Inconsistent Judging

[JohnMcD348]

Jimmy,
I can not help explain your particular scores.
Not my intent here and something I can not do.
And--not making excuses--"Just the facts" :lol:

But, here is what transpired with the Judges at LakeLand.
The Rep (Steve in this case) had 10 tables of judges. 100% Certified.
He first seperated any "signifigant others" to different tables.
He then identiifed Qualified Table Captains. I think (can not be sure) that all were KCBS Certified Table Captains. Mine was certified and he was outstanding and very professional.
He then identified all of the "first time KCBS" judges and had 11 of us to spread around. He placed one "first time KCBS" judge at 9 tables leaving one table with 2. That pair was me and another FBA Judge with some experience. She had LOTS of experience in the FBA.

All this means is that Steve tried to make the playing field as level as possible. And, he did it very well in my opinion.

From that, who knows why judges would be varying that much, except that they are people. We will never get around that! Sure wish we could.

I will not compare FBA and KCBS judging other than to say the switch is easy and just a matter of some procedural differences. My particular table at LakeLand appeared to be "reletively consistant" based on our great discussions after each round of Judging.
I saw no "wild cards" in my little 10% of the Judges.
The other 90%??? I was not there.

Sorry it did not work out for you, but Steve did his best to level it out.

TIM

ps--Have your knees recovered from the vending experience? :lol:

Pretty much what Tim said was the facts. I was one of those first timers there and the night of the class I had an ey opening experience. I'm just glad Tim was there next to me on Thursday and saaw what I was doing right and wrong. At my table I was the only one there who was inexperienced. Everyone else there had been judging for quite awhile. Even so most of our scores were pretty close, plus or minus 1 point. About the only that I scored better than the others was with one entry that was a little spicy. I loved it, thought it wa one of the better selections, the other judges were a little miffed by it. And I remember the last entry we talked about that actually tasted like Lighter Fluid. Other than that my table was pretty consistant and I don't think any other scores were below a 7. There were a couple of 1's passed out but they were for blatant mistakes on thepart of the entrant, it had nothing to do with the cooking.
Tim, I can't thank you enough for taking me under your wing and showing me the ropes. It was the best crash course, learning experience I've ever had. I can't say enough about it.

Thanks man...Alot.

 

[smokincracker]

Pretty much what Tim said was the facts. had. I can't say enough about it.

Thanks man...Alot.

Good to meet you JT
Jimmy

 

[The_Kapn]

"Tim, I can't thank you enough for taking me under your wing and showing me the ropes. It was the best crash course, learning experience I've ever had. I can't say enough about it.

Thanks man...Alot."

Glad you enjoyed Lakeland!
Niow, if Jimmy does not steal ya away :lol: --see you at Winter Haven.

TIM

 

[JohnMcD348]

"Tim, I can't thank you enough for taking me under your wing and showing me the ropes. It was the best crash course, learning experience I've ever had. I can't say enough about it.

Thanks man...Alot."

Glad you enjoyed Lakeland!
Niow, if Jimmy does not steal ya away :lol: --see you at Winter Haven.

TIM

I'll definitely be there. I Already got permission from the boss.

 

[spicewine]

It is a good thing that KCBS has a judging class because some of the people in the class did not have a clue and their scores were all over the place. Example--What is Kale?? I didn't know that that was Kale, I thought it was dark green lettuce. That was a 999 because I was hungry. I have to give it to the team who cooked for 84 potential KCBS judges. They had to cook marginal food ( not their best competion food) to give good and bad examples I wouldn't have wanted the job.

What I learned: Alot of the people who were there who weren't competition cooks had no clue what the teams have to endure to turn in great Q.

The guy next to me said man this is the greatest pulled pork that I have ever tasted!! I said that I have had pulled pork from no less than 12 teams that was better than this. He couldn't believe it. These are the up and coming that we at the KCBS will have to deal with. It was a good class and for the most part, the scores were relitively close, but there were some that were way High and those that were way Low , almost to the DQ level--2 and 3

It is all subjective---Roll the dice---Take the money and run

Spice

 

[JohnMcD348]

Spice brought up something that I forgot to mention before. I was really impressed with the cooking in my class. All the meats were done by one guy. He was the winner of last years BackYard contest and I was thinking afterward how impressive it was to be able to cook bad Que just so we could have an idea of what to look for. I think it shows talent to really be able to do 3 levels of cook even for demostration purposes.
And one other thing about the subjectivity of the judging. I agree whole heartedly. If Tim hadn't been there watching me, I probably would've really screwed things up in the real judging. During the class, he compared my scores with his and that helped me out alot being able to compare my idea of Que(my own that I'm not impressed with and the commercial stuff that I go to sometimes) and what real good competition stuff is. I originally was looking for something with alot of spice and flavor instead of looking at the meat itself and judging all the characteristics of the smoke and the meat. I also learned that what I like for Que is something that wouldn't probably even place in a competition. I know now that the way I like it would just piss off a table. Too hot, too spicy, maybe even too smokey. But hey, that's what makes this country so damn great.

 

[homebbq]

I've been there 100 times when my scores weren't what I had hoped for. Matter of fact it happened a couple weeks ago in your hometown at an FBA contest. I congratulated everyone and went on my way. I could have accused the FBA judges of not knowing what good BBQ was, but that would be a sore loser in my book.

Been there also (in Lakeland 2006) :wink:
Worst showing for me (overall) in SE US in the last 3 years... Oh well, thats the way it go's... You congratulate the winners, lick your wounds, and move on to the next contest... No reason to complain about the judging Jimmy, trust me, you will have days where you were given better scores than you thought you deserved, and you don't have to give the check back.. :wink:

 

[homebbq]

I spoke to a seasoned FBA judge and cook that took the KCBS judging class the night before and his comments to me painted a very bleak picture about what to expect. He was right!

I realize I am commenting late on these things, but sorry I have been busy...

Anyway, I am not sure who that was that you spoke to, but comments that I heard is that the real new ones were scoring real low... Which is actually fairly normal from what I have seen... I really don't think the low scorers are the biggest problem. I think the ones who consistently hand out high scores, are the ones who skew things a bit... I used to hear alot where someone would tell me (in FBA) they give a 8.0 or 8.5 or (KCBS) 7.0 for submitting something edible... Well thats rediculous, they owe to all teams to score the bbq they are presented based on its own merits.. Anyway, my 2 cents..

 

[drbbq]

Kevin,
Why do you think I dislike most judges.

 

[smokincracker]

I realize I am commenting late on these things, but sorry I have been busy...

Anyway, I am not sure who that was that you spoke to, but comments that I heard is that the real new ones were scoring real low... Which is actually fairly normal from what I have seen... I really don't think the low scorers are the biggest problem. I think the ones who consistently hand out high scores, are the ones who skew things a bit... I used to hear alot where someone would tell me (in FBA) they give a 8.0 or 8.5 or (KCBS) 7.0 for submitting something edible... Well thats rediculous, they owe to all teams to score the bbq they are presented based on its own merits.. Anyway, my 2 cents..

Thanks for the 2 cents.
I'm done bi#@#in.
I wasen't trying to be a puss.
I will see you Friday with a better attitude.
I'm still one cooker down.
I will have to try to get it done one one.

seeya