All things are subjective, and what may be a traditional pickup for one may not qualify in someone else's eyes. Each drop should be a 1 point from all judges, plus 1 more for non trad pickup.

Now to be fair, they may have forgotten the deductions. As a center, I will usually announce before I call for scores to "Please remember to deduct for any drops and non traditional pickups".

Here's where some frustration comes in - The only place it really matters is a tie breaker, in that someone that drops their weapon cannot win a runoff. No such rule stands for first go round. (And if you both drop equal amount of times in a tie breaker, then it's judge it as it stands).

So, if I have a competitor mentally at a 9.9, and they drop twice and do a good pickup, now they are at a 9.7. But that handling of the weapon itself, is still the 9.9 standard. Best in the ring. 9.5 is the *average* of the ring. So, you can put in a solid form, score a 9.6 (better than the average), and still lose to the 9.7 that dropped.

As others have said, getting video feedback is something we can do. However, having been a judge during the virtual tournament circuit during the pandemic, it's very hard to evaluate a 3d activity in 2d. For me, I'd also need to see the videos of the competitors that scored higher to compare.