3 Eyz BBQ - 2007 Competitions Page

3 Eyz looked forward to our return to where it all began last year. We were hoping to defend our 1st place chicken from last year, but as we remembered from last year, this event is packed with some of the best teams. There were over 60 teams competing this year, even more than last year! The weather was awesome this year with plenty of sun and 60-70 degrees, even though it dropped to freezing overnight Friday night. We warmed up Friday night by competing in two side categories, including Anything Butt and Perdue Chicken. In the Anything Butt, we smoked some shrimp and presented them in the carved-out pineapple with some pineapple salsa. This resulted in an 8th place!! For the Perdue chicken, we were given two whole chickens and allowed to cook them how we wanted. We went with a pineapple rum chicken (see a trend here). Dan's trip to Jamaica seemed to have some effect on him. We ended up with a 39th in this event, oh well. Saturday was what we REALLY came for. We put together a solid overall performance, resulting in an 11th overall. This included an 11th in Chicken and a 12th in Brisket. After receiving no calls in the categories, we were thrilled to be named the MD State Champion as the best scoring MD-based team. We walked away with a sweet trophy!!!! Thanks goes out to Tracy, Michelle, Donnie, Lori, and Pam for coming out to keep us company and enjoying the food and weather with us.

Chicken	Brisket	Ribs	Pork	Overall	Anything Butt	Perdue Chicken
11th	12th	26th	30th	11th	8th	39th

Dan and Jason returned to their roots by heading out to this event solo. Unlike mot competitions, this event had turn-ins on Sunday, so Dan and Jason rolled to the event on Saturday AM. We quickly set-up and had a chance to talk to some of our friends and fellow competitors. We were next to some good friends, including our sponsor BBQ Guru, Ribs Within, and Casual Smokers (our neighbor in Salisbury). No extra categories for us meant more time to relax and socialize. Dan managed to find some cherries soaked in alcohol (thanks Jim!) and Jason managed to squeeze in a few games of quoits in between the rain. Saturday night came around and it was game time. Took some extra effort for Dan and Jason on Sunday without Will, but we focused and ended up with a great showing!! 4th place overall, including a 1st in chicken and a 4th in brisket!!! Our pork kept us from jumping to the top, but we were very happy to see BBQ Guru take Reserve Grand Champion (2nd overall). Congrats to Midnite Smokers for winning Grand Champion, and Vinny and the crew at Bad Bones BBQ for taking third. Unfortunately, we weren't able to take alot of action photos, as we were too busy with only the two of us. But, we have quite a few of our friends winning awards.. Enjoy!!!

Due to our grand championship at the York, PA contest in 2006, 3 Eyz was invited to compete in this prestigious event held in the unofficial BBQ capital of the world. This weekend featured an invitation-only cookoff on Saturday featuring 52 teams, including some of the best teams in the country. The next day featured an open contest with over 200 teams competing!!!!! 3 Eyz was very honored to have been invited and headed "west" to throw our hat into the fire. We knew we were in the big time when we arrived to find a team two spots down from us had their own live band playing in their space. Unbelievable set-up, including live bands, sponsor parties with DJs, hot air balloons, fire works two nights, etc. Unfortunately, we had to deal with on and off rain and thunderstorms throughout the weekend. We started cooking Friday night for the Invitational, and brought our A game for the contest. Sitting at the awards, we were like little kids meeting rock stars looking at some of the celebrities of true BBQ. We were thrilled and shocked to get two calls, including a 3rd in Chicken and a 4th in Ribs!!! Even more impressive was that our Chicken score was tied for 1st, but we took 3rd based on tiebreakers. Similarly, our Ribs tied for 3rd and we took 4th based on tiebreakers. We finished a very respectable 29th overall out of 52 teams. After taking in the finish, we had to turn it around and get ready to do it all over again for the Open.

