TuscaloosaNews.com has an article about today’s Krystal qualifier, which did not start at its expected time:

That craziness almost derailed the final Krystal Square Off qualifier Saturday. Scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m. on the Quad, the event was delayed nearly half an hour as event planners waited for the arrival of world champion eater Joey Chestnut, who was stuck in game-day traffic.

The article also reports that Joey ate 83 burgers and not the 87 on KrystalSquareOff.com and IFOCE.com

If the contest started without Joey, Jim Reeves would have the wild card slot taken by Tim Brown.

TuscaloosaNews.com also has footage of the 2 minute prequalifiers (from Paul Barlow)

RollTide.com also has some videos (from Paul Barlow)

footage of entire contest
Tim Brown post-contest interview

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(From Shazam) The IFOCE rankings have been updated, but the only apparent change is swapping Pat Bertoletti and Takeru Kobayashi in the #2 and #3 slots.
(Cached rankings)

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PWInsider has a writeup of Thursday night’s TNA wrestling matches on Spike TV:

Crystal is in the interview area with Crazy Legs Conti, a Major League Eating champion. Conti says that the show is going to air after Impact. He says that there will be a rematch between Kobayashi and Joey Chestnut.

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Don “Moses” Lerman reports that his nephew Ryan Urban successfully completed the Triple King challenge at Fatburger. He says they will be attempting every eating challenge in the NY metro area over the next year.

Lerman has the following open letter in another post:

In the last few weeks I’ve received both fan mail and hits on my site from every corner of the globe , I want to take this time to thank my loyal fan base and readership. I promises that I will do everything in my power to shed the lbs. and compete once again , I will be a back …and thats for the record!

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From KrystalSquareOff.com

Joey breaks Pats qualifier record by 2.

The Krystal wild cards are:

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The field for today’s Krystal qualifier at the University of Alabama has been posted. Ranked eaters in that list are:
Joey Chestnut
Tim Brown
Juris Shibayama
Loren Yarbrough
Marco Marquez
Super Paul Barlow

The page describes the wild card scenarios:

Shibayama’s one Krystal advantage gives him the tie-breaker should he and Brown tie for a Wildcard Spot. To earn a Wildcard, Shibayama must finish with 41 or more Krystals, or he must eat 40 Krystals and Brown finish with 40 or less. To claim a Wildcard, Brown must finish with 41 or more Krystals, or 40 Krystals and finish ahead of Shibayama.

Full results from the Jackson, MS qualifier have yet to be posted.

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BeautifulBrian.com has a page of eaters and celebrities they resemble.

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Article about corny dog winner (from Rhonda Evans)
Oyster Bay, NY Oyster eating contest
Brandeis U eating contest
Harvard Law eating contest
Web MD video about El Wingador

Also, today is Pat Philbin’s and Russ Keeler’s birthday

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Here are some screen captures from the “Wedges & Wings” contest

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The October 27 taquito contest that was originally in the Arizona State Fair list of attractions has been deleted. It does not appear in the list of contests either.

The contest is still present in the Yahoo cache

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Oct 20, Lancaster PA Whoopie Pie contest (from Megamunch)
Oct 20/ 27, Nov 3 Arizona State Fair pie eating contest
Oct 21, Jacksonville, FL pizza contest, $100 first prize, 5 entrants will be chosen at random
Oct 28 Pittsburgh, PA wing contest, $20 entry fee, first prize 2 Steeler tickets

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Wings Contest, 8 minutes

1. Pat Bertoletti, 4.1 lb.
2. Joey Chestnut, 4.05 lb.
3. Takeru Kobayashi, 3.12 lb.
4/5 Tim Janus
4/5 Rich LeFevre
6. Juliet Lee, 2.5 lb., at bottom of leader board most of contest
7. Erik Denmark, 2.34 lb.
8. Hall Hunt, 2.19 lb.

I think this is the first time that Kobayashi has finished out of the top 2 in any contest.

Wedges Contest, 8 minutes
1. Tim Brown, 3.74 lb
2T Allen Goldstein, 3.09 lb
2T Arturo Rios, 3.09 lb.

The news articles said that Bertoletti won $25,000, but no prizes were mentioned during the program.

The program will be rerun at 7pm Saturday.

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Liz reports that Krystal has asked her to be a counter for the Krystal Square Off finals.

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(From Jill Stoler) A slideshow of the black and white cookie eating contest held at the Bronx can be viewed at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1930283492704953611&hl=en The eating contest pictures start about 4 minutes in.

