It's a shame you think that of the Blackwater OG we entered. Why couldn't it be that this Blackwater OG was good enough to break into the top three? Our only affiliation with Swerve and The Cali Connection is really from our grower who bought a 10-pack of Blackwater OG seeds a few years back and, of the three he cracked (which all ended up being female BTW), one ended up being this nice purple phenotype of the plant that he chose to move forward with. Eventually we just entered it into the LA cup representing Terrapin Nation (one of us had to talk The Grower into entering it in the first place!)
Yea it takes good genetics to start, but it also takes a good grower to bring out the best qualities of a plant and that was what he was able to do here. First time entry into the cup for us and our grower so we couldn't be more surprised or humbled by this.
And yea, some of us used to think this was rigged and all politics; then this happened to us. We're happy, the grower is stoked, and everyone had a great time at the cup. That's really all that matters to us.
I can't speak for the best product category however as I agree that cloud and g-pens are both overpriced and unreliable.
Hopefully you get the chance to toke on some of the Blackwater I've been smoking for three years, I love it. I hope you at least get the chance to see why.