Here are today’s results from the Krystal Square Off III finals and the difference between the eater’s previous personal best:

Congratulation to everyone for some amazing performances. The top three eaters beat their previous records by an amazing 28, 29 and 28 burgers. All eaters living someplace besides Northern Virginia at least tied his or her previous best. Kobayashi led most of the contest, but Joey was on his heels the entire way. For KSO IV, they should have signboards with three digits, at least for Kobayashi and Joey.

I am curious what happened with Sonya. She was in the 3rd position after a minute and a half with 22 and a significant gap between 4th, but she seemed to hit a wall at that point and fell out of the top five after three minutes so I am not sure what happened to her after that point.

I hope we do not have to wait seven months to see Kobayashi challenge the top American eaters. Kobayashi at the Wing Bowl would be an interesting possibility, but I assume he would want a more objectively judged contest with better crowd control.

The Times Free Press has an article about the contest

updated A list of the top 5 every 30 seconds follows after the jump:
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I will not be able to blog this afternoon due to other commitments. Krystal-lover will have a live blog of all the events in Chattanooga, not just the telecast, so I doubt my absence will be missed.

krystaladventure is a blog I just discovered which has some posts about the Square Off finals and qualifiers I you need some KSO material to read while you are waiting for the telecast to begin.

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The Chattanooga Times Free Press has a preview of todays Krystal Square Off finals. Kobyashi says his main bottleneck in eating Krystal burgers is removing them from their boxes.

Krystal-lover has some pictures from Friday’s press conference

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The USA Today TV Sports column has a section on the Krystal Square Off which says that Paul Page, who has appeared on several recent IFOCE broadcasts, will handle announcing duties for the Krystal Square Off III finals. Let’s hope that Page is correct in his assessment in the dangers of competitive eating versus auto racing.

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Liz & Krista have written a post for truefan about their new system for fantasy competitive eating. The system will have more subjective scoring than conventional fantasy sports. (Krista has also started working for the NFL, so if you need Super Bowl tickets, that’s who to ask 🙂 )

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The Krystal Square Off odds on bodog.com have changed considerably since betting began. The current odds for the top 5 favorites:

Takeru Kobayashi 1/7
Sonya “The Black Widow” Thomas 5/1
Chip “The Phenom” Simpson 11/2
Tim “Eater X” Janus 11/2
Joey “Jaws” Chestnut 4/1

The opening odds were:

Takeru Kobayashi 1/1
Joey “Jaws” Chestnut 3/2
Sonya “The Black Widow” Thomas 7/3
Chip “The Phenom” Simpson 9/2
Tim “Eater X” Janus 4/1

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The new poll asks who you think will win the Krystal Square Off III final. Paul Barlow has his predictions on his myspace blog.

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krystal-lover announces that a 2 minute Krystal eating contest for 4 2 person teams will be held before the main event. Teams will be chosen at random from people signing up during the pre contest festivities. The contest will be televised on ESPN2 and will offer the following prizes:

First Prize is $100/person
Second Prize is $50/person
3rd Prize is $25/person

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The Chattanoogan has the schedule for all the events to be held in conjunction with the Krystal Square Off Finals. The festivities will start at 2pm with a tailgating party. The contest will be broadcast live at 4:35 pm.

updated The Chattanooga Pulse also has a finals preview.

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(From Greg Godden:) The online sportsbook bodog.com is taking bets on Saturday’s Krystal Square Off III finals. The top 5 favorites in that contest are:

Takeru Kobayashi 1/1
Joey “Jaws” Chestnut 3/2
Sonya “The Black Widow” Thomas 7/3
Chip “The Phenom” Simpson 9/2
Tim “Eater X” Janus 4/1

You can also bet on whether anyone will eat more than 70 burgers and will the entire field eat more than 645 burgers (the sum of everyone’s qualifying totals is 626 burgers)

updated TheOnlineWire says Dale Boone is the best bet.

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The video from the Jackson, MS Krystal qualifier is now available. The video shows what appears to be the start of Justin Mih’s reversal at the end of the contest, but Erik Denmark’s reaction to it has been edited out. Crazy Leg Conti had an impressive last second surge, eating four burgers in about the last ten seconds, which has been overlooked due to the contest controversy.

