Lake hit the nail right on the head. I'll expound further describing "one bite bbq".
In competition, you have to remember that the judges aren't going to be eating a full meal of your BBQ. They will have one bite (possibly up to 3, depending on how small the field is... more competitors = 1 bite only, or the judge will be full too quickly).
You have to stop and think about that. One bite. One bite from say, 15 different ribs. If your rib has a "average" flavor of smoke, spice, salt, etc... (for comparison, like a bite of ribs from Chili's) you have got to envision that MANY ribs will taste like that. A rib with a STRONG, UNIQUE flavor is going to resound with the judges. Something memorable and delicious, that's what the judges are looking for. Trigg serves a VERY different rib for dinners than he does for competition.
Related, I had my fiance sign up to judge chicken at the Hold em and Hit em a few months back down here in Houston (big comp, 130+ teams). She would be learning to cook chicken, so I thought this would be a perfect way to see what's out there.
16 boxes of chicken. Her findings? All of them tasted like chicken. *grin* All of them nearly identical. A couple were bad, a couple were -slightly- better. All had a little smoke flavor, but as she related the story, she was disappointed. She was looking forward to a bite of exciting chicken! It was a good lesson... the winning entry was NOT in her pool. All it would have taken was one of those 16 boxes to have something strong. Spicy, sweet, fruity, peppery.... anything, and they would have made the final table with ease.