I've never done a competition, but How much does sponsor's money factor in? I was under a very ignorant assumption, from what TV edits, that competition smokers did stay up all night and tend the pit? If all the big boys do it I am assuming they have sponsors who may influence?
Not to throw darts, but....
- For the football analogy a drone throwing forward passes in football is a better analogy. Human intuition, art, and knowledge of science verse a programmed algorithm.
- For real BBQ being in an open trench it's not a complete fact. There is plenty examples through history of BBQ being done on stink pot iron contraptions. However, the common theme, including open earth pits, up until recently is a Pit Master controlling heat and smoke.
While I'm not a competition person, as someone who admires the craft, it seems like pellet smokers should be for the backyard.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but....
-The football analogy was was intended only to illustrate how people have, in the past, misconstrued "the rules" as preventing an action which was indeed allowable. For some time after that first pass there were those who still considered it to be outside the spirit of the competition, and far removed from the art, knowledge and science of a ground-game; any drudge could chunk a ball to a guy some yards distant.
I, rashly, jumped to the conclusion that posters thought the use of pellet cookers to be cheating, as in an actual violation of the rules, when no one actually used that term. But in a broad sense that is still the impression I'm left with: that it is an unfair advantage in the otherwise time-honored art of cookin' BBQ, and something akin to cheating, in spirit at least.
As for "real BBQ".....
My statement concerning trenches was intended merely as tongue-in-cheek, hoping to convey that one can always reduce a thing to what can be considered a more "pure" environment. However, stink-pot iron contraptions, regardless of how timeless their use might seem to many, can only go back as far as the Iron Age. Man's widespread control of fire (and cookin" BBQ couldn't be too far behind that) goes back to at least the Middle Paleolithic period.
I hear 'ya concerning pellet cookers in backyards. This is where mine is located. It produces very good food and in a completely boring manner: connect a power cord,fill a hopper, flip a switch, adjust a digital readout and watch the wisps of smoke rise. My wife loves it. I still prefer my horizontal iron contraption because it gives me a sense of connection with all those who have gone before, in maintaining a tradition of the pit master's art. The food tastes pretty darned good, too!
I personally feel that competitions would benefit from a separation of technologies which can be used in various "classes," just as black powder shooters compete in different classes, or even whole competitions, than those shooters using modern smokeless arms.
I think most of us would much rather contest a game of chess against another person, than against a computer.
And lastly, I feel the biggest problem with BBQing is them sumbitches what uses molded charcoal briquettes: that just ain't right.......:)