MN at GABF

Really depends (saying this as a judge who just finished up...) on the style category, the number of beers in that flight (is five too many? 10? The most we get is 12) and general condition of the judge at the moment (some are capable of handling more beers than others).
Is it perfect/ideal? No, but what is? And if someone out there has a better methodology for judging 4900+ beers in 2.5 days, I'm sure the BA would love to hear it.
Overall, I think it's a very good representation - an amalgamation of a lot of diverse tasting abilities, level of expertise and subjectivity. It's a lot of fun but it's also a lot of hard work.

 

3rd Street is pouring Lost Trout so I'm guessing that each brewery will bring 1 beer.

 

watching the live stream of the awards now, because I'm awesome. Locals I've heard winning medals so far:

Town Hall Twisted Trace, silver, wood/barrel-aged strong beer (Sun King Afternoon Delight won gold)
Surly Pentagram, bronze, wood/barrel-aged sour (Love Child #3 gold)

 

Full disclosure: Nerdiness proceeds.

A lot of folks don't realize just how reliable and valid scores from judging performance can be. This is actually an interesting phenomenon of sorts within measurement. Performance assessment, when the judges are skilled and trained, actually yields highly reliable results that can often distinguish between small differences. Now, this can be somewhat hazy when it applies to things such as taste (rather than more objective measures).

TL;DR: It could really actually be a reliable way to score, particularly because there are several judges.