I see this thread going in two directions... presentation being one and to garnish or not to garnish being the other. As you all know, presentation entails a LOT more than just garnish. We make our garnish look as nice as possible because I think that regardless of the rules, like Roo-B-Q'n states, some part of a judge's brain WILL take in the appearance of the garnish as a whole, even if it's a subconscious thing. It's like looking at a famous painting. You wouldn't put the Mona Lisa in a plain ol' black frame. Why would you put your work of art in a crappy looking frame of garnish?
As far as actual presentation of the meat goes, there are a LOT of ways to place it in the box and I firmly believe that some significant attention to detail here can and does make a difference between scoring well and scoring poorly. Remember, a couple of judges giving you even as high as 7's can kill your changes of winning a contest. Just as chefs at 5 star restaurants take great care in how their food looks on a plate, so should we as competition cooks take care of how our product looks in the box, maybe even more so. In those restaurants, diners have already decided on what looks good from the menu. At comps, we have to convince judges with our product when they first see it. To get 8's and 9's on appearance, you have to get the judges thinking "Wow, I can't wait to taste that!" We've discussed that before. So this is where it doesn't hurt to get creative. Look at your box from a judge's perspective. Be objective and think about whether that's something you yourself couldn't wait to taste. If not, re-do it!
And the best advice I can give on boxes is the easiest to follow. FILL THE BOX WITH MEAT! Not to the point of looking crammed in but just to the point of where you couldn't fit any more in without making it look bad. This means longer slices of brisket, not short ones that leave a couple of inches of green showing on each side. It means as many pieces of chicken as will fit, as many ribs and lots of pork. Try to find something unique in how you place it in the box. We're guilty of not doing this with chicken and brisket but ribs and pork we do experiment with. We've had great success with pork. Not so much with ribs.
Sometimes you can't control something that causes your brisket to dry out or your chicken skin to not tear cleanly. But you CAN control how your product looks in the box and make up a point or two that you figure you might be losing in other areas. Take control of it. Be an artist. Strive for 9's in appearance.
Cheerleader mod off! LOL