Judging Iron GM
People have asked how the judging worked at the Iron GM competition between Ryan Macklin and Brian Isikoff at Endgame 9/25. Here are the kind of things we did and the kinds of things we looked for, although your mileage may vary. Bruce Harlick was the other judge, and I hope he'll post his own views.
( Tell us how such an epic clash of titans may come about... )
( Tell us how such an epic clash of titans may come about... )
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They also have strange ovens that can cook much faster than mortal ovens, and a staff, and unlimited access to truffles and gold foil, apparently. And security robots and force fields and... oh wait, that's Warden Harvey's speech from Ft. Cheer, never mind.
There was an early proposal to unveil the game system at the start, but then it was decided that watching GMs read rule books wasn't really that entertaining, so the game system was selected in advance. On the other hand, the Iron GMs aren't given access to super-sharp knives, which may be a factor in the judging.
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There's a Food Network show called Chopped, in which four chefs are given three ingredients and half an hour to make an appetizer. Then they do it again for the entree and again for dessert, losing one chef each time. So that's purer. The ingredients are chosen to be tough to put together, though, which sort of means you're watching people improvise desperately rather than cooking at their best. I think that makes it not as fun.
Example: liverwurst, dandelion greens, catfish, and greek yogurt. Turns out you can make a few edible things with those elements, but it's not like they were getting to show off what they were good at. Still kind of interesting in that you're watching people improvise.
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I like the idea of the results being announced, but not the scored for a friendly competition. *grins*
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