Although we felt that we put together some good BBQ, the judges didn't quite feel the same. We wound up 123rd out of 212 teams. Again, not terrible considering the competition, but we were hoping for a better showing. Most of our categories finished near the middle of the pack, with our Ribs being our strongest. Overall, we had a great time, met some wonderful people, and learned how the midwest likes to do BBQ events!!! Congrats to all that got calls, including Tuffy of Cool Smoke with a perfect 180 in Pork in the Open and Pellet Envy with a perfect 180 in Ribs in the Invitational. Perfect scores are very few and far between in the BBQ world! Also, thanks to our neighbors Rabbit Gulch Farm for boosting our confidence and keeping us company. They did very well in several of the side categories, including a 1st in Appetizers and a 1st in Beans!!! Complete results from the event are posted on the Great American BBQ website and can be found by clicking on the link above.

This event has been cancelled for 2007. Rumor has it that it may be back on for 2008. Stay tuned for next year...

Two months off, high heat and humidity, a thunderstorm, 40 teams, and some stiff competition = GRAND CHAMPION!!! 3 Eyz BBQ won our 2nd grand championship placing very highly (top ten) in all four categories, including a 1st in chicken! Jason, Dan, and Will were joined by our newest team member Wayne, who switched over from brisket taster to "official" team member. Michelle and Tracy also came on Saturday. Tracy wound up judging the event as they were short on judges. It was great to see some of our BBQ friends, including Tuffy from Cool Smoke, Brian from Shanendoah Q Crew, Kenny from Dizzy Pig who was helping out Brian, Free range BBQ, Pigheaded BBQ, IN10SE, etc. We also got to meet some other teams for the first time. The win in this event was a good way to start off the 2nd leg of the BBQ season, with Bel Air, New Holland, and Dover still to come.

Once again, we looked forward to the event in our "back yard", close to us. 51 teams showed up for this event, including some of the best in the area. The heat showed up Friday, but Saturday wound up being a fantastic day. A large number of folks showed up for this event and the lines for the vendors were very long all weekend. Although we didn't have our strongest event, we were happy to come away with a 16th place overall. Better news is that we may have finally turned our pork around with a 6th place, and our 5th place at the prior competition. Our usually strong chicken scored very low at this event, to the surprise of the team. We're not quite sure what happened there, but we're hoping to get back to the normal ways at the next event. Thanks to our friends and families that stopped out to visit.

A beautiful setting and a gathering of alot of other BBQ teams lead to a wonderful late summer weekend. Same spot as last year, with the same usual cast of other teams. An excessive heat warning on Saturday made it extra challenging! This contest always offers a great chance for teams to socialize with each other with a covered dish social on Friday night. Mid-Atlantic BBQ Association provided breakfast on Saturday. Although we didn't get a call in any of the categories, we finished a very respectable 18th out of 72 teams! Unfortunately, we didn't have much of an opportunity to take any photos from this event.

Dan decided late in the season to make the trip out to WV for this first year, non-KCBS sanctioned event. Unlike the previous events of the year, the categories for this contest were only chicken, ribs, and a cooks choice. The nice thing about this was that Dan could arrive late the night before and not have to start cooking until early Saturday morning. Our spot was under a nice canopy of trees next to a creek. We were set up next to Dixie Bones and My Side of the Mountain who treated Dan to some tasty treats. Some 1st-year issues to work out, but other than that it was good. They are planning on growing it and becoming KCBS sanctioned next year, which should result in it being a state championship. We did very well, finishing 3rd out of 23 teams!!

A super last minute entry, 3 Eyz competed in this event in place of Dixie Bones. Dan was originally going to help out Dixie Bones, but after a last minute conflict from the Dixie Bones crew, they generously let 3 Eyz cook in their spot. A nice event with 20 team. We battled the elements a bit with rain Friday night and wind on Saturday. Shotgun Fred from BBQ Guru came out to help us out. We were set up next to some friends of ours and got to spend time with them, as well as meet some new teams. This was also the first contest that we had our rubs to sell. Thanks to Real Deal BBQ for being our best customer of the weekend by purchasing 7 rubs!!! As far as the contest goes, we did fairly well, finishing 7th out of 20 teams.

START YOUR.......errrr... PITS!!!! This event took place inside the monster mile at Dover Speedway and had 84 teams!!! Other than some rain and strong wind that came through Friday, the weather was great! However, alot of teams lost their canopies due to the wind. We were fortunate to keep our intact. We were hoping to end the 2007 season on a high, and we did that with a 14th overall, including a 3rd in ribs and a 7th in brisket! Walked away with a few more awards to end a great 2007 season!