37 all-time KCBS records — every one with a holder, a number, and the date it was set, read out of 8 scored contests and 314 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 HI record book — every record below counts only contests held in HI. 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.
Cynical BBQ at 2nd Annual Curley Que Classic Jul 24, 2026
12-team field · won the contest
Four meats, six judges, one afternoon. The biggest total anybody has ever assembled.
Sweetie's Bar-B-Q at 2nd Annual Curley Que Classic Jul 24, 2026
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.
SMOKIN' VOLTS BBQ at Warrior BBQ's "The Great Hawaiian Smokeout" (ONE MEAT RIBS) Nov 10, 2023
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.
Cynical BBQ at 2nd Annual Curley Que Classic Jul 24, 2026
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.
LOOT N' BOOTY BBQ at Curley Que Classic Jul 25, 2025
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.
Cynical BBQ at Curley Que Classic Jul 25, 2025
finished 2nd, behind Smokin' Volts BBQ
A day this good takes a Grand Championship almost anywhere. These are the ones that ran into somebody having a better one.
SMOKIN' VOLTS BBQ at Warrior BBQ's "The Great Hawaiian Smokeout" Nov 10, 2023
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.
2nd Annual Curley Que Classic Jul 24, 2026
12 teams · won with 706.2744
What it cost to walk. At these contests a total that wins most weekends was only good enough for tenth.
Warrior BBQ's "The Great Hawaiian Smokeout" Nov 10, 2023
18 teams · top score 693.6800
Judging tables are not interchangeable. At these contests the whole field scored high — not just the winner.
Warrior BBQ's "The Great Hawaiian Smokeout" Nov 10, 2023
18 teams · even the win only took 693.6800
The other end of the same measurement: the contests where hardly anybody got a good card all day.
SMOKIN' VOLTS BBQ at Warrior BBQ's "The Great Hawaiian Smokeout" Nov 10, 2023
over Cynical BBQ
Not a contest so much as an exhibition — the runner-up in each of these was closer to tenth than to the winner.
SMOKIN' VOLTS BBQ at Curley Que Classic Jul 25, 2025
over Cynical BBQ
A whole weekend — four meats, twenty-four judging cards — decided by a rounding error.
Grand Championships, reserve finishes, dynasties and droughts.
SMOKIN' VOLTS BBQ Jul 25, 2025
from 3 contests · first in 2023
The headline record of the sport: how many times a team has walked away with the whole thing.
Cynical BBQ Jul 25, 2025
from 3 contests · 1 title
Second overall is the hardest place to finish. These teams have done it more than anybody.
SMOKIN' VOLTS BBQ Jul 25, 2025
2 titles in all
A dynasty at one contest is one kind of record. Winning at thirty different ones is another kind entirely.
SMOKIN' VOLTS BBQ at Warrior BBQ's "THE GREAT HAWAIIAN SMOKEOUT" Nov 10, 2023
2023–2023, straight
Defending a title once is an achievement. Nobody on this board gave one up willingly.
SMOKIN' VOLTS BBQ at Warrior BBQ's "The Great Hawaiian Smokeout" Nov 10, 2023
won it with 693.6800
Every Grand Championship counts the same in the standings. Not every one means beating this many people.
Cynical BBQ at 2nd Annual Curley Que Classic Jul 24, 2026
the title finally came in 2026
Proof it is worth going back. Every team here cooked for years before the call finally came.
SMOKIN' VOLTS BBQ Jul 25, 2025
2023 → 2025 · 2 titles
Staying good is harder than getting good. These teams were winning contests more than a decade apart.
SMOKIN' VOLTS BBQ Jul 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.
SMOKIN' VOLTS BBQ Jul 25, 2025
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.
Small Axe BBQ Nov 12, 2022
the 2022 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.
SMOKIN' VOLTS BBQ at Warrior BBQ's "The Great Hawaiian Smokeout" (ONE MEAT RIBS) Nov 10, 2023
Pork Ribs · Nov 10, 2023
Where the 180 club starts. These are the oldest perfect cards anywhere in the data.
Longevity — the teams who keep turning up, and keep turning it in.
Small Axe BBQ Nov 11, 2023
2022 → 2023
Held jointly by 3 — nobody has beaten it.
Before anything else, competition barbecue is showing up. Nobody has shown up more often than this.
SMOKIN' VOLTS BBQ Jul 24, 2026
4 contests, 2023 → 2026
Held jointly by 4 — nobody has beaten it.
Not just a long career — a busy one, season after season, with no quiet years in the middle.
CROOKED PIGS Nov 11, 2023
the 2023 season
Held jointly by 10 or more — nobody has beaten it.
A season spent almost entirely in a parking lot somewhere, next to a smoker.
SMOKIN' VOLTS BBQ Jul 24, 2026
from 3 contests
Held jointly by 3 — 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.
Cynical BBQ at Curley Que Classic Jul 24, 2026
2026 → 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.
Warrior BBQ's "The Great Hawaiian Smokeout" Nov 10, 2023
won with 693.6800
The largest gathering of smokers the data has ever recorded in one place.
Warrior BBQ's "THE GREAT HAWAIIAN SMOKEOUT" Nov 11, 2023
2023 → 2023 · about 15 teams a year
The institutions. These contests have been feeding judges for as long as the data goes back.
Warrior BBQ's "THE GREAT HAWAIIAN SMOKEOUT" Nov 11, 2023
3 editions · biggest 18
One big year is a fluke. These contests pull a crowd every single time they run.
Warrior BBQ's "The Great Hawaiian Smokeout" Nov 10, 2023
18 teams cooking for it
What was actually on the table. Listed purses only — KCBS does not publish who took home which slice of it.
Nov 12, 2022 Nov 12, 2022
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 2022 season Nov 12, 2022
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.
Julie Poe Jul 24, 2026
2022 → 2026
The people who make a contest a contest — table captains, score checkers, keepers of the rulebook.
Ian Schmidt Nov 12, 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.
Ian Schmidt Jul 24, 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 |
|---|---|
| Cynical BBQ | 1 |
| Team | Category | Contest |
|---|---|---|
| LOOT N' BOOTY BBQ | Brisket | Curley Que Classic Jul 25, 2025 |
| SMOKIN' VOLTS BBQ | Pork Ribs | Warrior BBQ's "The Great Hawaiian Smokeout" (ONE MEAT RIBS) Nov 10, 2023 |
| 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 | 54 | 164.23 | 176.57 | 1 | 18.5 |
| Chicken | 42 | 166.19 | 178.11 | 0 | 0 |
| Pork | 42 | 167.58 | 177.90 | 0 | 0 |
| Pork Ribs | 87 | 167.97 | 177.07 | 1 | 11.5 |
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.