35 all-time KCBS records — every one with a holder, a number, and the date it was set, read out of 11 scored contests and 278 result rows. Beat one and you appear here the next morning.
Overall scores are only ever ranked against their own series — Master out of 720, Backyard out of 360 — so the overall-score records here are Master boards unless they say Backyard. The Backyard series keeps a full record board of its own.
State and provincial record books are here; outside North America, every country has its own page under Regions →
Showing the AK record book — every record below counts only contests held in AK. Records that can't honestly be cut by state are left out rather than shown with their national holder: power ratings, career streaks and Team of the Year are computed over a team's whole career, wherever they cooked it.
The biggest — and smallest — numbers anybody has ever put in front of six judges.
Smoken J's BBQ at Kenai River BBQ Competition May 31, 2024
7-team field · won the contest
Four meats, six judges, one afternoon. The biggest total anybody has ever assembled.
Smoken J's BBQ at Kenai River BBQ Competition May 31, 2024
won the category with it
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
The best chicken anybody has ever turned in. 180 is the ceiling — every judge at the table handing back a nine — so a tie goes to whoever got there first.
Alaska BBQ Mann at Alaska Grown BBQ Competition (ONE MEAT RIBS) Sep 17, 2026
won the category with it
The best pork ribs anybody has ever turned in. 180 is the ceiling — every judge at the table handing back a nine — so a tie goes to whoever got there first.
Smoken J's BBQ at Kenai River BBQ Competition May 31, 2024
won the category with it
The best pork anybody has ever turned in. 180 is the ceiling — every judge at the table handing back a nine — so a tie goes to whoever got there first.
BEAR NAKED BBQ at 1st Annual Deltana Fair BBQ Competition Jul 22, 2022
won the category with it
The best brisket anybody has ever turned in. 180 is the ceiling — every judge at the table handing back a nine — so a tie goes to whoever got there first.
LC BBQ at Last Frontier BBQ Throwdown Jun 21, 2025
finished 2nd, behind Smoked & Furious
A day this good takes a Grand Championship almost anywhere. These are the ones that ran into somebody having a better one.
Smoken J's BBQ at Kenai River BBQ Competition May 31, 2024
over Holy Trinity BBQ
Not a contest so much as an exhibition — the runner-up in each of these was closer to tenth than to the winner.
Smoked & Furious at Last Frontier BBQ Throwdown Jun 21, 2025
over LC BBQ
A whole weekend — four meats, twenty-four judging cards — decided by a rounding error.
Grand Championships, reserve finishes, dynasties and droughts.
Pits and Grills Jul 26, 2024
from 1 contests · first in 2024
Held jointly by 7 — nobody has beaten it.
The headline record of the sport: how many times a team has walked away with the whole thing.
SMOKEY HAZE Jul 7, 2023
from 5 contests · 1 title
Second overall is the hardest place to finish. These teams have done it more than anybody.
SMOKEY HAZE at Kenai River BBQ Competition Jun 30, 2023
won it with 693.6800
Every Grand Championship counts the same in the standings. Not every one means beating this many people.
SMOKEY HAZE at Kenai River BBQ Competition Jun 30, 2023
the title finally came in 2023
Proof it is worth going back. Every team here cooked for years before the call finally came.
Smoked & Furious Jun 21, 2025
in 1 state
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
Some contests hand out a state championship alongside the trophy. These teams have collected the most of them.
The four meats: who wins them, and who has been handed a flawless card.
SMOKEY HAZE Jul 26, 2024
across 3 of the four meats
Every category win is a walk to the stage. This is the longest walk in the sport.
WHITE T-SHIRT Jul 23, 2021
the 2021 season
One team, one year, and a stack of first-place calls that would furnish most careers.
Smoken J's BBQ May 31, 2024
in 2 different meats · first in 2024
A 180 means all six judges handed back a nine for appearance, taste and tenderness. These teams have collected them.
Smoken J's BBQ at Kenai River BBQ Competition May 31, 2024
Chicken, Pork
One perfect card is a story worth retelling. Two before the awards ceremony is a record.
Smoken J's BBQ May 31, 2024
the 2024 season
A whole year of turning in boxes nobody at the table could mark down.
Smoken J's BBQ at Kenai River BBQ Competition May 31, 2024
first in 2024 · 1 contests to complete the set
A perfect card in chicken, ribs, pork AND brisket. The date is the day the set was completed; the board is led by whoever needed the fewest contests to finish it.
BEAR NAKED BBQ at 1st Annual Deltana Fair BBQ Competition Jul 22, 2022
Brisket · Jul 22, 2022
Where the 180 club starts. These are the oldest perfect cards anywhere in the data.
Kenai River BBQ Competition May 31, 2024
shared by 1 team in a field of 7
Some tables run hot. At these contests the judges handed out flawless cards all afternoon.
Longevity — the teams who keep turning up, and keep turning it in.
Bear's Den BBQ Sep 17, 2026
2023 → 2026
Held jointly by 3 — nobody has beaten it.
Before anything else, competition barbecue is showing up. Nobody has shown up more often than this.