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A liveblog of the “Wedges & Wings” program follows after the jump
Read the rest of this entry »

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A page about tonight’s MLE Chowdown has been set up on the Spike TV website. The page has videos of the top 10 commercials and profile pages of some of the competitors who are listed as (current IFOCE ranking in parentheses):

Joey Chestnut(1), Takeru Kobayashi(2), Pat Bertoletti(3), Tim Janus(4), Rich LeFevre(8), Hall Hunt(9), Juliet Lee(10), Erik Denmark(12), Arturo Rios Jr.,(13) Allen Goldstein(14), Tim Brown(15), Micah Collins(17), Eric Livingston(21), Juris Shibayama(23), Chris Abatsas(25)

Bob Shoudt was listed in the original press release, but apparently did not compete.

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KrystalSquareOff has updated information about the final qualifier. The site and date of the Alabama Krystal 8 minute qualifier has been changed from October 21 in Birmingham to October 20 in Tuscaloosa. Prequalifiers will be held Friday at a Tuscaloosa Krytal.

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Joey Chestnut is currently on the front page of TuscaloosaNews.com Some of the world records listed on Joey’s picture (jalapenos, waffles) are not actually world records.

There is also an article about Joey Chestnut in al.com

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CaymanNetNews.com has an article about Conchquest 07:

The day will culminate with the official Cayman Islands conch fritter eating contest.

96.5 CayRock Programme Director and Morning Show Host Ben Maxwell said: “We hope to attract contestants both locally and internationally. The current conch fritter eating record is 45 fritters in six minutes – held by ‘gentleman’ Joe Menchetti.”

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Crazy Legs Conti discussed his Jackson Krystal qualifier video on a Mississippi radio staion.

Youtube has a video of Conti getting his dreadlocks braided at http://youtube.com/watch?v=u6vdqlICfsE

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After attending an Offspring concert in Japan, Kobayashi met up with the group in Las Vegas. He has also posted some pictures from his trip. There is no information about the “Wedges & Wings” contest, spoilers or otherwise.

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TuscaloosaNews.com reports on the Krystal prequalifiers which will be held at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa:

On Saturday, Chestnut will demonstrate his winning jaws at the Krystal Square Off qualifying competition on the Quad before the Alabama-Tennessee game. The winner qualifies for the Krystal Square Off finals in Chattanooga on Oct. 28.

The preliminary trials are open to anyone who thinks they can put it away without having it come back up, and the top 10 will go on to compete on Saturday. But would-be competitors should know who they’re up against: Chestnut’s personal best is 91 Krystals in eight minutes. The current record is 97, held by Japanese eating wunderkind Takeru Kobayashi, who, until this year, was also the six-time world champion of the Academy Awards of competitive eating: the Nathan’s Famous International Hot Dog Eating Contest held in Coney Island each Fourth of July.

IFOCE.com has more information about the prequalifiers

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A recent megamunch blog entry says:

My point is, if you begin to rate eaters based on these categories, you can begin to see why some eaters were chosen for the Spike contest and how some eaters are actually more valuable performers than higher ranked guys like Joey Chestnut and, dare I say, Takeru Kobayashi? I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, If I were starting a new CE league and had the opportunity to draft one MLE eater, it would be either Eater X or Crazy Legs.

The new poll asks what eater you would choose as the cornerstone of a new competitive eating organization. You can choose whatever factor you like: current eating ability, projected future eating ability, stage presence, likability, etc. The top 12 ranked IFOCE members were listed along with 3 AICE and 3 Japanese eaters. The poll allows a maximum of 20 choices.

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The Naughty American has an article (contains spoilers) previewing the “Wedges & Wings” contest in which Joey Chestnut and Pat Bertoletti discuss female fans and cheating techniques.

Bertoletti claims that, while the competitions are closely monitored by the International Federation of Competitive Eating (IFOCE) to prevent this sort of thing, there are ways to get around it.

“The dishonest people will push the rules a little bit. If it’s not stated in the rules, people will do it,” he said.

While the issue of cheating with drug use is a major problem with other sports, the IFOCE does not currently conduct drug testing on competitors.

“As far as drugs that would give me an edge, I haven’t found any yet,” Chestnut says. “But I’m trying.”

The Cleveland Free Times has a brief article about Chris “the Mad Greek” Abatsas’ participation in the wedges contest.

The Las Vegas Review Journal has pictures (captions contain spoilers) from the potato wedges contest.

Juliet Lee has a trip report.

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Steakbellie has posted writeups of his Chicago jalapeno contest experience and his participation in the “Wedges & Wings” contest (no spoilers)

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