Probably a bit of a shame, disaster. I dont ness agree re. the category and experience thing. He/You can read guidelines, he/has can brew many styles, he/ has a fair understanding of hops,malt, yeast.
Throw em to the wolves and let the circa of 3 judges sort the **** from the clay.
What are good judges? A SA tries his hardest to spread the highest card everytime and waffle his way thru by writing irrelevant rubbish all over the sheet and the back, IMO he is a try hard I dont want part of, I could blast on and on. I see progressive brewers somewhat forsaking the judging critique because there are very few that could be bothered outside of the clique clubs, those clubs dont provide the end all and be all.
Brew beer, brew some beer, enter a comp etc etc. Its pretty easy that a definitive market audience exists for competitions, its a little sad watching person after person walking away.
Ohhh BTW, Manticle is nearing 10,,000, sort of know the guy B) , waffles on, had a great Vicbrew2011.
Lift your game great man.