CAID A&S ... the foreign spy's report

[j_i_m_r]

Last weekend I went to CAID's A&S Pentathalon. I've been in the SCA since AS XII but I've never been to CAID before. Yes, I've been to Southern California, but not to CAID. Anyway, I had a wonderful time

Comments

[klwilliams]

I've heard sneering at this all-day approach as being too much like a county fair, except that there's a reason we have these kinds of things at a county fair: the venue makes it visible, it's a well-known time and place, and it's a good place for a lot of like-minded people to get together. I would have entered far more A&S competitions if we'd had something like this.

[helblonde]

I'm curious about the different levels. How does that affect the scoring (aside from being gentler to apprentices)? How does each level max out?

There have been times when I'd have much prefered to have a judging conversation instead of filling out a form on my own.

Thanking care of the judges sounds great. Having an event dedicated to the competition makes that easier, I'm sure.

Do you know how early the competitions are announced? Do entrants actually have two years to prepare? That sounds fabulous!

[ursule]

Caid's system feels very different from An Tir's, actually. The big differences are lack of face-to-face judge/entrant interaction, the broad range of ambition in items entered (many of the apprentice-level items in Caid's Pentathlon would be considered inappropriate for Kingdom A&S in An Tir), and the way the category system encourages entrants to game the system & try lots of things in weird categories.

[j_i_m_r]

In what way would the entries be inappropriate? Does An Tir have some sort of pre-qualification system?

[ursule]

There's no formal qualification system, but there is a general sense that this is the kingdom CHAMPIONSHIP, and if you're going to enter, you had better be ready to compete at a kingdom level. "Get some experience entering baronial or shire competitions first" is pretty common advice.

[doll_paparazzi]

After judging culinary like you, at Pentathlon, I agree with you on the exterior/interior thing. Hroerk was awesome at explaining the differences, but to me and when I've spoken to chefs, usually it is visual (the overall presentation, which includes the plating, etc), the taste, texture and aroma. Visual has color within it. To me, I feel the form could be simplified and with four entries, again, it took us 2 and a half hours to judge. Way too long

[lady_guenievre]

Atlantia's forms separate complexity from documentation as well - not just for Pentathlon, but in general (we don't precisely HAVE a Kingdom A&S champion, though we do have a Kingdom Arts and Science Festival).

It's always made sense to me as the complexity score let something like, oh, (not a period example but it's the first thing that comes to my head) a cassoulet where you made and smoked your own sausage, grew the beans, made the confit, etc get more points than a roast chicken... without taking into account how period either one was.