The American Royal World Series of Barbecue, the largest barbecue contest in the world, was held from September 27 to October 1, 2023 at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kansas. However, the event was marred by errors that led to inaccurate results in some of the categories.
Wrong scores announced for Invitational Contest
The Invitational Contest, which is open only to teams that qualified for the event in 2021-2023, was held on Saturday, September 30. The teams competed in four categories: chicken, pork ribs, pork shoulder or Boston butt, and beef brisket. The results were announced on the same day, but some of the teams noticed discrepancies between their scores and the rankings.
According to Fox 4 News, one of the affected teams was Last Call Heroes BBQ, which had won the Grand Champion title in the Open Competition last year. The team’s owner, Jason Day, said that he was shocked when he saw that his team ranked 19th in the chicken category, despite having a perfect score of 180. He contacted the organizers and found out that there was a mistake in the scoring system.
The organizers admitted that there was an error in the software that calculated the scores and rankings for the Invitational Contest. They said that they were working to fix the issue and update the results as soon as possible. They also apologized to the teams and the fans for the inconvenience and confusion caused by the error.
Updated results show different winners for some categories
On Sunday, October 1, the organizers released the updated results for the Invitational Contest on their website. The new results showed that some of the winners for the categories had changed due to the correction of the error.
For example, in the chicken category, Last Call Heroes BBQ moved up from 19th place to first place, becoming the winner of the category. In contrast, Smokin’ Triggers, which had been announced as the winner of the chicken category on Saturday, dropped to second place. Similarly, in the pork ribs category, Big Poppa Smokers moved up from third place to first place, while Gettin’ Basted, which had been announced as the winner of the category on Saturday, dropped to second place.
The overall Grand Champion of the Invitational Contest remained unchanged, however. Boomerang BBQ from Lubbock, Texas, retained its title as the best team in the contest, with a total score of 701.7144 out of 720. The team also won the pork shoulder or Boston butt category and ranked third in the beef brisket category.
Teams and fans react to the errors and changes
The teams and fans who attended the American Royal World Series of Barbecue had mixed reactions to the errors and changes in the results. Some of them expressed frustration and disappointment over the mistakes that affected their scores and rankings. Others said that they understood that errors can happen and appreciated the efforts of the organizers to rectify them.
Jason Day, owner of Last Call Heroes BBQ, said that he was happy that his team’s score was corrected and that they won the chicken category. However, he also said that he felt sorry for Smokin’ Triggers, which had been wrongly announced as the winner of the category on Saturday. He said that he hoped that such errors would not happen again in future events.
Sterling Ball, owner of Big Poppa Smokers, said that he was glad that his team moved up to first place in the pork ribs category. He said that he had been suspicious of his team’s score on Saturday, as it was lower than what he expected. He said that he trusted the organizers to fix the issue and update the results.
Brad Leighninger, owner of Gettin’ Basted, said that he was disappointed that his team dropped to second place in the pork ribs category. He said that he had celebrated his team’s victory on Saturday with his family and friends, only to find out later that it was not accurate. He said that he felt cheated by the error and that it ruined his experience at the event.
Lance Moore, owner of Boomerang BBQ, said that he was relieved that his team’s score and ranking did not change after the correction of the error. He said that he was proud of his team’s performance and achievement at the event. He also congratulated all the other teams who participated in the contest.