{"id":917,"date":"2012-04-18T05:00:20","date_gmt":"2012-04-18T10:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/extraordinarybbq.com\/?p=917"},"modified":"2023-09-27T12:14:10","modified_gmt":"2023-09-27T17:14:10","slug":"competition-101-scoring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/extraordinarybbq.com\/competition-101-scoring\/","title":{"rendered":"Competition 101:  Scoring"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/extraordinarybbq.com\/app\/uploads\/2012\/04\/The-Master-at-Work.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-936 lazyload\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/199;border: 4px solid black;\" title=\"The Master at Work\" data-src=\"https:\/\/extraordinarybbq.com\/app\/uploads\/2012\/04\/The-Master-at-Work-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"MBN Judging Table\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/extraordinarybbq.com\/app\/uploads\/2012\/04\/The-Master-at-Work-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/extraordinarybbq.com\/app\/uploads\/2012\/04\/The-Master-at-Work.jpg 640w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-936\" style=\"border: 4px solid black;\" title=\"The Master at Work\" src=\"https:\/\/extraordinarybbq.com\/app\/uploads\/2012\/04\/The-Master-at-Work-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"MBN Judging Table\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" srcset=\"https:\/\/extraordinarybbq.com\/app\/uploads\/2012\/04\/The-Master-at-Work-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/extraordinarybbq.com\/app\/uploads\/2012\/04\/The-Master-at-Work.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a>I thought I would go into an expanded discussion about how scoring works in competitions.\u00a0 I&#8217;ve had a lot of questions on this piece, so this will help clarify some of this great unknown.\u00a0 I asked my cousin, Tim, to help on the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mbnbbq.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">MBN<\/a> side of things, as he is a trained MBN judge.\u00a0 We&#8217;ll tackle KCBS\/SLBS in another post.\u00a0 While there are similarities, there are also significant differences.\u00a0 I&#8217;m starting with MBN because this is what we&#8217;re facing very soon at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.memphisinmay.org\/worldchampionshipbbqcontest\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Memphis in May World Championship Barbeque Cooking Competition.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>MBN<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Each team has four blind judges and three on site judges (they do not cross over, i.e., every team is judged by seven different judges).<\/li>\n<li>All judges grade on the following categories: Appearance of Entry, Tenderness of Entry, Flavor of Entry, Overall Impression.<\/li>\n<li>In addition to those four categories, on site judges also judge you on Area &amp; Personal Appearance as well as Presentation.<\/li>\n<li>For all categories other than Overall Impression, judges will give you a score between\u00a06 and 10. Scores must be in whole numbers.<\/li>\n<li>For the Overall Impression score, the judge still scores between a\u00a06 and 10; however, the judge can score in decimal places (e.g. 9.9).<\/li>\n<li>Each on site judge visits three tents.\u00a0 Each blind judge scores four boxes.<\/li>\n<li>A score of 10 is not the best BBQ they\u2019ve ever had, it\u2019s the best BBQ they\u2019ve had that day.<\/li>\n<li>Each Judge (blind or on site) MUST GIVE at least one 10 per category before turning in their score sheets (e.g. if you are a blind judge and you are scoring four sets of ribs, at least one of those ribs must receive a 10 in appearance, at least one must receive a 10 in tenderness, at least one must receive a 10 in Flavor, at least one must receive a 10 in Overall Impression).<\/li>\n<li>A judge can give as many 10\u2019s as they want.\u00a0 They DO NOT have to differentiate the meat they are judging in ANY CATEGORY other than Overall Impression.<\/li>\n<li>The same score cannot be given by one judge in Overall Impression.\u00a0 That category is the differentiator in case the meat they are judging happens to all be excellent.\u00a0 Overall Impression is, therefore, the fairness factor.\u00a0 If a blind judge happens, by circumstance, to receive the four best ribs in the competition, then the judge can simply give all four teams 10\u2019s across the board, and in overall impression give one 10, a 9.9, a 9.8 and a 9.7.\u00a0 This will ensure that the best ribs still do well in the competition even though they all happened to be placed in front of the same judge.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Everyone knows that the only way to be truly fair in a competition is for the same person to judge all entries.\u00a0 Of course, in any competition, that\u2019s not possible, so the MBN adds a finals round to help with fairness.\u00a0 After your blind scores and on site scores are tallied up, the top three teams go head to head in a final round.\u00a0 The premise is, because of everyone being judged by different people, can you really differentiate between the top three without one judge seeing all three?\u00a0 The answer is no, so there is a final round.\u00a0 In the final round, four <em>new<\/em> judges (who have not judged anything that day to this point) visit each finals team and judges them again.\u00a0 All previous scores are wiped clean before finals so that the three finalists can start on an even playing field.<\/p>\n<p>So.\u00a0 That&#8217;s it.\u00a0 Not bad, eh?\u00a0 I hope this gives you a little insight into the intricate detail that goes into an MBN competition.\u00a0 When you place in the top half in one of these competitions it&#8217;s a huge accomplishment.<\/p>\n<p>Memphis is May is\u00a04 weeks away.\u00a0 Much more to come&#8230;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/extraordinarybbq.com\/app\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Cooks-Photo.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-943 aligncenter lazyload\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 335px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 335\/448;border: 4px solid black;\" title=\"Cooks Photo\" data-src=\"https:\/\/extraordinarybbq.com\/app\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Cooks-Photo.jpg\" alt=\"Memphis in May Trophy\" width=\"335\" height=\"448\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/extraordinarybbq.com\/app\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Cooks-Photo.jpg 478w, https:\/\/extraordinarybbq.com\/app\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Cooks-Photo-224x300.jpg 224w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 335px) 100vw, 335px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-943 aligncenter\" style=\"border: 4px solid black;\" title=\"Cooks Photo\" src=\"https:\/\/extraordinarybbq.com\/app\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Cooks-Photo.jpg\" alt=\"Memphis in May Trophy\" width=\"335\" height=\"448\" srcset=\"https:\/\/extraordinarybbq.com\/app\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Cooks-Photo.jpg 478w, https:\/\/extraordinarybbq.com\/app\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Cooks-Photo-224x300.jpg 224w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 335px) 100vw, 335px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I thought I would go into an expanded discussion about how scoring works in competitions.\u00a0 I&#8217;ve had a lot of questions on this piece, so this will help clarify some&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1011,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/extraordinarybbq.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/917"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/extraordinarybbq.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/extraordinarybbq.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extraordinarybbq.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1011"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extraordinarybbq.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=917"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/extraordinarybbq.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/917\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7325,"href":"https:\/\/extraordinarybbq.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/917\/revisions\/7325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/extraordinarybbq.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extraordinarybbq.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extraordinarybbq.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}