I still enter comps on occasion, and I think the judging is just inherently uneven, unavoidably. Too many variables - varying experience level, palate fatigue, personal preference within a style, etc. But there are some great judges out there (several on this forum) and I usually get back scoresheets that are spot on with what I expected, good or bad. But you still get the scenario like where I recently medaled in a fairly big comp in Milwaukee for a Marzen, sent the beer to a different smaller comp and scored only 32 with comments like "slight diacetyl?" (yes, the question mark was there on the sheet)" and "needed more malt character". There was zero diacetyl in the beer (neither of the much higher ranking judges in Milwaukee noted it, nor a judge friend of mine) and the beer was very malty, unanimously agreed upon except by this guy. Whatever, part of the game. Does get old, though.