I think there's at least two reasons why judges take a long time (maybe more).
1. The judges don't start as soon as maps are being posted. Instead, I think most judges wait until the submission deadline and then start. But they don't need to wait. If all judges began judging maps as they came out.. the results could be compiled a day or two after the submissions deadline. It would be almost like instantaneous results.
2. Not starting for a couple weeks after the submissions deadline. Okay, yeah, you made a commitment to judge... but first you "need" to finish building a map, or drive that RPG, or do this or that. It's called procrastination, and we've all done it. But when it affects other people, it becomes more annoying to them, more annoying to you (cause you know people are getting annoyed at you), and its generally just a bad way to operate. That's true not just for the MTC, but for anything in life.
I'm not trying to pick on anyone specific here. The truth is, we've had many judges the last few years that were late with their results. There were even some that made us wait a long time into the next month only to tell the organizers that they couldn't finish judging. So we all waited for nothing.
I guess some judges are young and inexperienced... and haven't learned what it means to be responsible. So perhaps some leeway is in order.
But I really don't think saying "oh, they're giving of their time to judge your map, so shut up and quit your whining" is really helpful either. Judges can't be given free reign to finish whenever they feel like it. That's why a judging deadline was also instituted. It's not unreasonable. The contest has to maintain an organized structure, from the hosts, to the builders, to the judges themselves. Without order, the whole thing falls apart.
So the deadline for judging ended on November 9. If judges started judging this month's contest when the first map was uploaded, on October 4.. then they were given 37 days to judge. There were 45 tracks. So that averages out to a little more than 1 track a day. Some days you'd have to do 2. Is that really that hard? There's plenty of time given.
Even if you started after the deadline ended on the 19th, that's still 22 days to judge. so that's a little more than 2 tracks a day. That's very doable, especially if you're at all active playing TM... which you should be if you had volunteered and/or accepted an offer to judge.
Anyway, there ARE judges who are diligent about their assignment and we surely appreciate all the work of ALL the judges that they seek to give accurate scores to all tracks. Without the judges, there would be no MTC.
But maybe there are some things that future judges could keep in mind.
Edit: I neglected to list a 3rd reason why judging can get stalled. Many times I've got stuck on one map while judging. It's when I've run across an incredibly difficult map that I just can't seem to finish. I might work hours to get a clean run on it. And I don't feel I can judge it until that clean run happens... or I just haven't got a true feel for the track. In that case, the fault for a delay in results rests squarely on the author for making a very unforgiving track that punishes the judges. Even so, if I had started judging as the maps were being uploaded... any such delay would be buffered by the fact I started early.