American Royal Open Contest - Incorrect Results

[NoNotTheDuo]

https://kcbs.us/news_manager.php?page=17804

KCBS Letter of Apology Regarding American Royal Open Contest Results
On behalf of the Kansas City Barbeque Society (KCBS), I sincerely apologize to this year’s American Royal World Series of Barbecue Open competitors for the errors in tabulation and reporting of the Open contest results. KCBS accepts full responsibility for these serious errors.

Following a thorough audit of the four meat categories, inaccurate results were identified and corrected. We understand how this impacts teams and ultimately names a new Grand Champion. KCBS recognizes the gravity of this situation, takes full responsibility, and commits to understanding its root causes to implement preventative measures moving forward. KCBS reps worked diligently to identify and resolve the inaccuracies and are committed to providing transparent and accurate results to all participants and stakeholders.

To the competitors affected and our valued partner for 37 years, the American Royal, we extend our sincere apologies, recognizing the trust placed in us by the barbeque community. KCBS dedicates itself to upholding the highest level of transparency, fairness, and integrity. KCBS is grateful to our partners at the American Royal for their empathy and patience and to the incredible team of KCBS reps who led the auditing effort. We will patiently address all issues to educate everyone about what occurred and the steps taken to correct it.
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KCBS remains steadfast in our mission and will continue to learn from this experience to prevent reoccurrence. Official rankings for the American Royal World Series of Barbecue are now posted on our website. We appreciate the trust bestowed upon us by the American Royal and extend gratitude to their exceptional staff.

I'm not sure if the corrected results are posted yet or not.
Sucks for those competitors. Sucks for the American Royal. Sucks for KCBS.

I'll be interested in a root cause/description of the issue.

 

[NoNotTheDuo]

Quick notes from the Board Meeting on 10/9/2023:

American Royal scoring issue recap by Gray.
Timeline of events highlight: Scoring merge issue reported to AR staff at 3:30 with potential delay
Initial notice of delay in awards at 4:45 – scores needed to be rekeyed
AR given regular time updates who passed these to teams
Awards started at 6:45 with results announced as completed.
Posting of results delayed until Monday to verify some missing scores.
With problems determined once scores were posted, KCBS office performed complete audit and corrections on Tuesday for the Open Pork and Ribs categories, Wednesday for Chicken and Brisket and Thursday for ancillary categories. Official results were posted on Thursday.
Website delays due to size of AR results file being downloaded. Tech company made results static so downloads would run faster, ending delays.
Friday a couple of errors for teams not turning in categories made but not picked up immediately due to static reporting put in place Thursday. Updates to reports made Saturday.

 

[Juggy D Beerman]

Scott, Thanks for posting this. I am glad I did not hang around for the awards ceremony. If it started at 6:45, it would have been over after 8:00 when the ceremony was over. Then the big cluster of the remaining teams trying to leave through the lone exit of the speedway. I had just an 80 mile drive and if I had stayed for the "results", it would have been close to 11:00 pm by the time I got home. If I had the option to stay at the complex on Sunday night, I would have. I was tired and only had 12 hours of sleep the 72 hours I was there. The speedway required all teams to evacuate by 10:00 and this leaving time was extended one hour due to the awards running late.

The speedway people cut off the electricity promptly at 5:00 as promised even though the announcer was telling people at 5:00 that the awards were more than 30 minutes away. Teams were told to find some shade and stay hydrated. They were also told they would be given an announcement 30 minutes in advance as to when the awards would begin. All the team's tents and canopies had been put up and stowed. There was little shade to be had. No electricity to power fans or plug into the campers and RVs. It was 90F that day and people were hot. The electricity could have provided some relief from the heat. They could have postponed turning off the electricity for a couple of hours.

I have missed very few awards ceremonies at the Royal. I am glad I did not hang for this one. The results foul ups did not affect me, but I am sure there are winners who were not happy with the way things went down. I do have several other issues with the way the speedway handled the contest besides the one I mentioned. These issues are independent of the contest results.

 

[jimstocks53]

Kind of like getting the score wrong at the Superbowl. What an embarrassment. Glad for the real winners - sad for those whose joy turned south. Sounds like the circumstances led to the errors as in; 'Hurry up so we can get this wrong.' At least they had the huevos to fix it.

 

[cowboyupbbq]

My gut tells me they’re evaluating a new tech partner…

 

[NoNotTheDuo]

KCBS has posted a full Root Cause Analysis on their website: http://www.kcbs.us/docs/Comprehensive_Report_and_Action_Plan.pdf

Here's a short article about the report: https://www.thepitchkc.com/kansas-c...s-what-went-wrong-at-the-2023-american-royal/

I've gotta say - I'm pleasantly surprised at the level of detail, honesty, and self-reflection from KCBS. This document is pretty much what I had hoped for, but my expectations were pretty low. It would have been easy to try to sweep this under the rug and just not talk about it for a few months.


A summary of the corrective actions KCBS will take from the end of the PDF:

Chain of Command:
• Create a chain of command to implement necessary corrective actions for events requiring four or more Contest Representatives and data entry personnel.
• The Lead Contest Representatives will be determined for the judging and tabulation areas of events.
Process for Identifying and Removing Teams from the SCORE Contest File:
• Develop a communication policy with large events to identify teams that do not complete the contest check-in process
• Develop a coordinated approach to remove these teams from the contest file prior to the final data entry and tabulation.
Control of Contest-Related Data:
• Utilize new USB drives for events where the merge feature of SCORE will be utilized.
• Observe a standardized and proper naming convention for all drives.
• Retain and store all USB drives by event at KCBS headquarters.
Contest Results Change of Custody:
• All contest results must be printed from the Master Computer, defined as the computer used to merge results.
• No results may be printed from other computers used for data entry at the contest.
Contest Data Audit:
• Create pods of data entry personnel (3) and auditors (2) for contest data entry and audit where data mergers are required.
• Suggest two (2) pods for contests with up to 200 teams, three (3) pods for contests from 201 to 350 teams, and four (4) pods for contests with more than 350 teams.
Develop Procedures for Situations Requiring Re-entry of Contest Data:
• If re-entry of contest data is required, use a new SCORE entry data file instead of the original file.
Technical Support:
• For contests where data mergers are required, coordinate remote technical support to be available during the contest timeframe of data entry and tabulation.
SCORE Tabulation Software Updates:
Level One:
• Update SCORE code to auto-populate the number of entries per table when merging data
Level Two:
• Update SCORE code to provide feedback for tables of missing data
• Update SCORE software to allow for unlimited Alternate Table numbers
Level Three:
• Incorporate more in-depth logging to track data manipulation


The procedural items listed will be implemented for all large contests where data file mergers are required. The software updates will begin now, with the level one change occurring sometime in November and tested in December. The level two and three updates will occur in the next six months.

 

[Bill-Chicago]

Thanks for following up with the story developments Scott. I too, like how refreshing honesty and ownership of the problems seems to be with this Board.