From publisher blurb:
Why Use Skill Competitions Instead of Skill Challenges?
Skill challenges can lack a certain sense of fairness. Especially if a player is forced to make skill checks that they are not very good at. This can make a skill challenge very one sided or nearly impossible to win. Skill Competitions on the other hand engage even those with bad skills and still allows enough choices and advantages that players can have fun even if they fail the competition. There are not arbitrary “if you fail (X) skill checks you lose” traps that make skill challenges horribly difficult or one sided. Skill Competitions feel more like energetic challenges to be conquered and can be quickly beaten or take strategy and time to overcome. They involve strategy and planning and can be very interesting. They encourage roleplaying and allow players to play on each other’s strengths and compensate for each other’s weaknesses.