American Royal World Series of Barbecue Steak Cook-Off

2024-03-22 – 2024-03-23 · Kansas City, MO · 📍 1701 American Royal Court

Reps: DAVE ROGERS, PEG ROGERS

Grand Champion: Go Ham BBQ (180.0000) · 10 teams

Reserve Champion: 🥈 Smoke This Drink That BBQ

🥇

GO HAM BBQ

180.0000 · Grilling Series — Overall

🥈

Smoke This Drink That BBQ

180.0000 · Grilling Series — Overall

🥉

Beer & Bones BBQ

178.8572 · Grilling Series — Overall

Entries

0 judged meats · 1 ancillary

Top score

180.0000

Winning margin

Tie

identical totals — KCBS tiebreaker

Field average

174.73

median 174.85

Perfect 180s

Top-10 cutoff

167.3712

10th place overall

Field spread

12.6288

winner to last place

Traveled in

30%

of the 10 teams with a home region came from outside MO

Form held

Weak

ρ = -0.13 between pre-contest rating and finish

Field strength

1542

avg power rating going in · stronger than 46% of contests

Top-rated in the field

MEAT RUSHMORE BBQ

rated 1688 pre-contest

Storylines

👑 A dynasty in the making

Go Ham BBQ has won this contest 2 times across its 5 tracked editions.

⚖️ Decided by a tiebreaker

The top two teams finished on identical totals — the Grand Championship came down to the KCBS tiebreaker rules.

🛡️ Back to defend

Past winners of this contest cooked this edition: Go Ham BBQ (won 2022).

🃏 An upset on the books

Go Ham BBQ came in rated below the field's top team, MEAT RUSHMORE BBQ, and took the Grand Championship anyway — roughly a 32-in-100 shot on pre-contest ratings.

Score curves (score by finishing position — steep cliffs mean a spread field, flat lines a knife fight)

Biggest rating movers (power-rating points won and lost at this contest)

Did form hold? (pre-contest rating vs overall finish — ratings called it if the dots climb to the right)

Where the field came from (home regions on file)

This contest over the years full contest page →

Date	Where	Venue	Teams	High score	Grand Champion	Reserve Champion
2022-03-25	Kansas City, MO	1701 American Royal Court	11	173.1544	Go Ham BBQ	—
2023-03-24	Kansas City, MO	1701 American Royal Court	—	—	—	—
2024-03-22 ← this one	Kansas City, MO	1701 American Royal Court	10	180.0000	Go Ham BBQ	—
2025-03-21	Kansas City, MO	1701 American Royal Court	—	—	—	—
2026-03-20	Kansas City, MO	1701 American Royal Court	—	—	—	—

Official results on kcbs.us ↗

Grilling Series

Overall

10 entries · top 180.0000 · median 174.8458 · 🔥 perfect 180

#	Team	Score
1	GO HAM BBQ	180.0000 🔥
2	Smoke This Drink That BBQ	180.0000 🔥
3	Beer & Bones BBQ	178.8572
4	Big TD'S BBQ	177.7028
5	BBQ Boys	175.4172
6	GRILLAS	174.2744
7	Wapatui Smokers	174.2628
8	MEAT RUSHMORE BBQ	170.8344
9	SOUTHINURMOUTH	168.5372
10	WEEKEND BUM BBQ	167.3712

Ancillary categories

Run by the organizers alongside the sanctioned contest. These are judged on their own terms and do not count toward the overall score, so they're kept out of the meat stats above.

Grilling Series — Steak