47 all-time KCBS records — every one with a holder, a number, and the date it was set, read out of 28 scored contests and 6,595 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 DE record book — every record below counts only contests held in DE. 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.
CHUNKY BBQ at "The First State" BBQ Bash Sep 27, 2024
26-team field · won the contest
Four meats, six judges, one afternoon. The biggest total anybody has ever assembled.
FIRE & SHINE BBQ at First State BBQ Bash (SUNDAY BACKYARD ONLY) Sep 28, 2025
won the board
The Backyard board runs on its own scale, so it keeps its own record — pooled with Master it would never surface at all.
APORKALYPSE NOW at Triple Threat BBQ Beer and Music Festival Apr 10, 2015
won the category with it
Held jointly by 5 — 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.
CHUNKY BBQ at "The First State" BBQ Bash Sep 27, 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.
OLD VIRGINIA SMOKE at "The First State" BBQ Bash Sep 27, 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.
SAUCE THIS BBQ at The Historic New Castle Colonial BBQ Competition at Battery Park Jun 10, 2016
won the category with it
Held jointly by 6 — 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 Pig's Barbeque Pit at "The First State" BBQ Bash Sep 27, 2024
finished 2nd, behind Chunky BBQ
A day this good takes a Grand Championship almost anywhere. These are the ones that ran into somebody having a better one.
FINN'S FINEST BBQ at Boo B Que By the Sea Oct 30, 2015
and still beat 58 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.
First State BBQ Bash Sep 25, 2026
39 teams · won with 702.2400
What it cost to walk. At these contests a total that wins most weekends was only good enough for tenth.
Delaware Bay-B-Que - CAMPGROUND BBQ SERIES (Day 2) May 6, 2023
19 teams · top score 692.5144
Judging tables are not interchangeable. At these contests the whole field scored high — not just the winner.
Middletown BBQ Cook Off May 17, 2013
55 teams · even the win only took 664.5714
The other end of the same measurement: the contests where hardly anybody got a good card all day.
3 EYZ BBQ at The Historic New Castle Colonial BBQ Competition at Battery Park Jun 10, 2016
over SAUCE THIS BBQ
Not a contest so much as an exhibition — the runner-up in each of these was closer to tenth than to the winner.
FINN'S FINEST BBQ at Boo B Que By the Sea Oct 30, 2015
over BIG UGLY'S BBQ - MD
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.
APORKALYPSE NOW Oct 18, 2019
from 8 contests · first in 2013
The headline record of the sport: how many times a team has walked away with the whole thing.
OLD VIRGINIA SMOKE Sep 26, 2025
from 9 contests · 0 titles
Held jointly by 3 — nobody has beaten it.
Second overall is the hardest place to finish. These teams have done it more than anybody.
OLD VIRGINIA SMOKE Sep 26, 2025
across 9 contests, still waiting
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
The cruellest record in the book. Every team here has stood on the stage second, and never once first.
FIRE & SHINE BBQ Sep 28, 2025
the 2025 season
The best year anybody has ever had. Four in a season is a career year; these went past it.
APORKALYPSE NOW Oct 18, 2019
4 titles in all
A dynasty at one contest is one kind of record. Winning at thirty different ones is another kind entirely.
DRILLING & GRILLING at Boo-B-Que Oct 20, 2017
won 2016–2017
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
The contest a team has made their own — turning up every year and taking it home again.
DRILLING & GRILLING at Boo-B-Que Oct 20, 2017
2016–2017, straight
Defending a title once is an achievement. Nobody on this board gave one up willingly.
APORKALYPSE NOW at Delaware's Triple Threat BBQ Festival at the Fair Apr 11, 2014
won it with 674.2516
Every Grand Championship counts the same in the standings. Not every one means beating this many people.
CHECKERED FLAG 500 BBQ at Historic New Castle Colonial BBQ Competition Jun 8, 2018
the title finally came in 2018
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.
DRILLING & GRILLING Sep 26, 2025
2016 → 2025 · 3 titles
Staying good is harder than getting good. These teams were winning contests more than a decade apart.
Mispillion Meat Works Sep 25, 2026
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.
3 EYZ BBQ Sep 25, 2026
across all four meats
Every category win is a walk to the stage. This is the longest walk in the sport.
3 EYZ BBQ Jun 10, 2016
the 2016 season
Held jointly by 3 — nobody has beaten it.
One team, one year, and a stack of first-place calls that would furnish most careers.
3 EYZ BBQ Sep 25, 2026
in 1 different meat · first in 2017
A 180 means all six judges handed back a nine for appearance, taste and tenderness. These teams have collected them.
APORKALYPSE NOW at Triple Threat BBQ Beer and Music Festival Apr 10, 2015
Chicken · Apr 10, 2015
Where the 180 club starts. These are the oldest perfect cards anywhere in the data.
"The First State" BBQ Bash Sep 27, 2024
shared by 5 teams in a field of 26
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.
