Got 3rd place brisket at the Magnolia Fall Cookoff then tanked to 27th the next weekend, was it the rub or just luck?
Two weeks ago I placed 3rd in brisket at the Magnolia Fall Cookoff out of 42 teams, my best finish in 3 seasons of competing. Then last Saturday at the Piney Woods Shootout I dropped to 27th with the exact same rub, same wood, same temps, and pretty much the same cook timeline. I've been going back and forth on whether I just got lucky with the judges at Magnolia or if something in my process quietly changed, like my pit temp swinging 15 degrees or the humidity messing with my bark. Part of me says a real pitmaster can repeat a cook blindfolded, and part of me says these contests are half luck no matter how dialed you are. So I want to hear from the folks who have been doing this longer: do you chase consistency or do you chase podiums and just accept the swings? And if you chase consistency, what is the ONE thing you lock down first, fire management or meat selection?