Many series of events are hosted at venues across Adelaide and Australia by the Master Bartending Championship, which initially plans on formalising three categories of bartending. This allows bartenders to compete to be the best in that category within a league.
The three categories of bartending that are being launched by the Master Bartending Championship are:
A mesmerizing display of cocktail artistry is showcased by flair bartenders, who compete by performing acrobatic and juggling stunts with bar tools and bottles, all aimed at concocting delicious cocktails. The intricacies of formalising flair as a category are ongoing at the time of writing, with initial focus on the more popular speed and traditional bartending categories.
The fastest wins. Period. Each bartender trains with the same equipment and recipe for many weeks, all to surpass not only their previous best time but also the best times ever recorded for that recipe.
What is known as traditional cocktail competition involves bartenders competing to impress a panel of judges with their creativity. They are given time to present and are judged independently based on how well they meet the brief of the competition and the design of the drink they present. This category largely remains the same with minor chnages to fit a consistent structure across all competitions in the category for the goal of ranking.
Honest competition and integrity are believed to be core principles in elite sports by the Master Bartending Championship. Transparency is a key factor, and many of the processes for decision making and scoring are made available to the general public.
The pillars by which the Master Bartending Championship operates include:
Until now, cocktail competitions globally have almost all been supported through brand sponsorship. This model is strongly supported as it makes up the bulk of competitions available and has brought the sport to where it is today. Freedom and creativity will push cocktail competitions to new heights. Brand sponsored competitions will continue to be facilitated and supported while pure competition will encourage the utilisation of any and all ideas to create the best drink to win, as long as the rules of the sport are followed.
Transparency in judging results is just the beginning of creating a true and fair sporting competition. Each judgement is ensured to be made independently of external opinion, and opinion pooling among judges will be utilised to minimise error. To formalise data from submissions, precise measuring techniques will be implemented and updated constantly, with details publicly available via the rules page.
Strong and friendly competition among competitors is paramount. Many competitors already invest hundreds of dollars preparing for competitions, and this mentality is fostered through cash prize incentives and by encouraging competitors to seek sponsorships that grow in value alongside the platform.
Bartenders, being some of the most interesting people, play a key role in platform growth by telling stories to a target audience. Unadulterated content produced by the Master Bartending Championship, the competitors themselves, or their sponsors, that focus on the narratives of the sport and its elite competitors is encouraged as this aligns with the goals of the Master Bartending Championship.
The Master Bartender Championship is currently using an online platform called Rankade to manage player rankings via manually submitted competition results. There is a different group for each categroy and a different ranking for each category. You can find out more about the Rankade System using the following link or click the rankings button at the top of this page to see current rankings.
Specific player rankings are determined by the level or Ree a player has. This is calculated relative to your original ree score, competitors scores and compeititon outcomes.
Learn More about Rankade