You should do it, they are great fun.
Back in the mid 80's I participated in quite a few Chili Cook-offs. The one I remember most was also the one where I barely avoided complete disaster. I owned a deli at the time which acted as the commissary for my Location Film Catering company, and I used a variety of meats common to a delicatessen rather than ground beef. Anyway, the cooking process didn't develop the way it usually did and the chili was thick and plain tasting, but now it was just minutes prior to submitting the finished product to the judges, and me starting to panic, ... I went to another concession stand and purchased a can of coke as it was a very hot summer day and i'd been standing over the cooking chili as well as my large BBQ from which I was selling chicken and ribs at my booth during this festival. Figuring all was lost, I instead poured all the coke into the 100 quart stock pot which contained the chili. As i'm stirring, the consistency is improving, and a few moments later when tasting, the flavors I originally expected are back. I managed a 4'th Place Ribbon that day, and also made the permanent switch from Pepsi to Coke. I never did discover what properties in a Coke could waken the latent spices from their rest, but i'll never forget it. The judges did remark that the chili might have even scored higher, but they couldn't make out the meats being used. Had I kept my wits, I would have liked to have told them it was squirrel & possum, but that didn't happen. At the time, I didn't realize they would also 'wash' the chili to better examine the ingredients, so that turned out to be the last time i'd use several deli meats in competitive chili contests.