I got my score sheets back and I’m pretty happy. My brown ale got a 40.5 in the first round, and a 40 in the second round. The common fault was low hop bitterness and low carbonation. It’s a British brown ale, not exactly a hop monster but that’s cool. My Belgian Ball Buster got a 36, the common fault was the amount of alcohol taste present, and I can’t argue with that either.
I never entered the time crunch was too tight.
Congrats on the scores.
nice scores! I think competitions can be helpful in reinforcing your own feelings about your own beers.
I got mine in this week too. My RIS went from 41.5 in the first round to 31 in the second round, which is a little confusing. Maybe they were judging to a higher standard in the second round? It is a little under-attenuated because the yeast gave out after 14.5% abv! 
My Belgian Dark got dinged too, but that was from the Kirsch/Oak character from a little wood ageing. I should know better than that. I should have entered it as 16E.
Otherwise I got a 44.5 on my Blonde (3rd) and a 41 on my American Amber (1st).
All darned good scores, congrats gents.
If you can score in the 40’s…keep up the great work.
Congrats folks!
Different judges, different bottle (?), different tasting order, etc, all of these things can affect how the beer is perceived. You got some good scores there, I’d be happy. 
Other potential factors:
More experienced judges - less likely to be wowed by extreme beer, more persnickety about judging to style.
Beer warmed up or served too warm/cold - too warm might make a big beer seem too alcoholic, too cold keeps it from “opening up” properly.
Judging hall warmer/colder - my experience is that big, malt-focused beers seem more cloying and less satisfying if the hall is too hot, but more appealing if the hall is too cold.
Going from 41 (potential BoS winner) to 31 (good, but likely not a winner) is a big drop. Take a careful look at your scoresheets from the first and second rounds and try to figure out what changed.
If you’re still confused and the judges had the guts to put their email addresses on their scoresheets, there’s no harm in emailing the second round judges and politely asking why they assigned the scores they did. Chances are, however, they won’t remember your beer in particular, so you might need to give them brief quotes from your scoresheet.
I’ve seen a given bottle(s) of beer range +/- 15 points by different panels of judges. It’s a crap shoot at best, sometimes. ’
+1 on the crap shoot. A big part of why I stopped participating (judging and entering).
However, that said, the Bluebonnet was one of the best run comps I participated in.
You’re agreeing with a common bridge dweller?
Trolling for compliments?
Complaints, compliments; doesn’t matter to me. I’ll take all I can get. At least I know people aren’t ignoring my posts. 
LOL +1