There is a good reason why the great criminal masterminds have never paid any attention to band. There is not much money in it. By the time bands get to contest, band parents' bank accounts are too depleted to fund attractively large bribes. Think about what is involved in judging a marching contest. Making judgments in artistic matters involves every known shade of gray plus a few shades whose existence science has only inferred.
Many great musicians scoff at the very idea of musical contests.
In athletics, things are obvious. Either the high jumpers clear the bar or they don't. In the arts, what is good is always a matter of opinion. That's why there are 50 different recordings of Beethoven's 9th Symphony on the market. There are many reasons you might be in honest disagreement with good judges.