Travelling to competition is an expensive proposition. Flights, cars, hotel, meals and time away from work and family are real-world expenses. The number of available, USBC-level judges is limited and this unreasonable cramming of the competitions means that those qualified judges just are not available to those competitions - unless someone actually thinks it’s reasonable for these people to travel six weekends out of eight with finite financial resources.

The USBC Committee and the SCAA need to take a heavier hand towards administering the regional competitions and spreading them out throughout the course of the competitive year. A quality event is more than just a drunken barista party on Saturday night, the judging must be tough, even and rock-solid - and this can only be achieved by bringing in qualified and experienced judges, who also need time to spend with their families and businesses.