52 all-time KCBS records — every one with a holder, a number, and the date it was set, read out of 109 scored contests and 19,296 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 CO record book — every record below counts only contests held in CO. 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.
GETTIN' BASTED at SLV Beat the Heat BBQ Aug 6, 2021
42-team field · won the contest
Four meats, six judges, one afternoon. The biggest total anybody has ever assembled.
G "QUE" at Smokin' Brew BBQ Aug 30, 2013
won the category with it
Held jointly by 10 or more — 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.
TRUEBUD BBQ at Smokin' Brew BBQ Aug 30, 2013
won the category with it
Held jointly by 10 or more — 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.
TRUEBUD BBQ at Smokin' Brew BBQ Aug 30, 2013
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.
BURNIN BOBS BUTTS N BONES at Colorado Pork & Hops Challenge Sep 13, 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.
Texas Smoke Whisperer at Frisco BBQ Challenge Jun 16, 2022
finished 2nd, behind GETTIN' BASTED
A day this good takes a Grand Championship almost anywhere. These are the ones that ran into somebody having a better one.
SWINESTONE COWBOYS at Sam's Club National BBQ Tour Mar 29, 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.
2015 Colorado Rockies Championship Sep 18, 2015
35 teams · won with 705.7144
What it cost to walk. At these contests a total that wins most weekends was only good enough for tenth.
Colorado Rockies Invitational BBQ Championship (Competitor's Series) Jul 25, 2014
20 teams · top score 703.4060
Judging tables are not interchangeable. At these contests the whole field scored high — not just the winner.
Colorado Barbecue Challenge Jun 14, 2013
68 teams · even the win only took 682.8574
The other end of the same measurement: the contests where hardly anybody got a good card all day.
CLARK CREW BBQ Jun 16, 2023
23 contests · best 703.3828
Anyone can catch one good day. This is the highest anybody has averaged across a real career.
TRUEBUD BBQ at Smokin' Brew BBQ Aug 30, 2013
over BURNIN BOBS BUTTS N BONES
Not a contest so much as an exhibition — the runner-up in each of these was closer to tenth than to the winner.
Heifers, Butts, & Clucks BBQ at Meat Scream BBQ Competition-Day 2 Oct 22, 2022
over Big Daddy's Backyard BBQ
A whole weekend — four meats, twenty-four judging cards — decided by a rounding error.
Grand Championships, reserve finishes, dynasties and droughts.
GETTIN' BASTED Apr 25, 2025
from 18 contests · first in 2018
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
The headline record of the sport: how many times a team has walked away with the whole thing.
BURNIN BOBS BUTTS N BONES Jun 26, 2015
from 59 contests · 2 titles
Second overall is the hardest place to finish. These teams have done it more than anybody.
4 LEGS UP BBQ Aug 6, 2021
across 32 contests, still waiting
The cruellest record in the book. Every team here has stood on the stage second, and never once first.
B-S BBQ OUTLAWS Sep 5, 2020
3 titles from 30 contests
Winning often matters more than winning a lot. This is how often a team turns up and takes the whole thing.
G "QUE" Jul 25, 2014
the 2014 season
The best year anybody has ever had. Four in a season is a career year; these went past it.
CLARK CREW BBQ Jun 16, 2023
8 titles in all
A dynasty at one contest is one kind of record. Winning at thirty different ones is another kind entirely.
GETTIN' BASTED at Wild West BBQ Cook-Off Apr 25, 2025
won 2021–2025
The contest a team has made their own — turning up every year and taking it home again.
SMOKIN TRIGGERS at Royal Gorge Holy Smoke BBQ Showdown May 30, 2014
2013–2014, straight
Held jointly by 7 — nobody has beaten it.
Defending a title once is an achievement. Nobody on this board gave one up willingly.
FLYBOY BBQ at Colorado Barbecue Challenge Jun 14, 2013
won it with 682.8574
Every Grand Championship counts the same in the standings. Not every one means beating this many people.
GRILLIN' BEAVERS at Milliken BBQ Beef N Bean Day Aug 9, 2019
the title finally came in 2019
Proof it is worth going back. Every team here cooked for years before the call finally came.
CLARK CREW BBQ Jun 16, 2023
2013 → 2023 · 8 titles
Staying good is harder than getting good. These teams were winning contests more than a decade apart.
GETTIN' BASTED Apr 25, 2025
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.
Backdraft BBQ Oct 21, 2022
across all 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.