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Not only will the Krystal Square Off finals be televised on ESPN2 on October 28 at 4pm eastern, 1pm Pacific, it will be followed by reruns of the two other televised contests: The Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating contest finals and the Johnsonville Bratwurst contest. The Krystal Square Off finals will be rerun on Oct 29 on ESPN at 3pm eastern, noon Pacific.

I was afraid that the Krystal Square Off program would be preceded by a game that would run long and eat into the broadcast time, but a college football scoreboard show is scheduled before, so if the noon football game runs long, the scoreboard show will be truncated and the Krystal Square Off should start as scheduled.

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The new poll asks who you think will improve the most in the Krystal finals over his or her qualifying performance.

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Erik “the Red” Denmark has a blog entry about his participation in the Jackson, MS Krystal qualifier and Justin Mih’s disqualification from it. The Hangman noted that somebody named “Tanker” from NYC wrote a forum post on the Krystal Square Off qualifier in Perry, GA claiming that Justin Mih should have been disqualified for dunking his buns too long. The contest video can be viewed at krystalsquareoff.com. The Hangman and Loren “Bubba” Yarbrough ate next to Justin Mih at that event.

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Full results from the Jackson qualifier have yet to be posted. If you competed in the contest, or know any other results, you can enter your total into the eatfeats database

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The new poll asks how many burgers the winner of Krystal Square Off III will eat. (There will be other Krystal polls before the contest)

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krystalsquareoff.com has the list of entrants for the qualifier at the Mississippi State Fair tomorrow. Expected ranked eaters include:

Crazy Legs Conti
Erik Denmark
Hall Hunt
Jim Reeves, having difficulty flying out of Buffalo
Larry McNeil
Arturo Rios, ate 17 burgers in 2 minutes
Justin Mih

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As far as I know, Sonya Thomas is the only woman to compete in any Krystal Square Off III qualifer, but that might change next year. The Krystal Lover’s blog has entries about a former Miss Chattanooga (and top 10 finisher for Miss Tennessee) who enjoyed $20 of food from Krystal with another female friend in a single meal.

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krystalsquareoff.com has a list of the expected out of town entrants in the Krystal qualifier at the Mississippi State Fair on Sunday. Three of the leading wild card contenders, Crazy Legs Conti, Erik “the Red” Denmark and Justin Mih will battle for the last remaining berths. Hall Hunt will come if he can find transportation. Buffalo Jim Reeves will travel south to try to threepeat the qualifier. Larry McNeil is also expected.

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KrystalSquareOff.com has an extremely detailed list of wildcard scenarios similar to late season NFL playoff possibilities. In all scenarios, Crazy Legs Conti must go to the final qualifier at the Mississippi State Fair on Sunday and put up a solid total to advance to the finals.

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From krystalsquareoff.com

Krystal Square Off qualifier, Perry GA
1. Dale Boone 37, triumphant return from suspension
2. Justin Mih 36, moves into last wildcard position
3. Hall Hunt 33

The wildcards with 1 contest left are Rich LeFevre, Seaver Miller, Arturo Rios and Justin Mih. Arturo Rios, Justin Mih and Crazy Legs Conti are all tied with 36, but Crazy Legs loses out on the tiebreaker since he has only done one qualifier.

updated full results have been posted. Burritos for Life finalist Michael Parlaman only finished with 14.

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krystalsquareoff.com has a list of the expected entrants in tomorrow’s qualifier in Nashville. Most of the ranked competitors, including Hall Hunt, Justin Mih, Bubba Yarbrough and Larry McNeil, have competed in previous qualifiers. “The Hangman” Bruce Pobanz, will be celebrating his 50th birthday at the contest. Michael Parlaman, a finalist in Moe’s Burritos for Life, is expected.

updated Hall “Hoover” Hunt has a preview in his blog.

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Steakbellie ,Wing Kong and The Whaler have blog entries about their trip to Memphis for the Krystal qualifier.

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In his most recent blog entry, Kobayashi comments on the Krystals finals this month and the eaters he will face there: Jiyoi, Sonia, Pad, Teimu, Tip/Chip and Hob.

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Mid South Fair, Memphis TN

1st Tim Janus, 53
2nd Rich LeFevre, 51
3rd Seaver Miller, 41
4th Arturo Rios, 36

The current wildcards with two contests left are Rich, Seaver, Arturo and Crazy Legs.

The webcam quality was by far the best I have seen. Good job to the Krystal people improving its quality.

updated 10/2 Full results are available

The liveblog follows the jump
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