Review of Hooters wing circuit
The Hooters circuit is supposedly being judged according to weight of wing meat consumed, but results have generally been announced using count of wings eaten. In addition to the divergence in units of measurement, there have been interesting results from most of the qualifiers which are described after the jump. (Weights listed below are unofficial except for the Augusta qualifier.)
- April 5 – Augusta, GA
1st Sonya Thomas (140 wings | 4.075 lb | .465 oz / wing ) 2nd Damien Boykin (80 | 2.725 | .545) 3rd Jon Bello (65 | 2.28 | .561)Sonya Thomas was the only person currently ranked in the IFOCE top 37 competing. (Damien Boykin #38 / Jon Bello #39)
This is the only contest for which weights where posted on the MLE twitter / facebook.
- April 18 – Indianapolis, IN
1st Crazy Legs Conti (148 wings | 3 lb | .324 oz / wing) 2nd Tim “Gravy” Brown (101 | 1.0625 | .168) 3rd Aaron Osthoff (125 | 1.0 | .128)Conti’s (current ranking #20) tripling of Aaron Osthoff (#12) might be the largest ratio for an outranked competitor in IFOCE / MLE history.
The one pound Aaron Osthoff was credited with over the ten minute duration with was less than he ate (1.3 lb) in a two minute wing contest earlier this year.
Interestingly, the MLE tweet referring to Tim Brown’s finish ahead of Aaron Osthoff (“Gravy placed 2nd w/101 wings to ATrain’s 125 (3rd place) due to weight #cleanthebones”) has been deleted from the MLE twitter. The tweet can still be seen in the Google cache and search results.
- April 28 – Mesquite, TX
1st Bob Shoudt (120 wings) | 2nd Erik Denmark (117) | 3rd Nate Biller (100)Gary Klucken (current ranking #32) claims that Erik Denmark was the real winner. (Klucken placed fifth in the contest; he believes he should have been fourth).
Erik Denmark uploaded a picture of the scoresheet.
- May 5 – Jacksonville, FL
1st Adrian Morgan (150 wings) | 2nd Jon Bello (125) | 3rd Tim Janus (124.5)Jon Bello almost doubles the 65 wings he was credited with in the Augusta qualifier.
According the latest list of head-to-head results, Tim Janus has a 77-12-3 record over the past 365 days. Ten of those twelve losses were to Joey Chestnut and Pat Bertoletti, the other two occurred in this contest.
- May 12 – Roseville, MI
1st Pat Bertoletti (107 wings) | 2nd Tim Brown (101) | 3rd Meredith Boxberger (82)No apparent issues with this qualifier other than the lack of reported weights.
- May 26 – St. Louis, MO
1st Tim Brown (130 wings | 4.93 lb | .601 oz/wing) | 2nd Aaron Osthoff (122 | 4.88 | .64) | 3rd Jake Larry (89)The weights Tim Brown and Aaron Osthoff are credited with almost quintuple their reported weights of approximately one pound from the Indianapolis qualifier.
- May 28 – Fremont, CA
1st) Erik Denmark (140 wings) | 2nd Steve Hendry (106) | 3rd Ken Douglas (100)Dax “The Ginger” Swanson reported he received a 43 wing deduction, which would have made him the runner-up if not applied.
- May 31 – Oklahoma City, OK
1st Nate Biller (118 wings | 2.75 lb | .372 oz/wing) | 2nd Bryan Beard (44 | 2.1875 | .795) | 3rd Gary Leggett (43 | 1.625 | .605)
Nate Biller (#24) and Bryan Beard (#28) are at roughly the same level, making Biller’s wing count more than twice Beard’s surprising. The gap narrows when wing weight is taken into account. In the only previous wing contest Nate Biller and Bryan Beard both competed in, the WingStop contest in Dallas last year, Beard finished ahead of Biller by a narrow margin.
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Rhonda Evans said (Registered March 6, 2008)
June 1, 2012 @ 12:08 pm
Surely, the wings in each contest should be of similar weight. (e.g. How Big Sexy’s wings could be > twice as big as Nasty Nate’s is beyond me, unless the chickens from which Big Sexy’s wings came from were raised at Three Mile Island or Chernobyl Farms. And if that’s the case, why didn’t Nasty Nate’s come from the chickens at one of those sites?)
I’m being a bit facetious, but I think my point is clear. Only one average should be used as a baseline for calculating wings eaten, and if that isn’t the case, it should be explained to prevent misinterprentations or other more negative accusations addressed against MLE and Hooters.
To not do so looks unprofessional at best, and underhanded at worst. Regardless of one’s profession, and I’ve been in six different, though related, ones in the last 30 years—-start young—-perceptions of customers (eaters and fans in this case) equates to reality. And if more than a handful of people aren’t sure how tallies came about, well, surely an explanation is in order.
Refraining from accomplishing that often results in perceived apathy of the organizers by the eaters and fans. As such, MLE doesn’t seem too worried about it, not that they ever are.
Trying to figure out MLE is like trying to make sense out of Ahmadinejad (Iran). I’m confused!
Common Sense said
June 1, 2012 @ 12:16 pm
How fucking hard is it to pre-weigh a tray with 10lbs (uneaten bone on meat) of wings in them. Dump the disposal tray into the remaining uneaten wings after ten minutes, weigh it, minus 10lbs and get your answer.
This isn’t rocket Science MLE and Hooters!
Anonymous said
June 1, 2012 @ 12:27 pm
Rhonda – Big Sexy ate clean last night – Nate left a lot of meat & debris. He only beat Bryan by 10 ounces. The wings were the same size.
It’s different styles and techniques used by the eaters I guess. Or maybe they are shooting for the high wing count in addition to weight. Who knows how MLE was going to judge this contest so both guys did what they thought would work.
There are inconsistancies in how MLE judges debris food contests. We just ask that they be open and honest. Public weighing in front of the eaters and the crowd would solve this problem.
If they want their top eaters represented at the table – why bother with regional contests? They should have regionals with the pros there exhibition eating with the other contestants. The chosen ones already have their seat – but they have to do an exhibition on behalf of MLE for that spot. Similar to the brat contest that featured Joey C vs Bryan Big Sexy in Denver last September…
Just a thought.
Erik the Red said (Registered January 9, 2006)
June 1, 2012 @ 5:47 pm
Making mountains out of mole hills IMO. The conversion from weight to wing count is not exact and at times has been inconsistent but it’s not for a lack of weighing or trying to get it right. At both qually’s I went to they prepared plates and did a sample weighing of 200 wings well in advance; and both times there were qualified people doing the weighing post contest and ample time was given/taken to come up with correct results.
The winner at every qualifier ate the most weight in wings, the count and the actual weight is less comparable from site to site because every Hooters has different size/weight wings. In Dallas, the average weight for 20 wings was 21 oz’s and in Fremont it was 17.5 I believe. I was surprised in Fremont that Dax did not have a higher total but in actuality 94 wings is a very solid number and his total was based on weight, not a result from deductions.
Anyway, I feel pretty confident that the finals will be judged and weighed with accuracy based on what I have seen and experienced.
Anonymous said
June 1, 2012 @ 6:13 pm
Hope ur right Erik.
DaxtheGinger said (Registered April 23, 2011)
June 1, 2012 @ 6:58 pm
Thanks Eric, deduction might not be the right word I should have used.