Page 36 - July 2020 Barbecue News Magazine

Virtual Insight
As Spring and Early Summer came to the upper Midwest, BBQ teams were itching to get out and get cookin’! But get- ting together wasn’t possible due to shelter in place restric- tions. So the MN Barbeque Society Board members put their heads together to brainstorm on ways to get cooks connected and cooking. “How about a virtual BBQ con- test?” Thus, the BBQ Border Battle between Minnesota and Iowa was born.
Virtual BBQ contests exploded earlier this year as in-per- son contests fell like Dominoes. There were doubters. There were sponsors. Judges scratched their heads. Many Head Cooks said “I’m in!” before they even knew what was in- volved. Mostly there were a lot of questions about how to make it happen. The organizers, David Ellis of MN BBQ So- ciety and Trent Vanderheiden of Iowa BBQ Society, said “Let’s toss in a little technology and make it happen!”.
Sixteen teams entered the battle. Their first hurdle: how do I install Zoom on my computer or phone? Their second hurdle: Where do we get meat with a shortage? Their third hurdle: How do we cook competition BBQ for a virtual con- test?
By Kristen Spain
Facebook each week. If your virtual team moved on, each real-life team was assigned a different protein to present to the judges the next week. Guess what? You might be preparing and presenting your weakest category!
The teams encountered many new opportunities with this challenge: new team members, new technology, protein as- signments, obtaining meat during lockdown, and determin- ing how you make your BBQ look good thru photographs. The rewards: $$$, prizes, and an opportunity to talk with nationally known Matt and Sarah Walker of Boomerang BBQ and Rub Bagby of Swamp Boys BBQ. Teams certainly didn’t want to let down their respective society Presidents: Stan Dobosenski for MN BBQ Society and Kevin Brown for IA BBQ Society. The president from the losing state had to dress in football gear from a state that shall not be named. (Humiliating video exists on the internet.)
The Iowa Pork Queens (composed of real-life teams Q12 BBQ, T-Daddy’s BBQ, Team Crawford, Luscious Loins) won Grand Champion honors. T he Minnesota You Betchas (composed of real-life teams Chowtown BBQ, Montana Max BBQ, Hogline, Rum ‘N Smoke BBQ ) won Reserve
Being border states, teams travel to contests in each state. Some teams have met, some have not. So the organizers de- vised a way to mix up the teams. They assigned 4 real-life teams together to become a virtual battle team and gave them a distinguished name. Each real- life team was assigned one meat to prepare and present for each round of the battle. The four teams collectively turned in the necessary four entries for your virtual team. Your success or failure was broadcast Live on
Steven Chamberland- MeatYo-Qrs
Grand Champ honors. Fans from both states rooted for their teams and played along with some BBQ brackets.
After the dust settled, I won- dered how the teams and judges felt about the virtual competi- tion experience. So, I donned my investigative reporting hat, and hit the beat to get to the bottom line of this crazy thing they call virtual BBQ contests.
Contestant Perspective:
For 80% of the teams, this was their first virtual contest. The
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JULY 2020