[ashark]

So... why mention that charisma and speaking ability sometimes decide the winner, if they're all so equally matched that I'm somehow egregiously wrong for thinking that it could possibly be a factor, let alone an important and intended one that's a significant part of the point of the thing?

Also: where did "strictly" enter in my post? You seem to rely largely on my post somehow excluding the importance of the actual arguments or any other elements of the competition, which it doesn't. I just thought it was odd you were so dismissive of the public speaking aspect of the competition, as if you'd written "it's strange, but sometimes pastry baking skill wins these pastry baking competitions, which isn't ideal but is kinda OK I guess."

Then I wrote "isn't that a large part of the whole point of it?" and you wrote "pft, they're so beyond baking the baking barely matters, n00b" and now I'm posting, "wait, what?"

[EDIT] Ah, just noticed you're not the poster to whom I originally responded. Maybe you missed some of the context of the first couple posts. That'd explain it.