My understanding is that the fall Best of Show is a Viewers choice. But it is viewers choice from the best quilts the judges pick out. That is only preliminary, they could change it.
I am sorry that AQS has discontinued so many of the shows around the country in favor of doing two in Paducah. Syracuse was the only AQS show close enough for me to attend easily. Now that show is gone, along with many others. Apparently the class enrollment and the gate sales were not high enough to warrant a lot of them.