A day of perfect scores
22 perfect 180s were scored at this contest — every judge at the table handing back a nine.
- Kings BBQ Team · Brisket
- WE WILL ROCK QUE · Brisket
- Great White Smoke · Brisket
May 23, 2026 · Lebanon, TN · 📍 James E. Ward Agricultural Center (Wilson County Fairgrounds)
Reps: Carolyn Wells, Charlie Brinza, Dave Rogers, David Burstein, Eugene Wickham, Jeanne Titus, Peg Rogers, Sarah Wickham
Kings BBQ Team won Grand Champion at the 8th Annual KCBS World Invitational: Wells Cup, Cocktail Ancillary, Dessert Ancillary (Saturday, May 23, 2026) on May 23, 2026 in Lebanon, TN at James E. Ward Agricultural Center (Wilson County Fairgrounds), scoring 711.4172 in a field of 117 teams. SCUFFLETOWN SMOKERS took Reserve Grand Champion with 708.5256. Category winners: Chicken — OLD VIRGINIA SMOKE (180.0000); Pork Ribs — Eleven Thirteen Q (180.0000); Pork — RAZORRACKS (180.0000); Brisket — Kings BBQ Team (180.0000).
Overall totals, every team on the board — tall stacks are where the pack sat.
Every board on one scale — the bar runs last score to first, the dot is the median.
Everything below is read straight out of the results — the number on each card is the one that made it a story.
22 perfect 180s were scored at this contest — every judge at the table handing back a nine.
Chicken places 1–2: OLD VIRGINIA SMOKE and SWIG-N-PIG tied on 180.0000 — settled by the KCBS tiebreaker. Chicken places 2–3: SWIG-N-PIG and Kings BBQ Team tied on 180.0000 — settled by the KCBS tiebreaker. Chicken places 3–4: Kings BBQ Team and Glamping Grillers tied on 180.0000 — settled by the KCBS tiebreaker.
Kings BBQ Team took the title on 3 calls from 4 meats, with 1 outright win — their weakest board was pork at 43rd.
Bigger than 99% of the 5,482 contests in the data
117 teams — bigger than 99% of the 5,482 contests in the data.
What happened at this contest that stands in the all-time KCBS record book. A gold line is a record nobody has beaten.
| Category | 1st | 5th | 10th |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chicken | 180 | 180 | 178.8572 |
| Pork Ribs | 180 | 178.8572 | 177.7028 |
| Pork | 180 | 180 | 177.7144 |
| Brisket | 180 | 180 | 178.8572 |
117 entries · top 711.4172 · median 684.5028
117 entries · top 180 · median 173.1084 · 🔥 perfect 180
117 entries · top 180 · median 171.9656 · 🔥 perfect 180
117 entries · top 180 · median 171.4056 · 🔥 perfect 180
117 entries · top 180 · median 170.8112 · 🔥 perfect 180
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.
32 entries · top 180 · median 174.8514 · 🔥 perfect 180
45 entries · top 180 · median 171.4400 · 🔥 perfect 180