In the years I have been involved with IDPA, my experience has been one of the biggest things that weigh on the Match Directors(at least the ones I know) is how do
they make fair it for their SO and Staff crew.
I have seen many approaches to this from bringing in Master class shooters to run the SO's, to running a split SO day allowing only the CSO and SO to run the timer
for there stage. I have volunteered to bring an out of town crew in to run the local SO's through at some troubled matches in my area. I have also shot matches that
were run by an out of town crew as well.
As far as the sour grapes aspect and not performing well at a match you are SOing, practice always helps. Take a moment for yourself when you're on deck clear
your mind then shoot to the best of your ability.
The SO advantage the great debate. I have shot and worked 8 National Championships and 1 World Championship(7 of these as a CSO) and I am always proud to
see the number of SOs who get to take home a trophy, this is not because they had a benefit by shooting the day before the regular competitors, being called looser by
the other SOs(I promise you this, we get called harder)or the occasional re-shoot for stage adjustment. It is because they are the most dedicated group of people
that are more worried about the shooters they will see the next day than about how they themselves are going to perform.
Just imagine how well these people could perform if they weren't working for the competitors sake, and for love of the sport.