American Royal World Series of Barbecue Steak Cook-Off

2025-03-21 – 2025-03-22 · Kansas City, MO · 📍 1701 American Royal Court

Reps: DAVID DYCHE, JO DYCHE · Prize money: $2,000.00

🥇

Karnivor Creations BBQ

178.8572 · Other — Overall

🥈

Big Racks BBQ

177.7028 · Other — Overall

🥉

Music City Smokers

174.8688 · Other — Overall

Entries

0 judged meats · 1 ancillary

Top score

178.8572

Winning margin

1.1544

GC over RC

Field average

170.46

median 171.42

Perfect 180s

Top-10 cutoff

169.1544

10th place overall

Field spread

17.2000

winner to last place

Prize money

$2,000.00

on the line

How hot was the win?

Top 45%

beats 55% of 33 Other wins in the data

Traveled in

47%

of the 15 teams with a home region came from outside MO

Came back for more

10%

1 of 10 teams from the previous edition returned

Form held

Weak

ρ = 0.02 between pre-contest rating and finish

Field strength

1515

avg power rating going in · stronger than 19% of contests

Top-rated in the field

Big Racks BBQ

rated 1626 pre-contest

Storylines

👑 A dynasty in the making

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

🪒 A razor-thin finish

The Grand Championship was decided by 1.1544 points — closer than 76% of every championship in the data.

🃏 An upset on the books

Karnivor Creations BBQ came in rated below the field's top team, Big Racks BBQ, and took the Grand Championship anyway — roughly a 33-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	Kansas City, MO	1701 American Royal Court	10	180.0000	Go Ham BBQ	—
2025-03-21 ← this one	Kansas City, MO	1701 American Royal Court	—	—	—	—
2026-03-20	Kansas City, MO	1701 American Royal Court	—	—	—	—

Official results on kcbs.us ↗

Other

Overall

15 entries · top 178.8572 · median 171.4172

#	Team	Score
1	Karnivor Creations BBQ	178.8572
2	Big Racks BBQ	177.7028
3	Music City Smokers	174.8688
4	Local Pig BBQ Team	174.2972
5	SWINEDOTTE CO BBQ	174.2628
6	E SQUARED BBQ	173.1316
7	Sofa King Awesome BBQ	172.5600
8	Wapatui Smokers	171.4172
9	Backbone BBQ	170.2972
10	Poppin Smoke BBQ	169.1544
11	Kimmi's Cue	166.8344
12	Nuttycocksbbq	165.1428
13	Buns Out BBQ KC	164.5372
14	Great Shepherd BBQ	162.2512
15	T-Dawg BBQ	161.6572

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.

Other — Steak