Well, having been at championships for the past three years and the pit representative for those 3 years, judging works differently each year. With Chairman's I think they short list teams based on the submission and go from there, similarly, with a submission available for Entrepreneurship I'd think they do the same. With Engineering Inspiration on the other hand, I think judges visit every team because we (384) weren't Chairman's or EI winners at our regional but were the award winners for Galileo. Also, we have to consider that the judges must look at 100 teams total, so each team might only get one set of judges, before a short list of teams to visit is made.
I think that non-technical awards being judged in the pit is actually a good idea. Entrepreneurship, Chairman's, EI etc. are about the whole team, not solely outreach. I learn so much more visiting someone's pit and asking about their outreach when their robot is there too than I do when there's an empty pit. Having the whole team and the robot there, gives the judges and any other people the chance to really hear your team's story and truly gain an understanding of your team's core values and mission. Personally, I feel that moving the non-technical judging to a different location would be a great disadvantage, not only to the portrayal of the team story, but also to the public because they would only learn about the outreach or the robot and not how the team functions as a whole.
But that's just my two cents
