51 all-time KCBS records — every one with a holder, a number, and the date it was set, read out of 55 scored contests and 10,544 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 AZ record book — every record below counts only contests held in AZ. 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.
JAESTAR BBQ at AZ Rhythm & Ribs Sep 5, 2014
17-team field · won the contest
Four meats, six judges, one afternoon. The biggest total anybody has ever assembled.
BIG POPPA SMOKERS at Northern Arizona BBQ Festival Jun 13, 2014
won the category with it
Held jointly by 8 — 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.
KNIFE PORK AND SPOON at Sam's Club National BBQ Tour Mar 21, 2014
won the category with it
Held jointly by 6 — nobody has beaten 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.
COOL GRILLING at 6th Annual Lake Havasu Music Brews & BBQ Championship Feb 27, 2015
won the category with it
Held jointly by 10 or more — nobody has beaten 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.
I.A.B. 30 BBQ at Memorial Day Salute to Service May 24, 2013
won the category with it
Held jointly by 10 or more — nobody has beaten 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.
Uncle Jesse's BBQ at 11th Annual Slab-O-Rama Barbeque Challenge Jan 16, 2026
finished 2nd, behind GOD'S COUNTRY BBQ
A day this good takes a Grand Championship almost anywhere. These are the ones that ran into somebody having a better one.
LUTZ'S FAMOUS BBQ at Sam's Club National BBQ Tour Mar 22, 2013
and still beat 29 other teams
The days the judges gave nothing away. Somebody still had to win, and this is the smallest number that ever did it in a real field.
Q's & Brews Bighorn BBQ Competition Mar 27, 2026
33 teams · won with 707.9888
What it cost to walk. At these contests a total that wins most weekends was only good enough for tenth.
BBQ & Brew Festival Feb 27, 2026
25 teams · top score 703.9428
Judging tables are not interchangeable. At these contests the whole field scored high — not just the winner.
Rhythm & Ribs Oct 12, 2013
15 teams · even the win only took 699.4512
The other end of the same measurement: the contests where hardly anybody got a good card all day.
BIG POPPA SMOKERS Feb 23, 2024
26 contests · best 708.0112
Anyone can catch one good day. This is the highest anybody has averaged across a real career.
IOWA'S SMOKEY D'S BBQ at 3rd Annual Holbrook Jul 12, 2013
over THE SMOKING HILLS
Not a contest so much as an exhibition — the runner-up in each of these was closer to tenth than to the winner.
LOOT N' BOOTY BBQ at 5th Annual Lake Havasu Music Brews & BBQ Championship Jan 25, 2013
over IOWA'S SMOKEY D'S BBQ
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
A whole weekend — four meats, twenty-four judging cards — decided by a rounding error.
Plus 1 championship where the top two finished dead level on points and the KCBS tiebreaker decided it — counted here rather than listed, because a board of identical 0.0000 margins says nothing about who nearly won what.
Grand Championships, reserve finishes, dynasties and droughts.
LOOT N' BOOTY BBQ Nov 3, 2023
from 47 contests · first in 2013
The headline record of the sport: how many times a team has walked away with the whole thing.
IOWA'S SMOKEY D'S BBQ Sep 28, 2018
from 18 contests · 4 titles
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
Second overall is the hardest place to finish. These teams have done it more than anybody.
STEEL CITY BBQ Sep 27, 2019
across 21 contests, still waiting
The cruellest record in the book. Every team here has stood on the stage second, and never once first.
BIG POPPA SMOKERS Feb 23, 2024
5 titles from 26 contests
Winning often matters more than winning a lot. This is how often a team turns up and takes the whole thing.
TRUEBUD BBQ Feb 16, 2013
the 2013 season
Held jointly by 3 — nobody has beaten it.
The best year anybody has ever had. Four in a season is a career year; these went past it.
LOOT N' BOOTY BBQ Nov 3, 2023
8 titles in all
A dynasty at one contest is one kind of record. Winning at thirty different ones is another kind entirely.
LOOT N' BOOTY BBQ at Sam's Club National BBQ Tour Mar 17, 2017
won 2014–2017
The contest a team has made their own — turning up every year and taking it home again.
TRUEBUD BBQ at Chubby Hubby BBQ Bash Feb 16, 2013
2013–2013, straight
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
Defending a title once is an achievement. Nobody on this board gave one up willingly.
LOOT N' BOOTY BBQ at 5th Annual Lake Havasu Music Brews & BBQ Championship Jan 25, 2013
won it with 681.1430
Every Grand Championship counts the same in the standings. Not every one means beating this many people.
TOYS 4 BBQ'N at Slab O Rama Barbeque Challenge Oct 9, 2015
the title finally came in 2015
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
Proof it is worth going back. Every team here cooked for years before the call finally came.
LOOT N' BOOTY BBQ Nov 3, 2023
2013 → 2023 · 8 titles
Staying good is harder than getting good. These teams were winning contests more than a decade apart.
