• Val Bromman has a blog entry and gallery from a sandwich eating / Big Wheel riding contest judged by Pat Bertoletti and Tim Brown
• Buffalo Wing Festival contest gallery from Matt Ventre
• Kobayashi has some pictures from Paul Barlow from the Birmingham Krystal qualifier on his blog
• Oyster Bay NY, oyster eating contest report
• Evansville, IN donut hole eating contest for charity

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• Kobayashi checks into a hospital, but recovers and practices with 100 burgers and plays the MLE video game
• Articles in the UAB and UTC student papers about the Krystal Square Off
• Home page for Elliot “The Bone Collector” Rader, who has won several Chicago contests (from AICE news)
• Entry form for local competitors in the Garlicky Greens contest
• Competitive Eater Ben Griffith wins the trip to the Krystal finals
• Don Lerman is questioning his future in competitive eating

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• Videos and galleries of Birmingham and Memphis Krystal qualifiers available
• Brown students attempt Spike’s hot dog challenge
• Picture from eating contest held in Beijing during the Olympics
• Don Lerman gets an impostor on his own blog
• FutureFeed sees a “glass ceiling” in the fact that only 2 of the IFOCE top 50 are females (6 of the AICE top 50 are women)

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update #5Andrew “Skinnyboy” Lane has a trip report

update #4 The Krystal Square Off blog has a contest report which says that Kobayashi ate 100 burgers in 8 minutes the day before the contest. There is also a gallery in which Kobayashi shows off his post-contest stomach.

Al.com has another article

update #3 AL.com has a gallery

update #2 UAB student life has some short videos. The contest was not held inside the stadium

update Steve Ramirez was second w/24, the 3.5+ ratio might still be a record.

According to the Krystal Square Off twitter, Kobayashi ate 89 Krystals in Birmingham today, breaking Joey Chestnut’s qualifier record by 2. Super Paul ate 20. The 4+ ratio between first and second place might be an IFOCE record.

Here is a flashback to another famous international visitor to Alabama – a video of the Rolling Stones recording “Wild Horses” in Muscle Shoals before the infamous Altamont concert.

The most significant previous intersection of competitive eating and UAB athletics probably occurred when UAB soccer player Pam Cooney became half of the first all female pair to finish the Pointersaurus Pizza challenge.

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• Badlands Booker, Paul Barlow and Andrew Lane are the other listed entrants for the Birmingham qualifier, but Booker’s twitter says he will probably pass on the contest and hope 51 suffices for a wild card
• NYC Famous Famigila pizza contest prize format restructured according to comment – first prize reduced to $5,000 and number of cash prizes increased to 7
• Article with the official results and video about the Chicago jalapeno contest
• Article about Stu Mesnier’s attempt to repeat as St. Louis sushi champion
• MissBusyLady unveils her apparel for female competitive eating fans.

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The new poll asks what you think will be the difference between Kobayashi and the next closest finisher at the Birmingham qualifier.

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The Krystal Square Off blog reports that the Birmingham qualifier has been moved inside Legion Field and will take place on the field before the football game between UAB and Alabama State. The original location was the Blazer Village outside the stadium.

This will require qualifier spectators to purchase tickets for the game. Ticket prices are $25 for reserved seats and $15 for general admission.

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The Krystal Square Off blog reports that Takeru Kobayashi will compete at the Krystal qualifier in Birmingham on September 20. This will be Kobayashi’s first qualifier since he won the Krystal qualifier in Jacksonville in 2004.

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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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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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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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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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AmazingStace reports that last night’s episode of Bizarre Foods on the Travel Channel featured the cuisine of the Gulf Coast. An oyster eating contest at Wintzell’s Oyster House in Mobile, AL appeared in one of the segments. The winner ate 430 oysters in an hour. I will try to catch the episode if it reruns.

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The Krystal finals will not be the only southeastern eating contest to be held later this month:

Northeast Florida Fair

Other new features at this year’s fair include a pizza-eating contest at 4 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 29.
Five contestants will be drawn at random from those who register to participate between 3 and 4 p.m. The person who eats the most pizza in 10 minutes or finishes four 10-inch pizzas before the 10 minutes is up will be the winner. The champion pizza eater will win $100 and bragging rights for a year. Second- and third-place winners will win $50 and $25 respectively.

But hamburger-eaters still get their day at the fair. The third annual hamburger-eating contest will be 7 p.m. Monday. Five contestants drawn from those who register between 6 and 7 p.m. will vie for a top prize of $100, with the other contestants each winning $25.

Mobile, Alabama Wing Bowl

Wing Bowl II kicks off Saturday in Bienville SquareThe region’s top wing-cooking specialists will be going beak to beak at the Wing Bowl II Chicken Wing Cook-off on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The Wing Bowl’s three-minute eating contest, open to anyone 18 or over, has a $500 prize. Entrants must sign up at Wings Sports Grille in Mobile or Daphne before to the event.

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The period in which the first round contests of Moe’s Burritos for Life will be held is about over. Several articles have been written about the contests:

Alligator (U of Florida) Daily
Capital News 9 (NY) also video
Huntsville (AL) Times
Vail (CO) daily

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From Bubba Yarbrough and IFOCE.com:

Greater Alabama Fall Fair, Birmingham, AL

1. 32 burgers Chip “Chip Burger” Simpson
2. 30 burgers Bubba Yarbrough
3. 26 burgers Larry “The Legend” McNeil

Chip Simpson takes first in his first major competition. Bubba and Larry continue their impressive fall tour throughout the south.

With 3 contests remaining, the current list of qualifiers is (Joey Chestnut will almost certainly get a wild-card spot)

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