I've asked this elsewhere and will try here also. How many teams does typically effect? 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, more?
I would say it's of interest to more teams than that.
In 2008 (when KCBS started posting all the teams) we were 949th. We have tried to improve every year, and the TOY standings are a great way to track ourselves against our peers.
We remember breaking the top 100 for the first time.
We remember getting our first trophy for a top 25 category at the end of the year.
We remember how we had one category spend a couple of months in the top 10 this year before falling back to earth.
Today we are 46th overall with 3 of 4 categories in the top 50, one in the top 25. We aren't a top 5 team contending to win it all, but I feel that our TOY standing and year over year improvement is a reflection of our long BBQ journey of practices, contests, classes, and hard work. (and...being the most dangerous team in barbecue...a few trips to the ER :becky: )
There is more to BBQ than winning, to be sure. We have made a lot of friends and had a great time along the way. At the same time, we have put a lot of money into this crazy hobby, and it's nice to see we have made something of it.
TOY is not only important to the top 5.
(I also think the NEBS/Empire State/MABA system of assigning points based on the percentage of teams that you beat vs. arbitrary points has some merit to it, but I'm not sure I would want to see KCBS scoring change too much.)