Your First KCBS Contest
Everybody cooking at the sharp end of this sport was, at one point, a person who had never turned in a box. This is the page I wish had existed then: what the weekend actually is, what the scoring is doing, what a normal first season looks like, and which contests coming up are a kind place to start.
The hard part is entering, not winning
30.5% of teams get called to the stage in their very first season, and 4.4% win a meat outright. Meanwhile 72.3% of all teams cooked exactly one contest and never came back — so the single best thing you can do for your record is enter a second one.
What the weekend is
- Friday — you roll in, park in your space, and set up. There is a cooks’ meeting where the rep goes over the rules and hands out your turn-in boxes and the numbered tags that keep judging blind. Meat inspection happens here: everything arrives raw and uncooked, and the rep checks it.
- Friday night into Saturday morning — you cook. Brisket and pork go on early because they take the longest; ribs and chicken follow. Almost nobody sleeps much.
- Saturday, on the half hour — turn-ins. Chicken at noon, ribs at 12:30, pork at 1:00, brisket at 1:30, with a five-minute window either side of each. That window is the single most stressful part of the day and the one thing worth rehearsing at home.
- Saturday afternoon — awards. They read the top ten in each meat and then the overall. Getting your name read is a call; walking up for it is a walk. Your first one is the moment that hooks you.
Times vary by contest and the rep’s cooks’ meeting is the authority, not this page. Nothing here is official KCBS material — check the current rules at kcbs.us before you enter.
What the judges are doing
Six judges score every box on three things — appearance, taste, tenderness — from 9 down to 2, with a 1 reserved for a rules problem. The marks are weighted, and they are not weighted evenly: taste carries more than the other two put together. The lowest score is dropped, so one judge having a bad day cannot sink you. Five counted cards make a perfect meat 180, and four perfect meats make 720.
The practical version: cook something that tastes unmistakably good on the first bite. A beautiful box that tastes fine will lose to an ordinary-looking box that tastes great, every single time. The full explanation → · What a card is worth, in places →
How big is the room?
Half of all sanctioned contests on record had 30 teams or fewer, and 33% had 25 or fewer. It is not a stadium. At most contests you will be parked next to somebody who has been doing this for fifteen years and will happily lend you a thermometer.
Measured over 5,490 contests with a published field size.
Two ways in
Kind places to start
Contests coming up that have run a small field before, or that have run a Backyard division. This is inferred from each contest’s own history, not from anything the organiser has published about this year — so treat it as a shortlist to go and ask about, not a promise.
| Date | Contest | Where | Usual field | Backyard? | Purse |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 30, 2026 | Boo-B-Que BBQ Championship (Day 1) State championship | Oak Grove, MO | 43 | Yes | $3,500 |
| Oct 30, 2026 | Roast N Boast State championship | Columbus, MS | 21 | Yes | $5,500 |
| Oct 31, 2026 | Boo-B-Que BBQ Championship (Day 2) State championship | Oak Grove, MO | 43 | Yes | $3,500 |
| Nov 6, 2026 | Scottsboro BBQ Festival (BACKYARD ONLY) | Scottsboro, AL | 33 | Yes | $7,100 |
| Nov 20, 2026 | Plant City Pig Jam State championship | Plant City, FL | 35 | Yes | — |
| Dec 4, 2026 | Christmas on the River State Bar B Q Championship State championship | Demopolis, AL | 16 | Yes | $4,350 |
| Jan 21, 2027 | Lakeland Pig Festival State championship | Lakeland, FL | 56 | Yes | $25,000 |
| Feb 20, 2027 | W.E.S.T. - Winter Extreme South Tyrol | Muhlwald - Selva di Molini, BZ | 10 | — | — |
| Feb 20, 2027 | W.E.S.T. - Winter Extreme South Tyrol (ONE MEAT CHICKEN) | Muhlwald - Selva di Molini, BZ | 10 | — | — |
| Feb 20, 2027 | W.E.S.T. - Winter Extreme South Tyrol (ONE MEAT RIBS) | Muhlwald - Selva di Molini, BZ | 10 | — | — |
| Mar 5, 2027 | Sip & Swine BBQ Festival State championship | Lawrenceville, GA | 61 | Yes | — |
| Mar 19, 2027 | BBQ Gives Back (Day 1) State championship | Urbanna, VA | 40 | Yes | — |
| Mar 19, 2027 | Smoke on the Shores BBQ Championship State championship | Lebanon, TN | 82 | Yes | — |
| Mar 19, 2027 | Smoke on the Shores BBQ Championship (ONE MEAT CHICKEN) | Lebanon, TN | 82 | Yes | — |
| Mar 19, 2027 | Smoke on the Shores BBQ Championship (ONE MEAT RIBS) | Lebanon, TN | 82 | Yes | — |
| Mar 20, 2027 | BBQ Gives Back (Day 2) State championship | Urbanna, VA | 40 | Yes | — |
| Mar 26, 2027 | Kickin' It Route 66 Barbecue Challenge State championship | St. Robert, MO | 21 | Yes | $5,600 |
| Mar 27, 2027 | Kickin' It Route 66 Barbecue Challenge (ONE MEAT RIBS) State championship | St. Robert, MO | 21 | Yes | $1,000 |
| Apr 2, 2027 | Singing River Smoke-O-Rama (BACKYARD ONLY) | Athens, AL | 41 | Yes | — |
| Apr 2, 2027 | Dinuba's BBQ & Brew Fest State championship | Dinuba, CA | 27 | — | — |
| Apr 2, 2027 | Dinuba's BBQ & Brew Fest (ONE MEAT RIBS) | Dinuba, CA | 27 | — | — |
| Apr 17, 2027 | Mee (a)t and Fire BBQ Festival Innsbruck | Innsbruck | 9 | — | — |
| Apr 17, 2027 | Mee (a)t and Fire BBQ Festival Innsbruck (ONE MEAT RIBS) | Innsbruck | 9 | — | — |
| Apr 30, 2027 | Dr. George Smith BBQ Brawl (COMPETITOR SERIES) | Murfreesboro, TN | 27 | — | $6,200 |
| May 14, 2027 | Twin Valley Fire and Smoke (Day 1) State championship | Morgantown, PA | 35 | Yes | — |
Nothing near you? The contest planner maps every upcoming contest against a pin you drop on your own town.
The short version
- Enter the one closest to home. Your first contest should not also be your first long tow.
- Cook what you already cook well. A contest weekend is not the time to debut a recipe.
- Practise the turn-in, not just the meat. Boxes, greens, and a timer. Missing the window scores zero, and it happens to good cooks every year.
- Talk to your neighbours. This sport is unreasonably generous to newcomers who ask questions.
- Then enter a second one. Nearly everything on the rookie page comes down to that.
Written by a fellow competitor, not by KCBS — none of it is official guidance, and the rules and turn-in times that count are the ones in the current rulebook and the ones your rep gives you at the cooks’ meeting. The numbers on this page come from the public results at kcbs.us and move as the data does.