38 all-time KCBS records — every one with a holder, a number, and the date it was set, read out of 8 scored contests and 770 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 BC record book — every record below counts only contests held in BC. 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.
ROCKY MOUNTAIN SMOKERS at Barn Burner BBQ Jul 20, 2019
21-team field · won the contest
Four meats, six judges, one afternoon. The biggest total anybody has ever assembled.
Kreiser Barbecue at Columbia Valley Smoke Show Jun 1, 2024
won the category with 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.
Slam Dunk Barbeque at Columbia Valley Smoke Show Jun 1, 2024
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.
Brisket Butts at Columbia Valley Smoke Show Jun 1, 2024
won the category with it
Held jointly by 2 — 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.
BOOTIES BBQ at Barn Burner BBQ Jul 21, 2018
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.
SMELLAQUE at Columbia Valley Smoke Show Jun 1, 2024
finished 2nd, behind Kreiser Barbecue
A day this good takes a Grand Championship almost anywhere. These are the ones that ran into somebody having a better one.
DANCES WITH SMOKE BARBEQUE at BBQ off the Bypass Sep 10, 2016
and still beat 17 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.
Barn Burner BBQ Apr 8, 2017
19 teams · won with 687.4060
What it cost to walk. At these contests a total that wins most weekends was only good enough for tenth.
Barn Burner BBQ Apr 8, 2017
19 teams · top score 687.4060
Judging tables are not interchangeable. At these contests the whole field scored high — not just the winner.
Barn Burner BBQ Mar 21, 2015
21 teams · even the win only took 668.5372
The other end of the same measurement: the contests where hardly anybody got a good card all day.
PRAIRIE SMOKE & SPICE BBQ at Barn Burner BBQ Apr 8, 2017
over SMELLAQUE
Not a contest so much as an exhibition — the runner-up in each of these was closer to tenth than to the winner.
Hog Shack BBQ at BBQ On the Bypass Sep 12, 2015
over LAKE HOUSE BBQ
A whole weekend — four meats, twenty-four judging cards — decided by a rounding error.
Grand Championships, reserve finishes, dynasties and droughts.
PRAIRIE SMOKE & SPICE BBQ Apr 8, 2017
from 2 contests · first in 2015
The headline record of the sport: how many times a team has walked away with the whole thing.
SMELLAQUE Jun 1, 2024
from 7 contests · 1 title
Second overall is the hardest place to finish. These teams have done it more than anybody.
LAKE HOUSE BBQ Sep 12, 2015
across 3 contests, still waiting
The cruellest record in the book. Every team here has stood on the stage second, and never once first.
PRAIRIE SMOKE & SPICE BBQ Apr 8, 2017
2 titles in all
A dynasty at one contest is one kind of record. Winning at thirty different ones is another kind entirely.
PRAIRIE SMOKE & SPICE BBQ at Barn Burner BBQ Mar 21, 2015
won it with 668.5372
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
Every Grand Championship counts the same in the standings. Not every one means beating this many people.
ROCKY MOUNTAIN SMOKERS at Barn Burner BBQ Jul 20, 2019
the title finally came in 2019
Proof it is worth going back. Every team here cooked for years before the call finally came.
PRAIRIE SMOKE & SPICE BBQ Apr 8, 2017
2015 → 2017 · 2 titles
Staying good is harder than getting good. These teams were winning contests more than a decade apart.
The four meats: who wins them, and who has been handed a flawless card.
SMELLAQUE Jun 1, 2024
across 3 of the four meats
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
Every category win is a walk to the stage. This is the longest walk in the sport.
LAKE HOUSE BBQ Sep 12, 2015
the 2015 season
Held jointly by 4 — nobody has beaten it.
One team, one year, and a stack of first-place calls that would furnish most careers.
Kreiser Barbecue at Columbia Valley Smoke Show Jun 1, 2024
Chicken · Jun 1, 2024
Where the 180 club starts. These are the oldest perfect cards anywhere in the data.
Columbia Valley Smoke Show Jun 1, 2024
shared by 3 teams in a field of 9
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.
SMELLAQUE Jun 1, 2024
2014 → 2024
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
Before anything else, competition barbecue is showing up. Nobody has shown up more often than this.
SMELLAQUE Jun 1, 2024
7 contests, 2014 → 2024
Not just a long career — a busy one, season after season, with no quiet years in the middle.
SMELLAQUE Dec 31, 2019
2014 → 2019, no gaps
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
An unbroken run. Every single year, the rig came back out of the shed.
LAKE HOUSE BBQ Sep 12, 2015
the 2015 season
Held jointly by 8 — nobody has beaten it.
A season spent almost entirely in a parking lot somewhere, next to a smoker.
ROCKY MOUNTAIN SMOKERS Jul 20, 2019
from 7 contests
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
The measure of a team that is always in it — not always winning, but always there at the end of the day.
ROCKY MOUNTAIN SMOKERS at Barn Burner BBQ (POSTPONED) Jul 20, 2019
2017 → 2019 · won it 1×
Held jointly by 9 — 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.
Barn Burner BBQ Mar 21, 2015
won with 668.5372
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
The largest gathering of smokers the data has ever recorded in one place.
Barn Burner BBQ (POSTPONED) Jul 16, 2022
2017 → 2022 · about 19 teams a year
The institutions. These contests have been feeding judges for as long as the data goes back.
Barn Burner BBQ (POSTPONED) Jul 20, 2019
3 editions · biggest 21
One big year is a fluke. These contests pull a crowd every single time they run.
Barn Burner BBQ (POSTPONED) Jul 20, 2019
from 3 editions with a champion on file
The contests nobody owns. Turn up here and last year counts for nothing.
Sep 13, 2014 Sep 13, 2014
across 1 states and provinces
Held jointly by 8 — nobody has beaten it.
One Saturday, this many contests, every one of them lighting a fire at the same hour.
The 2015 season Sep 12, 2015
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.
Kathleen McIntosh Jul 16, 2022
2019 → 2022
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
The people who make a contest a contest — table captains, score checkers, keepers of the rulebook.
Kathleen McIntosh Jul 20, 2019
the 2019 season
Held jointly by 4 — nobody has beaten it.
Thirty contests in a year means most of a summer spent beside a scoring table.
Brenda Black Jun 1, 2024
at 1 contests
Held jointly by 4 — nobody has beaten it.
How many separate teams have taken a Grand Championship at a contest this rep was running.
| Team | Category | Contest |
|---|---|---|
| Kreiser Barbecue | Chicken | Columbia Valley Smoke Show Jun 1, 2024 |
| Brisket Butts | Pork | Columbia Valley Smoke Show Jun 1, 2024 |
| SMELLAQUE | Pork | Columbia Valley Smoke Show Jun 1, 2024 |
| 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 | 139 | 157.01 | 174.79 | 0 | 0 |
| Pork Ribs | 140 | 159.04 | 174.37 | 0 | 0 |
| Pork | 140 | 160.44 | 174.14 | 2 | 14.3 |
| Chicken | 139 | 161.44 | 174.30 | 1 | 7.2 |
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.