Hey vap, congrats on the first show, a respectable appearance for a first time out.. Obviously your first time is a huge learning experiance and if you take that away from it and apply it next time consider this a success, regardless of where you placed.

That being said, I've been there too, competed 4 times now over the past 2 years and have been through everything you have now as well. You can never prepare for who is going to show up at these competitions regardless of what the competitors looked like in previous years. All you can do is bring your personal best to the stage each and every time and use your strengths and hide your weaknesses. The best way to do this is with proper posing, yours needs a lot of work if you expect to battle against close competition and move up in the placings.. The difference a lot of times in a tight show is just in the posing to show your strengths.. Mostly I found your leg positioning just needs to be switched up a bit to show proper sweeps and conditioning.. It's hard as well because in all honesty you probably needed another 4 weeks of dieting to really come in crisp. In my opinion I wouldn't compete until your glutes are striated because you're right conditioning is what wins shows. Lets face it you're not going to be the biggest one out there so use conditioning to make up for it.. This is something I realize now competing at just 22 against guys in their mid 30's no way i can match their size so I need great conditioning and posing to have a chance. I'm impressed with your first showing overall but take all these things just to help you get better.. Stay lean so next year when you diet it will be easier for you, get dry, work on the posing and you're well on your way bro, congrats