BIG POPPA SMOKERS Feb 28, 2020
in 1 state
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.
LOOT N' BOOTY BBQ Mar 27, 2026
across all four meats
Every category win is a walk to the stage. This is the longest walk in the sport.
LOOT N' BOOTY BBQ Oct 10, 2014
the 2014 season
One team, one year, and a stack of first-place calls that would furnish most careers.
BIG POPPA SMOKERS Feb 23, 2024
in 2 different meats · first in 2013
A 180 means all six judges handed back a nine for appearance, taste and tenderness. These teams have collected them.
Bushmaster BBQ at BBQ & Brew Fest - Best in the Southwest Mar 10, 2023
Brisket, Chicken, Pork Ribs
One perfect card is a story worth retelling. Two before the awards ceremony is a record.
LOOT N' BOOTY BBQ Oct 10, 2014
the 2014 season
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
A whole year of turning in boxes nobody at the table could mark down.
Bushmaster BBQ at BBQ & Brew Fest - Best in the Southwest Mar 10, 2023
first in 2023 · 1 contests to complete the set
Held jointly by 3 — nobody has beaten it.
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.
I.A.B. 30 BBQ at Memorial Day Salute to Service May 24, 2013
Brisket · May 24, 2013
Where the 180 club starts. These are the oldest perfect cards anywhere in the data.
11th Annual Slab-O-Rama Barbeque Challenge Jan 16, 2026
shared by 4 teams in a field of 53
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
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.
LOOT N' BOOTY BBQ Mar 27, 2026
2013 → 2026
Before anything else, competition barbecue is showing up. Nobody has shown up more often than this.
Bad Boyz BBQ Mar 27, 2026
2013 → 2026 · 46 contests
Held jointly by 3 — nobody has beaten it.
Rigs wear out and cooks retire. These teams were still turning in boxes more than a decade after their first one.
LOOT N' BOOTY BBQ Mar 27, 2026
48 contests, 2013 → 2026
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
Not just a long career — a busy one, season after season, with no quiet years in the middle.
IOWA'S SMOKEY D'S BBQ Dec 31, 2020
2013 → 2020, no gaps
Held jointly by 9 — nobody has beaten it.
An unbroken run. Every single year, the rig came back out of the shed.
LOOT N' BOOTY BBQ Oct 18, 2013
the 2013 season · 1 title
A season spent almost entirely in a parking lot somewhere, next to a smoker.
LOOT N' BOOTY BBQ Mar 27, 2026
from 47 contests
The measure of a team that is always in it — not always winning, but always there at the end of the day.
BIG POPPA SMOKERS Feb 23, 2024
20 from 26 contests
Consistency, stated as a percentage. Turn up, and this is how often you were still standing at the end.
LOOT N' BOOTY BBQ at Sam's Club National BBQ Tour Mar 17, 2017
2013 → 2017 · won it 3×
Held jointly by 10 or more — 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.
5th Annual Lake Havasu Music Brews & BBQ Championship Jan 25, 2013
won with 681.1430
The largest gathering of smokers the data has ever recorded in one place.
Sam's Club National BBQ Tour Mar 17, 2017
2013 → 2017 · about 30 teams a year
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
The institutions. These contests have been feeding judges for as long as the data goes back.
Slab-O-Rama Barbeque Challenge Jan 14, 2022
5 editions · biggest 70
One big year is a fluke. These contests pull a crowd every single time they run.
Slab-O-Rama Barbeque Challenge Jan 14, 2022
from 5 editions with a champion on file
The contests nobody owns. Turn up here and last year counts for nothing.
9th Annual Slab-O-Rama Barbeque Challenge Jan 12, 2024
58 teams cooking for it
Held jointly by 3 — nobody has beaten it.
What was actually on the table. Listed purses only — KCBS does not publish who took home which slice of it.
Nov 3, 2023 Nov 3, 2023
across 1 states and provinces
One Saturday, this many contests, every one of them lighting a fire at the same hour.
The 2013 season Dec 14, 2013
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.
Michael Santiago Feb 19, 2027
2020 → 2027
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
The people who make a contest a contest — table captains, score checkers, keepers of the rulebook.
Kelly McIntosh Nov 3, 2023
the 2023 season
Thirty contests in a year means most of a summer spent beside a scoring table.
Michael Santiago Mar 27, 2026
at 8 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 | GCs this season |
|---|---|
| GOD'S COUNTRY BBQ | 1 |
| B' Mackin BBQ | 1 |
| Brinkerhoff BBQ | 1 |
| 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 | 1,973 | 162.55 | 178.20 | 19 | 9.6 |
| Pork Ribs | 1,998 | 164.35 | 177.42 | 6 | 3 |
| Pork | 1,935 | 165.38 | 177.72 | 15 | 7.8 |
| Chicken | 1,976 | 166.20 | 178.04 | 11 | 5.6 |
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.