A few years ago, I signed up to judge a KCBS contest in Albany, OR, when I showed up the KCBS Reps and Head Judge approached me and said that two teams had backed out at the last minute and they needed one team to make it a 25 team and a State Qualifier. Teams threw together meats and cookers for myself and another recruit to cook on, the organizer waived the entry fee and we pulled it off, came in third overall and my current teammate won GC and it was his ticket to the Jack and I got to cook with his team.
2009/2010 Left Hand Smoke set a goal to gain an Automatic invite to the Jack. JD and myself won 8 GC's but only 5 were Qualifying events, one was a Rib Cook and two were deal killers due to lack of teams and we got a lone Oregon bung that took us to the Jack. That just seems to be the way it is here on the Left corner of BBQ Land, contest saturation, the cost of competing and the lack of teams cooking as frequently. And every KCBS or PNWBA event I've ever cooked ever charged a per meat fee unless they were side categories. Maybe thats how they do it in other parts of the country with different sanctioning organizations, so go for it if they do, and have fun doing it.
I suppose my poor choice of words "or stay home" could be construed as being harsh, but the gist of my diatribe was to try to put things in perspective and give you a bigger overall picture of the comp scene and your not wanting to be overwhelmed cooking the 4 meats and the impact it could have on the other competitors who are out there trying to grab that ring. It was truly not my intention.