Uncle Pig's Barbeque Pit Sep 27, 2024
2013 → 2024
Before anything else, competition barbecue is showing up. Nobody has shown up more often than this.
SAUCE THIS BBQ Sep 25, 2026
2013 → 2026 · 13 contests
Held jointly by 2 — 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.
3 EYZ BBQ Sep 25, 2026
15 contests, 2013 → 2026
Not just a long career — a busy one, season after season, with no quiet years in the middle.
3 EYZ BBQ Dec 31, 2019
2013 → 2019, no gaps
Held jointly by 6 — nobody has beaten it.
An unbroken run. Every single year, the rig came back out of the shed.
FIRE & SHINE BBQ Sep 28, 2025
the 2025 season · 2 titles
Held jointly by 10 or more — nobody has beaten it.
A season spent almost entirely in a parking lot somewhere, next to a smoker.
3 EYZ BBQ May 6, 2023
from 15 contests
The measure of a team that is always in it — not always winning, but always there at the end of the day.
Rough Cut Q at First State BBQ Bash (BACKYARD SUNDAY) Sep 27, 2026
2025 → 2026 · won it 1×
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.
Delaware's Triple Threat BBQ Festival at the Fair Apr 11, 2014
won with 674.2516
The largest gathering of smokers the data has ever recorded in one place.
First State BBQ Bash (BACKYARD SUNDAY) Sep 27, 2026
2025 → 2026 · about 20 teams a year
The institutions. These contests have been feeding judges for as long as the data goes back.
Boo-B-Que Oct 19, 2018
3 editions · biggest 73
One big year is a fluke. These contests pull a crowd every single time they run.
Delaware Bay-B-Que - CAMPGROUND BBQ SERIES (Day 2) May 6, 2023
from 4 editions with a champion on file
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
The contests nobody owns. Turn up here and last year counts for nothing.
Boo-B-Que Oct 18, 2019
in a field of 63 · won with 679.9312
Out of 720 points, this many teams finished inside ONE of the leader. Any of them could have won it with a better garnish.
Boo-B-Que Oct 18, 2019
63 teams cooking for it
What was actually on the table. Listed purses only — KCBS does not publish who took home which slice of it.
Sep 26, 2025 Sep 26, 2025
across 1 states and provinces
One Saturday, this many contests, every one of them lighting a fire at the same hour.
The 2016 season Oct 21, 2016
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.
Bill Jones Sep 27, 2026
2024 → 2026
The people who make a contest a contest — table captains, score checkers, keepers of the rulebook.
Jeff Chambers May 6, 2023
the 2023 season
Held jointly by 4 — nobody has beaten it.
Thirty contests in a year means most of a summer spent beside a scoring table.
Bill Jones Sep 27, 2026
at 7 contests
How many separate teams have taken a Grand Championship at a contest this rep was running.
| Team | GCs this season |
|---|---|
| The Swine Doctor's BBQ | 1 |
| Rough Cut Q | 1 |
| Mispillion Meat Works | 1 |
| Team | Category | Contest |
|---|---|---|
| 3 EYZ BBQ | Brisket | First State BBQ Bash Sep 25, 2026 |
| HotMess BBQ | Brisket | First State BBQ Bash Sep 26, 2025 |
| Shiggin aint easy | Brisket | "The First State" BBQ Bash Sep 27, 2024 |
| Mispillion Meat Works | Chicken | "The First State" BBQ Bash Sep 27, 2024 |
| Top Gun Barbecue | Chicken | "The First State" BBQ Bash Sep 27, 2024 |
| OLD VIRGINIA SMOKE | Pork | "The First State" BBQ Bash Sep 27, 2024 |
| CHUNKY BBQ | Pork Ribs | "The First State" BBQ Bash Sep 27, 2024 |
| Ham Squad | Chicken | Delaware Bay-B-Que - CAMPGROUND BBQ SERIES (Day 2) May 6, 2023 |
| THE BBQ GURU | Chicken | Boo-B-Que Oct 18, 2019 |
| 3 EYZ BBQ | Brisket | Historic New Castle Colonial BBQ Competition Jun 9, 2017 |
| DE FILOUS | Brisket | 3rd Ruhrpott BBQ 2016 Sep 24, 2016 |
| MISS PIGGY'S U.K. | Brisket | Black Forrest Smoke & Wine Festival Jul 23, 2016 |
| SAUCE THIS BBQ | Brisket | The Historic New Castle Colonial BBQ Competition at Battery Park Jun 10, 2016 |
| APORKALYPSE NOW | Chicken | Triple Threat BBQ Beer and Music Festival Apr 10, 2015 |
| 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 | 1,109 | 158.25 | 177.22 | 7 | 6.3 |
| Pork Ribs | 1,262 | 159.65 | 175.43 | 1 | 0.8 |
| Pork | 1,111 | 159.82 | 176.00 | 1 | 0.9 |
| Chicken | 1,261 | 161.92 | 176.99 | 5 | 4 |
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.