Yes - this is a BJCP sanctioned competition. That being said, there are a lot of unorthodox things going on such as the recipe requirement (not typical), the quantity of bottles required to enter, celebrity judging (separate from the BJCP judging), etc. The guy who is running BBM works for Wantz Distributing out of Hagerstown (and formerly for Flying Dog) He is a bit of an arrogant know-it-all and came up with a bunch of this stuff on his own and then came to FOAM asking how to run a BJCP comp after the fact. There is A LOT of tension up here right now over him stepping on everyone's toes and trying to overshadow Frederick Beer Week, which is non-profit and run by volunteers. Nonetheless, we don't want to see a craft beer/home brew event in our city crash and burn, so we are continuing to help with BBM. Hope that lends some clarity.