Bear's Den BBQ Sep 17, 2026
7 contests, 2023 → 2026
Not just a long career — a busy one, season after season, with no quiet years in the middle.
Bear's Den BBQ Dec 31, 2026
2023 → 2026, no gaps
An unbroken run. Every single year, the rig came back out of the shed.
SMOKEY HAZE Jul 7, 2023
the 2023 season · 1 title
A season spent almost entirely in a parking lot somewhere, next to a smoker.
SMOKEY HAZE Jul 26, 2024
from 5 contests
The measure of a team that is always in it — not always winning, but always there at the end of the day.
SMOKEY HAZE at Kenai River BBQ Competition May 31, 2024
2023 → 2024 · won it 1×
Held jointly by 6 — nobody has beaten it.
The contest a team never misses — on the calendar in ink, every single year.
Records held by the contests themselves rather than by the teams.
Break Up Shake Up BBQ Contest (ONE MEAT RIBS) Apr 29, 2023
won with 177.7144
The largest gathering of smokers the data has ever recorded in one place.
Smokin Deltana BBQ Challenge (POSTPONED) Jun 24, 2022
2021 → 2022 · about 6 teams a year
Held jointly by 4 — nobody has beaten it.
The institutions. These contests have been feeding judges for as long as the data goes back.
Smokin' Deltana BBQ Challenge Jul 23, 2021
6 teams cooking for it
What was actually on the table. Listed purses only — KCBS does not publish who took home which slice of it.
Apr 29, 2023 Apr 29, 2023
across 1 states and provinces
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
One Saturday, this many contests, every one of them lighting a fire at the same hour.
The 2023 season Jul 7, 2023
across 1 states and provinces
The high-water mark for the sport itself — the year the calendar was fullest.
Somebody has to run the table. These are the ones who have run the most.
John Mann Jun 21, 2025
2023 → 2025
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
The people who make a contest a contest — table captains, score checkers, keepers of the rulebook.
John Mann Jul 7, 2023
the 2023 season
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
Thirty contests in a year means most of a summer spent beside a scoring table.
John Mann Jun 21, 2025
at 7 contests
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
How many separate teams have taken a Grand Championship at a contest this rep was running.
| Team | Category | Contest |
|---|---|---|
| Alaska BBQ Mann | Pork Ribs | Alaska Grown BBQ Competition (ONE MEAT RIBS) Sep 17, 2026 |
| LC BBQ | Chicken | Last Frontier BBQ Throwdown Jun 21, 2025 |
| Smoken J's BBQ | Chicken | Kenai River BBQ Competition May 31, 2024 |
| Smoken J's BBQ | Pork | Kenai River BBQ Competition May 31, 2024 |
| BEAR NAKED BBQ | Brisket | 1st Annual Deltana Fair BBQ Competition Jul 22, 2022 |
| Year | Series | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 ↗ | Backyard | DAWGS BBQ 🏆 | 1,356 |
| 2026 ↗ | Master | JANKY LEG BBQ 🏆 | 2,682 |
| 2025 ↗ | Backyard | Electro-Que-ted 🏆 | 1,414 |
| 2025 ↗ | Master | GETTIN' BASTED 🏆 | 2,826 |
| 2024 ↗ | Backyard | WEEZ'S GROOVIN' BBQ 🏆 | 1,404 |
| 2024 ↗ | Master | CHUNKY BBQ 🏆 | 2,734 |
| 2023 ↗ | Master | JANKY LEG BBQ 🏆 | 2,773 |
| 2022 ↗ | Master | Uncle Pig's Barbeque Pit 🏆 | 2,761 |
| 2021 ↗ | Master | GETTIN' BASTED 🏆 | 2,804 |
| 2020 ↗ | Master | GETTIN' BASTED 🏆 | 2,670 |
| 2019 ↗ | Master | B-S BBQ OUTLAWS 🏆 | 2,774 |
| 2018 ↗ | Master | GETTIN' BASTED 🏆 | 2,840 |
| 2017 ↗ | Master | CLARK CREW BBQ 🏆 | 2,850 |
| 2016 ↗ | Master | PORKY BUTTS BBQ 🏆 | 2,846 |
| 2015 ↗ | Master | CLARK CREW BBQ 🏆 | 2,843 |
| 2014 ↗ | Master | WARREN COUNTY PORK CHOPPERS 🏆 | 2,936 |
| 2013 ↗ | Master | WARREN COUNTY PORK CHOPPERS 🏆 | 2,940 |
| 2013 ↗ | Master | TRUEBUD BBQ 🏆 | 2,940 |
| Category | Entries | Avg score | Avg winning score | Perfect 180s | 180s per 1,000 entries |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brisket toughest room | 48 | 166.47 | 176.91 | 1 | 20.8 |
| Chicken | 65 | 167.49 | 177.40 | 2 | 30.8 |
| Pork | 48 | 168.43 | 176.98 | 1 | 20.8 |
| Pork Ribs | 67 | 168.78 | 175.93 | 1 | 14.9 |
Sorted by average score — the category at the top scores lowest across the whole field, which usually means the judges are hardest to please there.