I'm not sure if they just got overwhelmed or didn't have good management, but there was a LOT of angry contestants, concert goers, and vendors this year and a lot of claims of corruption and favoritism.
So, I talked with the head person at SClabs.........
First off, it was bad management by the Emerald Cup, and the person who had that job, no longer does.
Second, it is much worse than we thought guys...... I don't want to write everything I found out, cause strait up, it depresses me. This stuff makes me want to shoot myself.
SC labs never picked up early samples...... They asked for everybody to enter asap, but I knew they didn't pick it up. At harborside I vend once a week. I entered my flowers on 11/3, vended several times, then entered my rosin on 11/23. Flower entry was still there. So they picked up all 1200 samples, as late as possible?
Since they knew there was NO WAY they could test even 1% of the entries before the judges started their judging, they told the judges. The judges were told they could smoke the samples if they felt comfortable. Sounds like the flower judges were "ok" with this, but some "may" not have smoked unfamiliar samples. (even though it was suppose to be blind) The rosin judges, they wouldn't comment on whether or not they smoked the samples. G, wonder how somebody swept the first 10 spots? Maybe cause the judges wouldn't smoke any other samples but the samples they knew were clean..... Do you blame them?
Top that off with samples from last year that was disqualified, would not have been this year. They had faulty mold ranges, and now admit they didn't know what they were doing. So how many samples and contestants got dicked last year also?
It was a very morbid feel over at SClabs the last couple days. Poor guys and gals. With that said, I took a large blow with this. This is my life, my lively hood, the reason I pick my head off the pillow in the AM. I hand trimmed and spent about 12 hours packaging just my flowers, another 12 hours pressing and packaging rosin, entered 9 ounces of herb and 42 grams of rosin. Then I paid them $1,500 for these entries. I have harvest left to deal with, and infrastructure work that needs to begin. Instead I am putting together a very expensive "gift" for the emerald cup. Huge blow time wise, monetarily, and emotionally. I put everything I had into this season, many many 18 hour days. All working up to this, and I didn't even get judged. Makes me feel pretty empty, and maybe even a little hopeless. Hard to make it in the world with all the competition, let alone when people are seemingly cheating.