From a guy who proudly owns, cooks on, and competes using his VERY old Lang 84 RF offset:
While on the one hand I like the idea of an old-school-only back-to-basics as-level-a-playing-field-as-possible competition as possible, I reject the notion that GURU's and Stokers and set-it-and-forget-it smokers do anything other than give the cook some time to sleep. That time, IMHO, comes at a price, and that price is actually the quality of the BBQ. IMHO it's actually harder for the guys with the easier-to-operate equipment the superior quality BBQ that can be and is produced using an offset. The set-it-and-forget-it fans do get more sleep, but even that can come at a cost. I've seen a few of these go up in flames during the middle of the night; one darned near killed everyone sleeping... I've seen others lose all power and sit there cooling all night vs. cooking. I would suggest that it all comes at a price.
Me; it's all about the quality of the end product, and the ability to produce that end product consistently, and for me that's a well tuned, properly operated, RF offset. I dont envy the other guys at all. It's like the very first competition I RGC'd and only by 0.016 of a point to GC, and I did it using 2 Weber Silver 22's and a Brinkmann offset. Yeah, most of those guys had more sleep than I did, but they weren't smilin' nearly as big as I was at the end... Frankly, not for one moment did I feel as if I was at a disadvantage. If anything, they underestimated their competition.
That's a long winded B.S. laiden write-up to say: It's not the smoker; it's the cook.