Backdraft BBQ Aug 14, 2015
the 2015 season
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
One team, one year, and a stack of first-place calls that would furnish most careers.
TRUEBUD BBQ Jun 13, 2014
in 3 different meats · first in 2013
Held jointly by 3 — nobody has beaten it.
A 180 means all six judges handed back a nine for appearance, taste and tenderness. These teams have collected them.
TRUEBUD BBQ at Smokin' Brew BBQ Aug 30, 2013
Pork, Pork Ribs
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
One perfect card is a story worth retelling. Two before the awards ceremony is a record.
JO-BAWB'S BBQ Jul 29, 2016
the 2016 season
A whole year of turning in boxes nobody at the table could mark down.
TRUEBUD BBQ at 21st Colorado BBQ Challenge Jun 13, 2014
first in 2013 · 22 contests to complete the set
Held jointly by 4 — 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.
G "QUE" at Smokin' Brew BBQ Aug 30, 2013
Chicken · Aug 30, 2013
Where the 180 club starts. These are the oldest perfect cards anywhere in the data.
Veterans of Foreign Wars Colorado KCBS Pitmaster BBQ Contest Sep 6, 2024
shared by 6 teams in a field of 36
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.
Backdraft BBQ Oct 22, 2022
2013 → 2022
Before anything else, competition barbecue is showing up. Nobody has shown up more often than this.
SMOKIN HOT BUTTS BBQ Apr 24, 2026
2013 → 2026 · 29 contests
Rigs wear out and cooks retire. These teams were still turning in boxes more than a decade after their first one.
ROCKET BOYS PYRO BBQ Apr 24, 2026
63 contests, 2013 → 2026
Not just a long career — a busy one, season after season, with no quiet years in the middle.
ROCKET BOYS PYRO BBQ Dec 31, 2026
2013 → 2026, no gaps
An unbroken run. Every single year, the rig came back out of the shed.
Backdraft BBQ Sep 18, 2015
the 2015 season · 1 title
A season spent almost entirely in a parking lot somewhere, next to a smoker.
Backdraft BBQ Jun 4, 2021
from 81 contests
The measure of a team that is always in it — not always winning, but always there at the end of the day.
JO-BAWB'S BBQ Jan 6, 2017
27 from 31 contests
Consistency, stated as a percentage. Turn up, and this is how often you were still standing at the end.
ROCKET BOYS PYRO BBQ at Wild West BBQ Cook-Off Apr 24, 2026
2016 → 2026
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.
Colorado Barbecue Challenge Jun 14, 2013
won with 682.8574
The largest gathering of smokers the data has ever recorded in one place.
Wild West BBQ Cook-Off Apr 24, 2026
2016 → 2026 · about 30 teams a year
The institutions. These contests have been feeding judges for as long as the data goes back.
San Luis Valley Beat the Heat BBQ Aug 2, 2019
3 editions · biggest 54
One big year is a fluke. These contests pull a crowd every single time they run.
Wild West BBQ Cook-Off Apr 24, 2026
from 10 editions with a champion on file
The contests nobody owns. Turn up here and last year counts for nothing.
National Western BBQ Throwdown Jan 5, 2018
in a field of 39 · won with 691.3712
Out of 720 points, this many teams finished inside ONE of the leader. Any of them could have won it with a better garnish.
Colorado Pork & Hops Challenge Sep 6, 2019
28 teams cooking for it
What was actually on the table. Listed purses only — KCBS does not publish who took home which slice of it.
Mar 29, 2013 Mar 29, 2013
across 1 states and provinces
Held jointly by 10 or more — nobody has beaten it.
One Saturday, this many contests, every one of them lighting a fire at the same hour.
The 2014 season Sep 20, 2014
across 1 states and provinces
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
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.
Del Anderson Aug 28, 2026
2019 → 2026
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
The people who make a contest a contest — table captains, score checkers, keepers of the rulebook.
Del Anderson Oct 22, 2022
the 2022 season
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
Thirty contests in a year means most of a summer spent beside a scoring table.
Del Anderson Sep 6, 2024
at 19 contests
How many separate teams have taken a Grand Championship at a contest this rep was running.
| Team | GCs this season |
|---|---|
| BrewsCue | 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 | 3,656 | 160.32 | 176.64 | 19 | 5.2 |
| Pork Ribs | 3,689 | 162.10 | 176.80 | 15 | 4.1 |
| Pork | 3,649 | 162.99 | 177.35 | 24 | 6.6 |
| Chicken | 3,653 | 164.49 | 177.50 | 21 | 5.7 |
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.