Sam and Cody Carroll are a chef couple with a Food Network show called Cajun Aces and two Hot Tails locations in Louisiana. This is relevant because 'Cajun Aces' is not a branding exercise — it is a description. Sam Carroll cooked a chicken gumbo that was built the Cajun way, which means the roux came first and the roux was dark.
A dark roux — thirty minutes of constant stirring at medium-high heat until it reaches the color of milk chocolate — has less thickening power than a blonde roux but significantly more flavor. Carroll built hers to the dark stage, which meant she compensated for the reduced thickening by adding okra at the twenty-minute mark, which contributes mucilage and body without additional starch. The chicken went in as bone-in thighs, braised in the gumbo itself rather than separately, so the collagen dissolved into the broth.
Bobby's gumbo, judges found, had a lighter roux and a thinner body. A lighter roux is a choice; in a competition against a Cajun Ace, it is the wrong one.