OMG,
Any cannabis judging contest is intrinsically problematic for any number of reasons.
First of all, if you're going to open up your contest to all comers, then how are you going to limit the number of entries?
For example, what's to stop "Jogro genetics" from entering all TEN of its strains at the same time, hoping for a lucky win? Multiply that by 30 hopeful breeders, and now you've got an utterly unmanageable situation. Its pretty tough to legitimately judge even 30 strains of cannabis within a short timeframe; 100 or 200 strains just isn't possible.
In order to have any reasonable controlled contest, you HAVE to limit the number of entrants somehow. How are you going to do that? Is your "cup" going to be by invitation only? If so, so much for your open contest! If you limit your entrants to "name" breeders, then you're basically excluding all the "little guys"" that might have the more interesting (and more overlooked) lines.
Next issue, how are you going to ensure that the strains are as billed by the entrants?
For example in the Amsterdam High Times contests, AK47 took second place Indica cup in 2003, but also second place sativa cup in 1999. If you think about it, that really shouldn't be possible, but I guess HT figures everyone is too stoned to notice these things or care. The bigger problem is that there is really no way to control the specimens to really know what's what. Just because I say "Jogro indica" is an Indica, doesn't mean it is, and just because I say "Jogro indica" is my own line, doesn't mean it is.
It has been alleged in the past that some samples entered into HTCC contests consisted of weed purchased at retail from other growers. Outright line theft has also been alleged. Again, pretty tough to screen against that sort of fraud. Its also been alleged that the entire contest is rigged from the start. I don't have firsthand knowledge, but I will say that in my opinion, the HTCC is more about the magazine promoting its advertisers (and itself) than truly finding the most outstanding strains in any given year. If you're a breeder, its not going to be worth your time and energy to even bother trying to enter a contest like this if you believe that your herb won't really get a fair shake.
In contrast, its also not worth entering a small or private contest that nobody has heard of that yields no exposure. Even if you were to win, so what? If it doesn't help you sell beans, then its not worth the several days to weeks of your time and potentially thousands of dollars of out of pocket costs for you to fly to place "X" with a stash of weed to enter.
Next, on judging, bluntly, most members of the public aren't really in a position to really be good judges. It actually does take quite a bit of experience and skill to do it right, again for any number of reasons. If you open the judging up to any stoner with $50 in their pocket, then lots of "judges" unaccustomed to the really potent strains will just smoke themselves into a stupor on their FIRST sample. How valid could that sort of "opinion" be?
Jorge Cervantes has described at length how to be a good judge. His method is that you first have to just screen all the samples in their dry state. Anything not properly cured or manicured gets immediately rejected as does anything without good "bag appeal". Then the buds are given a "sniff" test, and only the top few most interesting or unique ones are left for actual smoking over a few days. That's probably realistically the most fair way to judge, but if you think about it, it leans towards the more unusual strains, and is necessarily going to reject a lot of really excellent stuff.
I'm not even going to get into the fact that many/most of the strains ultimately share the same genetics anyway. EG its been alleged that Super Silver Haze and Jack Herer are effectively the same strain.
Again, my take on these contests, is that they're good vehicles for generating publicity for breeders and others in the industry, but effectively meaningless otherwise. "Best strain" ought to be some combination of high, scent and flavor, and all of these things are highly subjective and personal. Not to take anything away from the guy, but if you want to know what the "best" strain is, are you going to trust Jorge Cervantes nose/and brain or your own? I wouldn't pick my favorite beer based on what some silver-ribbon panel in Munich says; at best I might give their top pick a shot.
My take is that if you want to find the "best" strain, go to a big dispensary in CA (or fly out to a hash house in Amsterdam) with $1000 cash, buy twenty (or more) samples of everything that piques your interest, and spend a few weeks trying them all out. After that, you'll know "what's what".
