TOY points or a World Championship.....naw, dont care about that stuff. Mostly it's because we know we're not good enough and are comfortable with where we are at in competition BBQ. Maybe someday we'll be on that level, but we aren't currently and are totally OK with that.

As for the best competition that we have ever been a part of....our first GC in a non-sanctioned contest in Hawaii on Father's Day with all of my kids and my father in attendance. Needless to say, it was a very awesome Father's Day.

 

[The Cosmic Pig]

Does it have to be sanctioned? Yes, for the most part
Does it have to be a qualifier? No
Does it have to have enough money? Makes it worthwhile...
Does it have to have electricity? No
Does it have to have the right number of teams? Yes
Does it have to have "Big Name Teams"? Yes
Does it have enough potential TOY points? No
Does it have to be a World Championship? (It is all marketing until you win one. - Myron Mixon) No

I've yet to GC, but RGC'd now 3 times (we only compete 3 comps per year). Like said earlier, more than anything else, it's the walk.

There's nothing like the thrill of knowing that you've got a good chance at winning one of the categories when they start the awards ceremony, and then actually hearing your name called for that very reason! The last comp I did, the weather was so hot that I was ready to leave my smokers there and go home by the time the awards ceremony started (it didn't help that the spaces were all on the blackest pavement you could ever hope to find...). But after they called our name for first place in chicken, I was ready to do it all again! Funny how that works! :wink:

 

[Sledneck]

Great topic. I never set the BBQ world on fire but have quietly managed to hit all of my goals. A gc, rgc, a first in each category and a trip to the jack. Since then I basically do a few that I like for fun. At times I feel like I wanna stop competing alll together. Fortunately I seem to get at least one call per contest and it keeps me going. If I stopped getting any calls I would most likely quit. This video explains it further


‪Just when I thought I was out...they pull me back in.‬‏ - YouTube

 

[jbrink01]

There's nothing like the thrill of knowing that you've got a good chance at winning one of the categories when they start the awards ceremony, and then actually hearing your name called for that very reason! The last comp I did, the weather was so hot that I was ready to leave my smokers there and go home by the time the awards ceremony started (it didn't help that the spaces were all on the blackest pavement you could ever hope to find...). But after they called our name for first place in chicken, I was ready to do it all again! Funny how that works! :wink:

The best is when you suck at a catetgory all year, make RADICAL changes on the fly and win that category. Happened to us with brisket 2 weeks ago! BTW, and no disrepect intended, Quau, 4 Smokin' Butts, Myron, Gilley's and McFrankenboo plus several other strong teams were in that field. It sure felt good!

 

[afreemaniii]

"I come out here to win." Tiger can be an S.O.B., but his mindset is right.

We come out every week to cook the best food we can and we have the mindset that if we produce, then we're going to win. No questions asked. Winning is why we enter comps. If we wanted to simply cook good food, then we'd save the money, time, and hassle and just cook in our backyard. We are always disappointed when we don't produce the way we know we can and we'll spend the entire drive home going over the entire contest and making notes on what to change for the next contest. It's that desire to win that keeps us coming back to contests. Be it a first year contest in De Forest, WI, a Sam's Club qualifier, The Royal, or The Jack, we show up to win. When that fire is gone, then our competition days will be behind us and we'll grow old and fat eating great bbq in our backyard.

 

[G$]

Thanks for posting the topic, Todd.

 

[HarleyGirl14226]

Our goal for every contest is to get all four in and not DQ, have fun, and not to come in DAL.

That's it.

Any calls beyond that we consider ourselves winners in our own heads.

 

[Matt_A]

One more thing, for you promoters out there. Take ten bucks out of the prize money and get trophies instead of ribbons or medals. I want a big ol plastic gold trophy when I walk! Its like T ball for adults! What is it about those trophies?? LOL!

Would you prefer a "wood, plastic, and gold-toned pot metal doo-dad on top" trophy from the Trophy and Engraving Store down the street, or a custom built trophy unique to that one competition?

 

[Lake Dogs]

Custom built; they tend to be VERY cool.

 

[Gowan]

As previously mentioned, our goals change over time. When you start out, any call is a thrill. Then you progress to winning a category, making the top 10 overall, then top 5, then getting a Grand. Once you hit that mark, getting into the Jack, etc. etc.

Somewhere along the way you find sponsors are needed to fund all this, and then a whole new set of goals come about. These days I find I am at least as focused on representing the brand for our sponsors as I am winning the contest. As long as the sponsors are happy, they fuel the financial engine that keeps the us on the road.

 

[Jason TQ]

In our first 2 MBN competitions we did backyard and got 7th in ribs in the first comp and then 2nd in ribs in our second comp and were chitting bricks. We had so much fun just being three and to do that well starting out (even if it just was backyard) was icing on the cake. Then our first KCBS came along and it was all professional and we had an awesome time again and finished dead ass last. That sucked, but the thrill of the competition along with having a great time with close friends means a hell of a lot.

Like many others have said the more I will compete the more I will want to win and the ratio of having fun to winning may change, but either way right now it is awesome regardless.

 

[jbrink01]

Custom built; they tend to be VERY cool.

Yep! The cool ones stay upstairs in plain sight. The cheapo's go to the basement.

 

[jbrink01]

And BTW - We received paper certificates 2 weeks ago. Really?!?!

 

[worthsmokin]

I want trophy's like Todd's from Pleasant Hill!

 

[Stoke&Smoke]

Great topic Todd!
We're still rookies to competing, at least in my eyes. So...
Does it have to be sanctioned? For us, yes
Does it have to be a qualifier? No
Does it have to have enough money? Being able to defray some of the expense by getting a call or two does make it easier to do
Does it have to have electricity? No
Does it have to have the right number of teams? Not sure what that means?
Does it have to have "Big Name Teams"? It's more fun if it does! To know you have beaten one of the best, at least in one category on one given day is an awesome feeling!
Does it have enough potential TOY points? Nah, we'll never be TOY
Does it have to be a World Championship? nah

We spend most of my vacation days in any given year either competing, getting ready to compete, etc. About 15 of my 20 days. If we do 6 comps, as in the last two years, 18, but this year we're sitting at least one out to fix equipment issues

We don't do it just to win, if we did, we'd be a miserable pair! We do it for the fun, the camraderie, the challenge, and yes, for the thrill of a call, on the occaisions we get them. It's the whole package...Oh, and...for the occaisional sightings like this one!:becky:

 

[bam]

Our 1 st goal is 4 first place finishes :boxing: 2nd have fun. :-D We always get our second goal the first goal has yet to come. ray: